I have not had Charles do a mount for me but I have been in his place and seen his work which is amazing to say the least I would wait however long it took for him to do one for me.

Damn, that sucks. Might be time for a yard sale or a call to Bass Pro, Cabelas or some other place along those lines that buy mounts. That's a lot of money to be sitting on.

Thats the reason most taxidermist wont touch one till they get 50% down. At least the materials are covered if they dont pick it up then.

I think I'd offer the unclaimed mounts as a group to Cabela's or BP for half price just to get some money out of 'em.

My buddy is a Taxidermist down south, and twice this week he's received phone calls from folks wanting to know if he still had their stuff from six years ago! When he told them no they wanna cuss em like a dog, he's had about enough himself..

Just out of curiosity, is there any kind of legal deal where a taxidermist with a lot of unclaimed mounts could make the effort(s) to contact the owner - either via phone or registered mail - with x-amount of time to retrieve it, and if it's not retrieved it would be discarded?

One of the dry cleaners we previously used had something like that: "Clothing not picked up after 30 (or 60?) days will be discarded." I guess they either sold it and wrote it off or donated it perhaps for a tax break. But they couldn't keep everyone's chit hanging around in their tiny shop.

I'd be calling Woods and Water, Bass pro and Cabelas and making offers for them to buy the mounts. I wouldn't just toss them.

I tried to get Charles to mount the deer I killed a couple years ago but he was already done taking deer for the year. So was unable to see his work in person.

First deer I ever had mounted I waited I think 18 months on it and it is just a plain ole mount. No spectacular work. Would definitely have no problem waiting for quality work.

Now on the flip side, Charles, I agree if work is consuming you, definitely time to take a step back and re-evaluate the situation