As others are chiming in, I will too. First, from my research it appeared to me that the average time from field to house is two years and that is the time that I could have had, if I had Dennis crated and ship them to me, instead of him delivering them a month later, my choice. Considering the guy who I use for white-tail has a 10-12 month turnaround, two years is not bad from ground to house.
Second, as to communications, that was not my experience. I received an e-mail from him when they skins were picked up from the fur dressing company. (Which was a lot faster then the time posted on the fur dresser website.) The only time I had to call was when I was going on vacation, to make sure they were not going to be delivered while on vacation. I received a call as to how I wanted the mounts. I will say that I am not one that has to have their hand held, when I give a job to someone I expect it to get done and only need to hear about exceptions.
Third, I’ve seen a lot of taxidermy, most of which is marginal. There are a lot of taxidermy shops in Texas. Jerry Huffaker’s in Abilene is probably the best in the state. It would of been cheaper for me to use him as I could have cleared my crate myself at DFW or IAH and driven the crate there. I drove to Austin to inspect Dennis work at a friend of a friends house. The work was excellent. The guy’s lion was spectacular. (Dennis has to deliver that after dark, so the neighbors would not see.)
My stuff is currently on the walls of my living room, it is all excellent. The Waterbuck and Gemsbok are superb. Dennis will get my next trips work too, even though it’s more expensive for me because I can’t clear my own crate in Chicago.
