Taxidermy Pricing Calculator: Set Rates That Cover Your Costs

By MountChief Editorial Team|Updated Mar 2026

Underpricing is the number one reason taxidermy shops fail in year three. Not lack of skill. Not bad marketing. Pricing that looks fine on paper but quietly eats into margins once tannery fees, supply costs, and actual hours are factored in.

Use the calculator below to build accurate pricing by species. It accounts for tannery costs, labor time, and shop overhead so you're not guessing.

TL;DR

But then you back it out: $80-120 tannery fee, $40-60 in supplies, two hours of prep time at $25/hr, three hours of finish work at $25/hr.
full labor picture for a shoulder mount often runs 6-9 hours.
Divide by billable hours (roughly 1,200-1,400 for a solo shop, accounting for admin, customer service, and off-season downtime).
For most solo operators, this lands between $22-35 per hour.
Most shoulder mounts run $30-60 in supplies. Full bodies and fish run higher.
If you run $2,500/month in overhead and complete 20 mounts, each mount carries $125 in overhead. That number needs to be in your price.

Why Most Taxidermists Underprice Their Work

It's not greed or stubbornness that keeps pricing too low. It's that the real cost of a mount is spread across a dozen line items that are easy to forget when you're quoting from memory.

You quote $450 for a deer shoulder mount. Sounds reasonable. But then you back it out: $80-120 tannery fee, $40-60 in supplies, two hours of prep time at $25/hr, three hours of finish work at $25/hr. You're at $370 in hard costs before you count overhead. That $450 quote just netted you $80. Before taxes.

Small errors in pricing stack up. Ten mounts a month at $80 margin is $9,600 a year. Tight, but doable. Except overhead is real, and tannery costs go up every few years, and supplies aren't getting cheaper.

The Tannery Cost Problem

Here's where most calculators fall short. Tannery fees aren't a flat number. They vary by species, by hide size, by the tannery you use. A deer cape runs differently than an elk hide. A bear skull with hide costs more to tan than a whitetail cape. A fish skin gets treated entirely differently.

If your pricing model treats all tannery costs the same, you're losing money on species that cost more to process and leaving margin on the table for ones that cost less.

Labor Is Usually Underestimated

Most taxidermists track their finish hours but not their total hours. Intake time, form prep, hide soaking, rough turning, fleshing, mounting, drying, detailing, painting, packing, customer communication. The full labor picture for a shoulder mount often runs 6-9 hours. At $25/hr, that's $150-225 in labor alone.

Add your tannery fee, supplies, and a share of monthly overhead (rent, utilities, software, insurance), and you start to see why pricing needs to be built up from real numbers, not guessed from what the shop down the road charges.

How to Price Taxidermy Work: A Step-by-Step Breakdown

Learning how to price taxidermy work accurately takes about an hour the first time you do it properly. After that, it's a lookup, not a calculation.

Step 1: Establish Your Hourly Rate

Start with what you need to earn per year. Divide by billable hours (roughly 1,200-1,400 for a solo shop, accounting for admin, customer service, and off-season downtime). That's your minimum effective hourly rate. Add 15-20% for profit margin.

For most solo operators, this lands between $22-35 per hour. Don't skip this step. It's the foundation everything else sits on.

Step 2: Time Each Mount Type

Clock your actual hours for each species and mount style you do regularly. Not the fast day, not the slow day. Average hours over five to ten mounts. This becomes your standard.

Deer shoulder mount: 6-9 hours
Turkey full body: 8-12 hours
Fish skin mount: 4-6 hours
Bear shoulder: 10-14 hours
Duck full body: 4-7 hours

Your numbers will be different. That's the point.

Step 3: Add Tannery Costs by Species

Contact your tannery and get their current rate card. Build it into your pricing model per species. Then add 10-15% buffer for shipping, supplies used during tannery prep (pickle solutions, fleshing tools), and occasional re-tan situations.

Typical tannery ranges (these vary widely by tannery and species):

| Species | Typical Tannery Fee Range |

|---|---|

| Deer cape | $60-120 |

| Elk cape | $120-220 |

| Bear hide (with skull) | $180-350 |

| Turkey (wet tan) | $80-140 |

| Fish skin | $35-75 |

| Bobcat/coyote | $70-130 |

Step 4: Add Supplies

Build a supplies cost by mount type. Forms, eyes, earliners, adhesives, paint, epoxies, finishing materials. This is easier than it sounds. Order the same supplies repeatedly and you'll know the per-mount cost within a few attempts.

Most shoulder mounts run $30-60 in supplies. Full bodies and fish run higher.

Step 5: Allocate Overhead

Take your monthly fixed costs (rent, utilities, insurance, software, phone, marketing) and divide by your average monthly mount count. That's your per-mount overhead contribution.

If you run $2,500/month in overhead and complete 20 mounts, each mount carries $125 in overhead. That number needs to be in your price.

Step 6: Set the Final Price

Labor + Tannery + Supplies + Overhead = Break-even cost. Add your profit margin (20-30% is reasonable for a taxidermy shop). That's your price.

Don't adjust this number down to beat competitors. Adjust your efficiency up to remain competitive.

Pricing by Mount Type: Starting Benchmarks

These ranges reflect 2025-2026 market rates across the US. Coastal markets and high-demand hunting states often run at the top of these ranges.

| Mount Type | Low | Mid | High |

|---|---|---|---|

| Deer shoulder | $350 | $500 | $700 |

| Elk shoulder | $650 | $900 | $1,400 |

| Bear shoulder | $600 | $850 | $1,200 |

| Turkey full body | $500 | $750 | $1,100 |

| Duck/waterfowl | $200 | $350 | $500 |

| Coyote/bobcat | $300 | $450 | $650 |

| Whitetail pedestal | $900 | $1,400 | $2,000 |

| Deer full body | $1,500 | $2,200 | $3,500 |

These are benchmarks, not targets. Your cost structure determines your price, not what someone else is charging.

Common Pricing Mistakes

Charging by "what the market will bear" without knowing your costs. This works until your costs go up. Then you're stuck.

Not updating prices annually. Tannery fees, supply costs, and your own labor value change. Your prices should too. Most shops that haven't raised prices in three years are losing money on at least some mount types.

Forgetting the quote-to-pickup timeline. You quote $400 now. The mount takes 8 months. Your tannery raised rates in that window. You still charge $400. Add a materials escalation clause or reprice annually and honor the old rate for a defined period only.

Using one price for all sizes. A 130-inch whitetail cape isn't the same as a 170-inch buck. Charge accordingly. Size adjustments are standard and expected.

FAQ

How much should I charge for a deer shoulder mount?

The national average for a deer shoulder mount runs $450-650, but your specific price needs to be built from your actual costs. Calculate your tannery fee (typically $80-120), labor at your hourly rate (6-9 hours for most shops), supplies ($35-55), and a share of monthly overhead. Then add your profit margin. Many shops in higher cost-of-living areas charge $600-800 and are fully booked.

How do I factor tannery costs into taxidermy pricing?

Get your tannery's current rate card and build a line item into each species price. Don't use a flat rate across all species. Elk capes cost 2-3x more to tan than deer capes. Bird tanning runs differently than mammal hides. Add 10-15% to the tannery line item to cover shipping, tannery prep supplies, and occasional re-tan situations. Update these costs whenever your tannery raises rates.

Should I charge different prices for non-resident hunters?

Many shops do charge a non-resident premium of 10-20%, particularly for high-value species like elk and bear. The reasoning: out-of-state customers often require more communication, may need shipping or export documentation, and represent higher liability if there's a dispute. It's worth discussing with your accountant whether to formalize this.

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 taxidermy pricing calculator?

The most common mistake is treating taxidermy pricing calculator 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
Small Business Administration (SBA)

Stop Guessing. Start Calculating.

Your skill is worth real money. But skill doesn't pay the bills if your pricing doesn't cover your costs. Take the time to build a cost-based pricing model this season. Then update it every year in January before the next hunting season begins.

MountChief includes built-in pricing tools that factor in tannery fees, labor, and overhead automatically. Every quote you generate becomes a record tied to the job, so you know exactly where your margin went. Start your free trial and build your first pricing model today.

Get Started with MountChief

If you are evaluating taxidermy software options, the right test is to run actual intake through each platform and measure the difference. MountChief is $79 per month with all features included and setup takes hours, not days. Try MountChief free and compare it directly against whatever you are using now.