What Taxidermy Costs in St. Louis
Revised September 6, 2026
What is the average cost to mount a deer head?
There is no honest average to quote, because the price moves with the species, the mount type, the pose, and the condition of the cape. Ask the shop for its current written price list, what the deposit is, when the balance is due, and what changes if the cape needs repair.
Keep reading ↓Picture a man in Hillsboro standing in his driveway at first dark with a buck in the bed of the truck and his phone in his hand. The animal is better than anything he has taken in twenty years of hunting, his hands are still cold, and he has never once needed a taxidermist. What he wants to know, right there in the driveway, is what this is going to cost him and whether he is about to ruin it by doing the wrong thing for the next four hours.
The same week, other people around the metro are typing something close to the same question. A first-time hunter in Pacific who took a doe and is not sure a mount is even the right call. A woman in Bethalto whose father died in the spring and left her a shoulder mount that has been sitting in a shed since June. An angler in De Soto with a fish in a chest freezer and a photograph of it on his phone. A parent in Warrenton whose eleven-year-old took a first deer on a cold Saturday and wants that Saturday on a wall for the next fifty years.
They all want the same three answers. What does this cost, how long will it take, and what do I do with the animal in the meantime. Here is what actually moves the price of a mount, how the deposit and balance structure works, why the wait is measured in months rather than weeks, how to get a cape to the shop without ruining it, and how to pick a taxidermist before you hand anything over.
What is the average cost to mount a deer head?
There is no honest average to quote, and you should be a little wary of any page that hands you one. The price of a mount moves with the species, the mount type, the pose, the form the shop uses, and the condition of the cape that comes through the door. Two men can drop off two whitetails on the same morning and leave with two different numbers.
That is not evasion. It is how the trade actually prices work. A taxidermist is quoting labor, a form, a tanned hide, glass eyes, a habitat base if there is one, and the finish work that happens after the mount dries. Change any of those and the number changes with it. What you can do, in a single phone call, is get the shop’s own current price list and a written figure for the exact thing you are asking for.
The three numbers to ask for
Ask for three, not one. The price of the mount as you have described it. The deposit due at drop-off. And what happens to the price if the cape turns out to be damaged and needs repair or replacement. That third question is the one almost everybody skips, and it is the one that changes bills.
Most shops take a deposit up front and the balance when you collect the mount. The deposit generally covers the shop’s hard costs, the form and the tanning, which get spent months before you ever see anything on a hanger. Ask when the balance is due, what payment they take, and what their policy is on a finished mount that sits uncollected. Every shop has one, because every shop has a shelf of them.
Why a written number beats a range you found online
A range you found online was written by somebody in another state, pricing a different animal, in a different year. Materials cost what they cost this season. Tanneries charge what they charge. A shop already booked solid prices differently than one with open bench space. The written number from the shop you are actually going to use is the only one worth planning around.
What actually moves the price of a mount?
Six things, roughly in order of how much they matter. The species. The mount type. The pose. The form. The condition of the cape. And anything the shop has to do that sits outside its normal run of work. Understand those six and you can read a price list instead of guessing at it.
Mount type is the biggest lever
This is the largest single choice, and it is entirely yours. A European or skull mount is the simplest thing a shop does: the skull cleaned, whitened and set on a plaque or a stand, with no cape involved at all. A shoulder mount is the classic wall piece, head, neck and shoulders built on a form. A wall pedestal turns the animal outward so it reads more like sculpture. A pedestal mount stands on a base, on a table or on the floor, and gets viewed from every side. A full body or life-size mount is the whole animal, and it is a different order of work entirely.
Those are not small differences in labor. A skull mount and a life-size mount are not the same job with a different sticker on it. They are related crafts sharing a building. If your budget is the real constraint, mount type is where you have the most control, and a good shop will tell you that plainly rather than talk you upward.
The pose, the form, and the eyes
Within a shoulder mount there are still choices to make. Straight ahead, turned left or right, a sneak pose with the head low, upright and alert. Some poses need a different form and more work at the seam, and the shop will tell you which ones. The form itself matters too, because shops buy forms in different grades, and a better one fits a specific cape with less altering.
Ask what form and what tanning they use, and why. It is a fair question and taxidermists like answering it, because the form is the thing underneath everything and it is exactly where a careless shop cuts corners. The eyes, the ear liners, the nose and the finish work around the eye are where a mount either looks like the animal or just looks like a mount.
The cape, which is the part you control
The cape is the hide from the head, neck and shoulders, and its condition on arrival is the single biggest variable you personally influence. A cape cut too short cannot be stretched back into existence. A cape that slipped, meaning the hair came loose because it got warm and stayed warm, may not be usable at all. A bullet hole or a fight tear can often be repaired, but repair is labor, and labor gets billed.
If the cape cannot be saved, the shop can usually buy a replacement cape in, and that cost gets passed along to you. Nothing about that is a scam. It is a purchase the shop makes on your behalf so you still get a mount. But it is precisely why the question “what happens to the price if the cape is damaged” belongs in your first phone call, not in a conversation eight months later.
Rush work, storage and the extras
Two more lines that catch people out. Some shops charge for rush work if you want something moved up the queue, and most have a policy on storage if a finished piece sits past a certain point. Habitat bases, driftwood, custom panels and engraved plates are extras. None of it is hidden, and none of it is in the headline number either.
Why does a mount take the better part of a year?
Because a hide has to be tanned before it can be mounted, and because a taxidermist takes in most of a year’s work inside a few weeks. Both halves of that sentence matter. The first is chemistry, and it cannot be hurried. The second is arithmetic, and it is the reason a busy November drop-off is not first in line.
Walk the sequence. The cape comes in and is fleshed, turned and prepared. It goes to a tannery, or through the shop’s own tanning process, and that step takes as long as it takes. It comes back and waits for bench time. The mount is built on the form, sewn, set and groomed. Then it dries, which is its own stretch of weeks. Then the finish work: eyes, nose, ear butts, paint. Only after all of that does it get a hanger and a phone call.
Now add the season on top. Missouri deer season fills a shop’s year in a matter of weeks. Everybody drops off inside the same narrow window, and the work comes back out in the order the bench allows. A shop quoting you a long turnaround is usually telling you the truth about its workload. A shop promising something suspiciously fast in December deserves a follow-up question.
Ask for their current turnaround before you leave the counter, and ask how they will contact you when it is ready. Do not carry an old number around in your head because a friend quoted it three seasons ago. Turnarounds move with workload, tannery and staffing. The people who handle the wait best treat it like any other seasonal booking around here, where the good dates go early, which is the same instinct behind how to book a campsite near St. Louis.
What do you do with the animal before the shop opens?
Keep it cool, keep it out of the sun, and get it to a taxidermist or into a freezer as fast as you reasonably can. Hair slips when a hide gets warm and stays warm, and a slipped cape is the most common avoidable loss in this entire process. Nearly everything else can be worked around. That one frequently cannot.
Cape it long, or do not cape it at all
If you are not confident caping an animal, do not learn on the one you want mounted. Bring the whole head and cape to the shop, or cape it long, taking far more hide than you think you need from well behind the shoulders. A taxidermist can always trim. Nobody can add. The most common damage a shop sees all season is a cape cut short by somebody trying to be tidy.
Do not cut the throat. Do not split up the front of the neck. If you are field dressing an animal you intend to have mounted, the cuts you make in the first ten minutes decide what is possible eight months later. When in doubt, stop, take a photo, and call somebody.
Freezing, bagging, and the things not to do
If the shop is closed, or you are two hours from home, the freezer is your friend. Get the cape and skull cool first, then double-bag it, press the air out, and freeze it. Label the bag with your name and the date. A chest freezer beats a kitchen freezer for a whole head, and a frozen cape holds far better than a cool one sitting in a garage.
Do not salt it, and do not treat it with anything, unless your taxidermist has specifically told you to. Salting is a real step in a real process and it is easy to do badly. Do not leave a head in a truck bed in the sun while you finish out the day. And do not seal a warm cape into a plastic bag and walk away, because you have just built an incubator.
Here is the call worth making, and it costs you nothing. Ring a shop before the season opens and ask what they want you to do. Every taxidermist has preferences, and every one of them would rather spend four minutes on the phone in September than open a bag in November and deliver bad news. Getting the rest of your season squared away early is the same instinct that makes a list of outdoor gear you actually need in St. Louis worth writing down before opening weekend.
What does Missouri law require before you move a head?
Check the current year’s regulations before you move a carcass, and ask the taxidermist what paperwork they need at drop-off. The Missouri Department of Conservation sets the rules on possessing and transporting wildlife, and it publishes carcass-movement restrictions tied to chronic wasting disease that change from season to season and by county.
You will not find a list of those rules on this page, deliberately. A list written today is wrong next year, and a hunter acting on a stale one has a real problem. What is stable is the habit: look up the current regulations before you drive a head anywhere, know whether the county you hunted has restrictions attached to it, and know what the shop is required to record when you walk in the door.
Taxidermists deal with this every season and they are used to being asked. Most will tell you exactly what to bring, what to write on the tag, and how they want the animal presented when you arrive. Ask them, and ask the department, rather than a forum thread from four years ago. It takes one search, and it protects both of you.
Another long wait worth planning: how to get into nursing school in St. Louis.
How do you interview a taxidermist before you hand anything over?
Shortlist two or three worth interviewing, then go and look at their finished work in person. Photographs flatten everything. Standing in front of a real mount tells you in ten seconds what a gallery page never will: whether the eyes look alive, whether the ear butts sit right, whether the seam disappears, whether the whole thing carries the animal’s posture or just its parts.
Then say plainly what you want. The mount type, the pose, where it is going to hang, what the animal means to you, and roughly what you are able to spend. A taxidermist who hears all of that can tell you what is realistic and what is not, and will often suggest something better than what you walked in asking for. One who cannot get past a number is telling you something too.
What to ask
Six questions, asked the same way at every shop. What is your current turnaround, and how will you contact me? What is the deposit, and when is the balance due? What form and what tanning do you use? What happens to the price if the cape turns out to be damaged? Can I see finished work in person rather than photos? And what do you want me to do with the animal between the field and your door?
What to listen for
Listen to the gaps rather than the numbers. One shop answers all six plainly, hands you a price list, and shows you a mount in progress on the bench. Another answers two and goes vague on the rest. A third quotes fast and cheap and does not want to discuss the tannery. Those are not three versions of the same shop. The gap between what you asked for and what came back is the signal.
In our experience, the shops people are happiest with a year later are rarely the cheapest ones. They are the ones that were straight about the wait. A long honest turnaround, stated up front, is a far better sign than a short one offered casually. Ask, too, how they handle it if you are not happy with the finished mount. That conversation is much easier before any money changes hands.
What about a fish, a bird, or a pet?
Different work, different shops, different conversations. Not every taxidermist handles every category, and plenty specialize on purpose. A shop that builds beautiful whitetails may not touch a fish, and a bird specialist may carry a waiting list of their own. Ask before you drive across the county with a cooler in the back.
Fish
Fish split into two paths. A skin mount uses the actual fish. A reproduction is built from a blank and painted to match your fish, which means the fish itself can go back in the water or into a pan. For a reproduction the shop typically needs good measurements, length and girth, plus clear photographs taken quickly before the color fades. If you fish the water around the metro and think a wall fish is in your future, learn the measurement routine now and keep a tape in the boat alongside your notes on the best fishing spots in St. Louis.
Birds and small game
Birds are delicate and the handling advice changes again. Smooth the feathers down, tuck the head under a wing, slide the bird into a smooth bag or a stocking so nothing bends or breaks, and freeze it. Do not gut it. Do not cram it into a game pouch for the rest of the afternoon and hope for the best.
Pets
Pet preservation is a real service, and emotionally it is a very different thing from game work. Shops differ on whether they take it at all, and some decline it for perfectly good reasons of their own. If it is something you are considering, have that conversation directly and in advance, rather than making an assumption during a bad week.
For taxidermists in the metro
If you are on the other side of the counter, notice that every person described above is hunting for two things you can simply publish. A current price list, and a current turnaround. Shops that put both on a page get called by people who have already decided, instead of by people shopping a number they found in another state.
The field care question is the other open opportunity, and it costs nothing. One clear page on how you want an animal handled between the field and your door will get shared in every hunting group from Imperial to Troy by the second week of November. It cuts down your ruined capes, it saves you hours on the phone, and it is probably the most useful thing a shop can put on the internet.
Interview two or three before you hand anything over. You can compare taxidermists across the metro on St Louis Near Me Directory, then go and look at finished work in person, say plainly what mount type and pose you want and where it is going to hang, and ask each one for a written price, the deposit, the current turnaround, and what changes if the cape is damaged. The gap between what you asked for and what came back is the signal, not the price.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to get a deer shoulder mounted?
There is no single figure worth quoting, because a shoulder mount is priced from the species, the pose, the form the shop uses, and the condition of the cape you bring through the door. Call two or three shops, ask for the current written price list, and ask what the deposit is and when the balance falls due. Then ask the question most people forget: what changes if the cape needs repair or has to be replaced?
How long does it take a taxidermist to shoulder mount a deer?
Longer than most first-timers expect, and the shop will give you their own current number at drop-off. The hide has to be tanned before anything can be mounted, the mount has to dry before finish work can start, and shops take in most of a year’s work during the few weeks of deer season. Ask for their current turnaround, ask how they will contact you, and do not rely on a figure a friend quoted three seasons ago.
Can you freeze a deer head before taxidermy?
Yes, and freezing is usually the right move if you cannot reach a shop quickly. Cool the cape and skull first, double-bag it, press the air out, and freeze it, ideally in a chest freezer rather than a kitchen one. Label the bag. Do not salt it or treat it with anything unless your taxidermist told you to, and call the shop to confirm how long they are comfortable with it sitting frozen.
How long will a taxidermy animal last?
A well-built mount kept in reasonable conditions can last for decades, which is why inherited mounts turn up in families all the time. What shortens that life is environment rather than age: direct sunlight fading the hair, damp, heat, smoke, and insect damage. Keep it out of a sunny window and out of an unconditioned shed or attic, dust it gently, and have a taxidermist look at anything that is fading, shedding or coming loose.
Do the ears on a deer mount look better forward or back?
That is taste rather than a rule, and it is worth settling before the shop starts instead of after. Ears forward reads alert and attentive, the way a deer looks when it has caught something. Ears back, or one back, reads tense and aggressive, which suits a rut pose. Ask to see finished examples of both in the shop, decide which matches the animal and the room it is going in, and put your choice in writing.
What is the most popular pose for a deer mount?
The standard shoulder mount with a slight turn is the one most people picture, because it hangs well on a wall and shows the rack cleanly from the front. Beyond that, sneak poses with the head low, upright alert poses, and wall pedestals that turn the animal outward all have their followings. Popularity should not decide it for you. Look at where the mount will hang, how the light falls, and what you will see from your chair.
Can you wipe down deer mounts with WD-40?
You will hear this passed around, and it is worth asking your own taxidermist before you try it on a mount you care about. Shops differ on what they recommend for cleaning and conditioning, and the wrong product can attract dust, dull the hair, or affect the finish work around the eyes and nose. For routine care, gentle dusting in the direction of the hair is the safe default. For anything beyond that, ask the person who built it.
Are taxidermied animals killed?
Not by the taxidermist. A taxidermist works on animals that are brought to them, and for game work that means legally harvested animals brought in by hunters and anglers under state regulations. Shops also work on animals found dead, on livestock and pets, and on legally acquired specimens, with the paperwork rules varying by species. If you are curious about a particular mount, ask where it came from. Reputable shops are used to the question and answer it plainly.
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