Trails End School of Taxidermy offers the following classes. No application fee! 2012 Classes Winter class starts Jan 2nd and runs through March 23rd Spring class starts March 26th and runs through June 15th Summer class starts June 18th and runs through Sept 7th Classes fill up fast so we like to have students signed up 2 months prior to class. This will give us ample time to get the needed specimens for each individual. Contact us for more info. Our curriculum includes the following: Condensed course We now offer a condensed course. This is 3 weeks in length and can be started whenever the student asks. That's right, no schedule, this is totally designed to work when the student is able to start. Days or evening classes are both available. There are a lot of people who cannot attend the full intensive 12 week course. This should be a good fit for them. You will receive 1 deer, 2 fish, 1 bird and a habitat base. This will give you a great starting point in your career or hobby.Cost of this program is 3500.00. State funding will not be available for this. If you are unable to take the 12 week course I am sure this will work well for you.

BIRDS
You will skin and mount 2 birds. One pheasant, to be done in the flying pose. The other will be a wood duck in the standing position. We will also incorporate a habitat with the woody, usually a pond setting.

DEER
You will learn how to prep 2 capes to get ready to send to the tannery, measure them when they return from the tannery so a proper size form may be ordered, prep the form and final prep of the capes. You will then mount both shoulder mounts.

Bill Yox one of the Deer instructors helping students. Click for larger image

FISH
The methods you will learn at Trails End are the most quality controlled methods in the field now. You will learn how to skin, carve a body, mount, set the eyes, do fin work and paint 4 fish. Also, there will be an underwater habitat to go along with one of the fish you will be mounting. The fish you will be mounting will consist of 2 walleye, 1 northern, and 1 bass, . You will also be taught how to cast and mold a salmonoid head ( trout or salmon ) as these fish have a tendency to have a ton of oils in them and it is best to use a cast or artificial head on them.




We now have a 150 gallon aquarium on site for the best reference available, (live game fish). You may go and watch live northerns, sunfish, walleye, large and smallmouth bass interact with each other and see for yourself exactly how they use their fins and gills You can see their attitude and eye expressions, as well as their markings and how they are effected while feeding. It doesn't get any better than this for reference!

BEAR
We also allow each student to do an open mouth black bear shoulder mount. This will show the intricacies of an open mouth and allow the student to see the difficulty in mounting a specimen that is in the midst of a growl, bugle or yawn. The open mouth is a lot more difficult to do as the facial expressions and inner mouth are now taking on what is considered the most difficult of expressions to recreate.

SMALL GAME
There is nothing cuter than a coon hanging from a limb or a fox searching the snow for a mouse. We provide top quality hides for our students and allow them to mount one life size small game to take home with them when they are completed. It’s amazing how something, such as a coon, can go from looking like a drowned rat to a soft fluffy critter with just the use of a blow-dryer.


TURKEY
We now offer turkey classes. Again, we will supply the specimen and all the needed material to give you a turkey in the pose of your choosing. The turkey can be the hardest bird to master and unless you know the correct procedures to accomplish this it is tough to get them to look good. Turkey hunters are a big part of the hunting community and spend million of dollars on their sport. Most will put birds on the wall and we will help you make their mounts look appealing and professionally done. We know
of no other school that will teach you this and supply you with the needed items. This class will be held separate from out other classes and at different times of the year. Our first class will be held in Jan. Exact dates are not yet set but call or e mail us for more information. Class will be 2-3 days in length and tuition will be $800.00.


DEMONSTRATION
All specimens you will be working on will be demonstrated in their entirety so you will be able to see what you will be doing before you actually get to go "hands on". This is vital part of the course as some students have not seen any part of the taxidermy process on any specimen. We recommend that each student at this time have a video camera so they may tape the proceedings this will give them a reference when they go on their own to fall back on. We try to do a few demos,once in the beginning of the course and then again rite before the students get to start working on their specimens.The more exposure you get to the processes the better as repetition is the key to success.

CASTING AND MOLDING
At Trails End School of Taxidermy you will also learn how to duplicate antlers and how to cast your own fish heads. When it comes to antlers there is nothing like being able to duplicate what mother nature gave a mature deer on the top of his head. Some customers want a copy of their antlers for the cabin or maybe another hunter in the party shot and missed that same deer. Learning how to duplicate them will give you more diversity to apply in your studio to satisfy your customers needs. Fish heads are nice to be able to duplicate for a number of reasons. One being fit. By molding and creating the head of a particular fish you will get a perfect fit when it come to putting the specimen back together again. Trout and salmon need to have artificial heads put on them to minimize oiling to appear on them in the future. Once you learn how to Mold and Cast, anything is possible to duplicate as long as the item being duplicated is in a hardened state.

DISCUSSION
There will be in depth diction on Taxidermy and the law. Getting licensed by the DNR and USFW. As well as a general overview of the field. Each student will leave with a subscription to Breakthrough magazine, one of the premier magazines in taxidermy. You will also get a one year membership to a Taxidermy Guild or Association of your choice.


EVENING COURSE
Course length will be roughly 12 weeks, and is limited to 8 students per class. Classes will run three times a year with a Winter, Spring and Summer session, see above for starting and completion dates. These will be evening classes and run 5 nights a week unless stated otherwise. You will need to sign up one month prior to class start. Hours of class will be 5 -10pm. Although there will be times class may run a little longer for some due to the speed of students while learning new techniques


JOB PLACEMENT:
Although most of our students are either looking for just a little spending money or to open a studio on their own, we sometimes get requests from other taxidermy studios looking for employees and even some outfitters. When we get these requests we contact our students from the past that seemed like they would be interested in moving to another location or working in a large studio environment. We currently have 2 students in Alaska, ( how great would that be) working for some very reputable studios. Having talked to them since they started their employment they seem to enjoy it immensely. Not just the opportunity to work in the field of their choice, but in one of the most beautiful states in the U.S. with all the benefits of hunting and fishing that state has to offer.


State Conservation Officer Visit ( Game Warden ):
As in most states you must be licensed with the state in order to charge customers for taxidermy services. Minnesota taxidermists are governed by the Department of Natural Recourses (DNR). At Trails End School of Taxidermy we have a state conservation officer come in one night during the course of the class and discuss legalities and important information you must know before getting your license. Also discussed is what you will need to do to comply with state regulations once you are licensed.This is a great time for questions to be asked about the legalities and other information you would like to get from the warden.



Supply Companies
There are numerous supply companies out there that are able to supply you with the tools and materials you will need to run your studio. We supply you with most of their catalogs and explain their shipping and handling policies. As well as the differences in the forms they each handle. Not all companies forms are the same and we try to show the differences in their perceived anatomy, which is the building blocks of taxidermy. Many students have never ordered anything before and we explain how to get the most for your money when it comes to ordering an item that can be obtained from multiple companies.

Contact us for more info. View or Print the class curriculum! (PDF)