The Taxidermy Shop

My experience with the taxidermy shop Marton left me gutted. Craig is lacking in professionalism and has very dubious integrity. I dropped off a pheasant to be mounted in June. The bird had a great tail but had lost a few feathers to a blackberry bush in the retrieve. Craig said he was able to stitch the tail onto another bird if I was to bring him a better specimen. A couple of days later I dropped off an outstanding pheasant with no white neck ring. I paid $260 as a deposit, the total for the job being $500.A week after the date when I was told it would be ready I rung to see how it was coming along and was told it was still drying and would be another four weeks. The next call I had got me worried as Craig had had two other pheasants dropped off and had mixed them up and was trying to determine which bird belonged to who. He eventually claimed he had got it sorted.I rang him again in mid October to see if the bird was finished. Craig had another story about having been busy mounting deer and then couldn’t find my records although I provided him the exact dates and times when I had dropped the tail and bird off. He assured me he worked on the jobs in the order they came in. He went away and rang me back later in the day to say he had it sorted and the bird would be ready the following weekend.The following Sunday I arrived to collect my trophy at last. Craig was away but a lady showed me a pheasant he had which still wasn’t ready. It had a large white ring and was not the bird I had shot. There was a second, complete, pheasant in the workshop but the lady told me that was an old one that had been mounted for years. Later that afternoon Craig rang and I told him the mounted bird was not the one I had shot. He tried to claim that the bird had been washed and fluffed four times and that had made the feathers stick out more. I pointed out that my trophy didn’t have a neck ring and no amount of washing was going to make a dead bird grow new feathers. He was also very keen to correct what the lady had told me about the other pheasant and said it was one of the two that had been dropped off a month after mine. We arranged a time the following day to discuss the pheasant he had mounted for me.The following day when I arrived Craig had prepared a cheque and returned my deposit to me. He also cut my tail off the bird he had mounted and returned that. I asked to see the second bird of the two which had been bought in a month after mine but it had already been completed and gone. I would recommend very strongly against trusting Craig with your treasured trophy and if you do be prepared for disappointment.

After reading Mike's horror story regarding his trophy pheasant and his experience with Craig Ferguson I have decided to post my own unfavourable experience with this Taxidermist. I went on a fallow hunt with Mr Ferguson several years ago and shot a respectable fallow buck while out with him. Ferguson removed the cape from the animal in my presence for a shoulder mount which he was going to do for me. I expected to have the mount completed around the end of six months as this was the time frame indicated to me by him. Previous mounts by this taxidermist had been completed within this time frame. What followed was a series of phone conversations over a period of almost 18 months with me asking when I was going to see my finished fallow mount. There was always an excuse about the length of time to get the mount completed. Eventually I got a phone call to say that the job had been completed so I was relieved about that. Ferguson delivered the mount down to the Wairarapa for me one afternoon and I took that as a kind gesture. Anyway I wasted no time in getting my trophy up on the wall the following day. You can imagine my shock and disappointment when I discovered that there was a line of stitches running across the lower brisket on my finished mount. What I quickly discovered was that two separate pieces of head skin had been stitched together and a gash attempt had been made to disguise what he had done. I looked at photos taken in the field when my animal was taken and further realised that the head skin on my mount was in fact a different colour to the head shin on the harvested animal. I was on the phone promptly and (pissed off) as well to let him know that not only was I disgusted with the job but I was gutted that he had exchanged my original head skin for a damaged one and then tried to mickey it up hoping that I wouldn't notice. I got the bullshit that it was the original. He refused to discuss it further with me when I challenged him on it being a inferior substitute. After telling him I was completely dissatisfied with his work he promptly told me that he would do nothing more in the way of taxidermy for me and then hung up the phone. All I can say to hunters wanting taxidermy work done, please do your home work before going near The Taxidermy Shop. There are better and more trust worthy operators out there and this turkey should be avoided at all costs. He brings honest Taxidermists into disrepute. I took this issue up with the then President of the Taxidermy Association such was my disgust, but got little sympathy or support as a result. My work now goes to another taxidermist in the Central North Island and I have received some out standing completed work. I say it again, think carefully and take heed of these comments on this site before going near this bloke. You have been warned"!!25-03-14 Craig is a LIAR. The head he has mounted was done for my husband

Nice guy running the place and great products.

Had an okay experience. I liked it. Good pheasant.

Craig took my Sambar head skin to cure it an clean a couple of fallow heads up for me, he left my fallow heads in a solution an forgot about them resulting in the whole muzzle being eaten away, then he tried to give me a little head skin that was not mine, over about 8months I travelled back and forth going through atleast 7-8 headskins before an altercation occurred resulting in him calling the police which he tried to to tell stories in which he forgot he’d left a message on my phone contradicting himself resulting in him looking like a fool, after another couple of months an almost a trespass notice I finally got my headskin back, I believe he sold it as it was quite a large one an in the end had to work hard to get it back, he is a liar a thief and I’ve heard many stories since then of headskins being swapped, stolen etc.