Deer Season Taxidermy Management: Survive the Rush with Software

By MountChief Editorial Team|Updated Mar 2026

If you've been doing this for any length of time, you know what the last week of October feels like. The phone starts ringing before 8 AM. Hunters show up unannounced. Your regular work pace, maybe 5 to 8 intakes a week, becomes 15 to 20 in a single Saturday.

Most shops take 80% of their annual mount volume in a six-week window during deer season. Six weeks to bring in what will take 6 to 12 months to complete. The intake process either runs clean and fast, or it creates chaos that follows you all year.

This guide covers how to manage deer season volume without losing mounts, losing customers, or losing your mind.

TL;DR

Your regular work pace, maybe 5 to 8 intakes a week, becomes 15 to 20 in a single Saturday.
Most shops take 80% of their annual mount volume in a six-week window during deer season.
Six weeks to bring in what will take 6 to 12 months to complete.
That's an average of 8 to 10 new intakes every single day during peak weeks.
At 10 intakes a day, that's up to 3.5 hours of intake work before you've touched a single mount.
Ten intakes take 30 minutes instead of three and a half hours.

Why Deer Season Is Different From Everything Else

The math is brutal. A shop doing 250 mounts per year might take in 200 of those between late October and mid-December. That's an average of 8 to 10 new intakes every single day during peak weeks.

Every one of those intakes needs:

Complete customer information
Harvest data for legal compliance
Condition documentation
Mount specification and pose
Deposit collection
QR tag generation
Customer tracking link delivery

On paper, each intake takes 15 to 20 minutes. At 10 intakes a day, that's up to 3.5 hours of intake work before you've touched a single mount.

AI-powered intake cuts that to under 3 minutes per animal. Ten intakes take 30 minutes instead of three and a half hours.

The Status Call Problem Gets Worse in January

Here's the part most taxidermists don't think about until it's already happening: the calls don't start during deer season. They start in January, February, and March, when the hunters who dropped off in November start getting impatient.

By the time the calls start, you have 200 active jobs all at various stages. Some hides are at the tannery. Some came back. Some are in production. Some are waiting on forms. When a customer calls, finding that answer, even if you have decent records, takes time.

With a customer portal, those hunters are already checking their status online. They see "at tannery, expected back March." They're satisfied. They don't call.

Shops using MountChief report 90% fewer inbound status calls. During a season with 200 active jobs, that's not a small number.

Pre-Season Preparation: 60 Days Out

The best deer season preparation happens in September, not November.

Set up your intake workflow. If you're switching to digital intake, do it before season, not on opening day. Configure species fields, deposit amounts, customer message templates, and tannery assignments in advance.

Establish your capacity limit. Know how many mounts you can realistically complete in 12 months at your current team size and workflow. Setting an honest capacity limit prevents the overcommitment that creates customer complaints and quality issues.

Prepare your customer messaging. Draft your intake confirmation text, tannery shipment notification, and delay communication templates. MountChief has pre-built templates, but personalize them to your shop's voice before season.

Order tag supplies. QR tags, any forms needed for compliance, and deposit processing setup.

Contact your tanneries. Give your primary tanneries a heads-up on expected volume. Shops that do this secure better turnaround commitments than shops that just show up with a box of capes.

Managing Intake During Peak Days

When you're taking in 15 animals on a Saturday, every minute matters.

Station setup: Designate a dedicated intake area. Ideally it's near the entrance so customers aren't walking through your shop. Have your device with MountChief open, QR tag printer ready, and a measuring setup nearby.

Triage the line. Don't let customers stand in a queue staring at you. Have a brief screening, "give me your license and tell me what mount style you're looking at", while they wait.

Photograph first. Before you touch the specimen, photograph it. This protects you if any condition dispute arises later.

Keep families out of your workspace. Well-meaning but hunters who want to narrate the whole story add time to every intake. A professional, efficient intake process respects their time and yours.

Cap your day. If you've hit capacity for the day, say so. Turning away a customer cleanly is better than creating a backlog that causes problems in February.

Tannery Coordination During Season

Most shops ship their first tannery batch 3 to 4 weeks into deer season. By then you have 40 to 60 capes ready to go.

Before shipping:

Log every hide you're sending in MountChief
Note the tannery, carrier, and tracking number
Set expected return dates based on that tannery's typical turnaround

When hides return:

Scan each QR tag to confirm receipt
Any hides that didn't come back are immediately visible
The customer portal updates automatically when you log receipt

Communicating With Customers Through the Season

Three rules that prevent most customer problems:

1. Set expectations at intake. Tell every customer the realistic timeline range at the moment of drop-off. Don't give the optimistic number, give the realistic one. "We're looking at 6 to 9 months, with the tannery being the biggest variable" is better than "probably 5 months" that becomes 8.

2. Communicate proactively. If a hide is running long at the tannery, tell the customer before they call. A single outbound text is worth ten inbound calls.

3. Let the portal do the routine work. Routine milestone updates, shipped to tannery, back from tannery, in production, happen automatically in MountChief. You're only making active outreach when something needs human judgment.

After Season: January Through March

This is when the work actually happens, but it's also when the customer communication pressure spikes.

January: Most active jobs are at or returning from the tannery. Keep tannery return dates updated in MountChief. Customers seeing "at tannery" in the portal versus "expected return February" know what's happening.

February: First mounts from peak season start coming off the bench. Update production stages promptly, those updates push to customer portals automatically.

March: Customers who haven't heard anything in 4 months start calling. Shops with portals see this less, customers who've been checking the portal are better informed and more patient. For shops without portals, this is when the phone gets overwhelming.

FAQ

How do I prepare for deer season as a taxidermist?

Start 60 days before opening day. Set up your intake workflow and test it, establish your capacity limit, prepare customer communication templates, and contact your tanneries. Shops that run intake prep before season open 40% more jobs per week during peak compared to shops that react as intake volume builds.

How many mounts can one taxidermist handle per week?

An experienced solo taxidermist can intake 8 to 15 mounts per week during peak season depending on species mix and mount complexity. Production capacity is separate from intake capacity, most shops intake faster than they can complete. Planning for a 6 to 12 month backlog is normal and expected. The key is not promising customers a timeline shorter than your actual capacity allows.

How do I manage customer expectations during deer season?

Set realistic timelines at intake, give the honest range, not the optimistic number. Send automated milestone updates so customers aren't waiting in silence. If delays happen (tannery is the most common cause), communicate them proactively before the customer calls. A customer who hears about a delay from you first is almost always more understanding than one who has to ask.

How does this apply to solo taxidermy shops?

The principles in this guide apply to solo shops just as they do to larger operations, though the scale differs. A single-person shop may have lower absolute volume but faces the same documentation, compliance, and customer communication requirements. The practical advice here scales down to any shop size.

What is the most common mistake taxidermists make with deer season taxidermy management?

The most common mistake is treating deer season taxidermy management as an afterthought rather than building it into the standard workflow from the start. Shops that encounter problems in this area typically did not establish clear processes before season, which means every situation becomes a one-off decision rather than a standard response.

Try These Free Tools

Put these insights into practice with our free calculators and planners:

Sources

National Taxidermists Association (NTA)
US Fish & Wildlife Service
Breakthrough Magazine
State wildlife agencies
Small Business Administration (SBA)

Get Started with MountChief

Deer season is the most demanding time of year for any taxidermist, and the shops that handle it best are the ones that prepared before opening day. MountChief gives you fast AI intake, automatic customer portal activation, and tannery tracking so your busiest weeks are also your most organized. Try MountChief before your next deer season opener.