How a 400-Mount Shop Gained Full Tannery Visibility with MountChief

By MountChief Editorial Team|Updated Mar 2026

At 400 mounts per year, tannery management isn't a minor inconvenience, it's a core operational problem. You're shipping multiple loads of capes each season. You might have hides with three different tanneries at the same time, depending on species mix. And every one of those specimens belongs to a customer who will eventually call to ask where it is.

For Dave and Terri's shop in southern Wisconsin, the tannery question was the most stressful part of every season.

"We ship a load in January, another in March, maybe a smaller one mid-season. By summer we've got capes at two different tanneries and we're trying to reconcile everything with handwritten packing lists. Someone calls and asks about their elk cape, well, which tannery did the elk go to? I have to find the list, match it up. Sometimes the list got filed somewhere and I have to dig."

Dave had been running the shop for 22 years. The volume had grown significantly over the past decade. The paper system that worked at 150 mounts per year was struggling at 400.

TL;DR

For shops debating the cost: "MountChief is $79 a month.
At 400 mounts per year, tannery management isn't a minor inconvenience, it's a core operational problem.
paper system that worked at 150 mounts per year was struggling at 400.
Dave had been running the shop for 22 years. The volume had grown significantly over the past decade. The paper system that worked at 150 mounts per year was struggling at 400.
Tracking 400 specimens through all those stages manually is a documentation project in itself.
The first full season with the system, Dave sent four tannery shipments totaling 312 specimens.

The Tannery Problem at Scale

The core challenge with tannery management at high volume isn't the tannery relationship itself, Dave had solid relationships with his hide processor and a separate bird/waterfowl tannery. The problem was specimen-level visibility: at any given moment, which specific capes were where?

At 400 mounts per year, Dave's in-shop inventory could include:

Fresh capes waiting for skinning and prep
Prepped and salted capes waiting for the next tannery shipment
Capes currently in transit to the tannery
Capes at the tannery (could be 2-10 weeks)
Capes in transit back from the tannery
Returned capes in staging
Active production mounts
Finished mounts awaiting pickup

That's eight possible locations, across two physical facilities (his shop and the tannery), with a transit window on either end. Tracking 400 specimens through all those stages manually is a documentation project in itself.

"The system I had was: paper tag stapled to the cape, paper record in the binder, handwritten packing list for tannery shipments. At 150 mounts that worked okay. At 400 mounts I was making mistakes."

The Mix-Up That Accelerated the Decision

The season before MountChief, Dave had an incident that cost him significantly.

Two capes, both large-bodied 8-point whitetails harvested within a few days of each other, came back from the tannery with paper tags that had mostly deteriorated. He matched them to his records by approximate size and antler configuration. He was wrong on one.

The customer noticed at pickup. The antler configuration on the mount didn't match their harvest photos exactly, one tine was slightly different. It took three weeks of back-and-forth, a conversation with the other customer, and ultimately a remount at Dave's cost to resolve.

"That one incident cost me probably $800 in materials and time. Plus I lost both of those customers. They'd both been coming to me for years."

He started researching software immediately.

Setting Up MountChief for Tannery Tracking

Dave's shop has two employees, Terri handles intake and customer communication; Dave does most of the production work with one part-time assistant during peak season.

The MountChief setup focused on three specific workflows:

QR tag assignment at intake. Every specimen gets a QR tag attached at intake, before any prep work starts. The QR tag is attached directly to the specimen and stays with it through the entire process, including the tannery. MountChief's QR tags are laminated and rated for tannery chemicals and moisture.

Tannery shipment batching. When a tannery load is ready, Terri opens MountChief on the tablet, scans each QR tag as she packs the box, and assigns all scanned jobs to a named tannery shipment ("January Tannery Batch, Smith's Hide Processing"). She photographs each box before sealing it. The shipment record shows exactly which specimens are in it.

Tannery return reconciliation. When capes come back, each one is scanned on arrival. MountChief matches the QR tag to the existing job record and updates the stage automatically. Any cape that comes back without a readable QR tag goes into a review queue, Terri uses the intake photos to match it before moving it to staging.

What Changed

The first full season with the system, Dave sent four tannery shipments totaling 312 specimens.

"At any point during the season, I could open MountChief on my phone and see exactly: this many capes are at tannery batch one, this many are at tannery batch two, this many are back and in staging. Every specimen. By name."

When customers called about tannery status, which still happened, especially during the first season when not all customers had adopted the portal, Terri could answer in under 30 seconds. Search the name, pull the record, read the current stage.

"Instead of 'I think it's at the tannery' or 'let me check my list,' Terri could say 'your cape shipped to Smith's Hide Processing on January 22, they typically return our hides in 8-10 weeks, so we're expecting it back around late March.' That's a different experience for the customer."

The specimen mix-up problem was solved structurally. Because every cape had a unique QR tag attached at intake, before it ever left the shop, and because the tag was verified on return, the scenario that caused Dave's costly mistake could no longer happen. The tannery might mix up their own internal organization, but when the cape came back to Dave's shop, the QR scan would tell him exactly whose it was.

Numbers After Two Full Seasons

Over two full seasons with MountChief:

Tannery-related specimen errors: 0, down from 1-2 per season
Time to reconcile a tannery return (100 capes): 45 minutes, down from 3+ hours
Customer calls about tannery status: down approximately 80% due to automated stage update texts
Successful matching of problem capes (no tag, damaged tag): 100% using intake photos as backup

"The intake photos are what saved me twice this season. Cape comes back with a damaged tag, in the old days that was a problem. Now I pull up the job that should be in that tannery batch, look at the antler photos from intake, and confirm the match. Takes about two minutes."

The Tannery Relationship Side Effect

An unexpected benefit: Dave's tannery relationships improved.

"I could tell my tannery exactly what I was shipping before it arrived. I sent them the MountChief packing list, customer name, species, tag number. When there was a question about a specific hide, I could reference the QR tag number and they could find it on their end."

The tannery had been dealing with Dave's handwritten lists for years. The organized digital packing lists made their job easier and reduced the back-and-forth calls both directions.

What Dave Would Tell Other High-Volume Shops

"Get the QR tags on every cape the day it comes in. That's the most important thing. Everything else follows from that. If you tag it at intake, you always know where it is."

For shops debating the cost: "MountChief is $79 a month. I've had single incidents, one cape matched wrong, one customer dispute, that cost more than a year of the software. Just the mistake prevention alone covers it."

The system doesn't eliminate the complexity of running a 400-mount shop. Dave still manages multiple tannery relationships, still navigates peak season volume, still does the actual production work that takes skill and time. But the administrative overhead, the tracking, the reconciliation, the customer communication, is no longer eating into the hours he should be spending at the bench.

FAQ

How does MountChief handle specimens with multiple tanneries?

You create separate tannery shipments for each tannery. A shipment is a named batch, "January Batch - Smith's Hides" or "March Load - Waterfowl Tannery." Each QR-tagged specimen is assigned to one shipment. When you're looking at a specific job, the record shows which tannery shipment that specimen is in. You can also view a shipment list to see all specimens currently at a specific tannery.

What happens if a QR tag gets damaged at the tannery?

This does happen occasionally. The backup system is the intake photo set attached to the job record. If a cape comes back without a readable QR tag, you pull up the tannery shipment list, identify which specimens haven't checked back in, and use intake photos (full cape, antler configuration, any unique markings) to match the untagged cape to the right job record. It takes longer than a QR scan but it's still faster than the old paper method.

Can I track multiple tannery shipments in transit simultaneously?

Yes. MountChief's tannery tracking shows all active shipments by status: in transit, at tannery, returned. You can see at a glance that January's batch returned, February's batch is currently at the tannery, and March's batch is in transit. You can drill down into any shipment to see the individual specimens.

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 high volume shop tannery tracking case study?

The most common mistake is treating high volume shop tannery tracking case study 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.

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Sources

National Taxidermists Association (NTA)
US Fish & Wildlife Service

Get Started with MountChief

Tannery visibility is the biggest operational gap at most taxidermy shops. MountChief's tannery tracking gives you a running log of every shipment, expected return, and actual return so you always know where every hide stands. Try MountChief to bring the tannery portion of your workflow under full control.