# "Taxidermy for the Sportsman" TV show



## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

Taxidermy TV show aims to educate hunters, anglers

Each segment of "Taxidermy for the Sportsman" starts in the woods or on the water and ends in Rinehart's studio with a completed whitetail, bird or fish mount.

The show, filmed and edited by John and Howard Gage of Videogenics in Janesville, recently was named the best informational/educational episode broadcast on The Sportsman Channel lineup for 2007.

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080406/GPG0204/804060691/1233


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## neil duffey (Feb 22, 2004)

iv seen the show, and i enjoyed it... but im also attending school here in michigan, n.e. MI school of wild life art. and theres a gay in the class(class size of 3) who went to Rinehart's school and said it was a joke and a waste of money. he said when he left he didnt even feel comfortable/confident trying to mount on his own, and thats why hes at the school here in mi. he said in the week long class that cost him something like 2600$ he didnt learn a thing. they didnt hardly even get to work on the animal they were mounting... the instructors basicly did it for them... they didnt even let them flesh out the hides or turn the face. the guy said they basicly made u feel like all they wanted was to take your money and push you out the door... and this was a class of 18 students... how the heck you gunna give a good lesson for a hands on trade, w/ that many people... let alone in a week. well at any rate... idk how much im going to enjoy this show any longer knowing what a rip off the school out there was/is...


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## WTT03 (Feb 13, 2007)

I would like to offer my .02. I attended Dan Rinehart's School in 2006 taking his Deer Head taxidermy course. About the only thing that this "guy" you're refering to got right (from my experience) is that yes, there were 18 people in the class at once. Other than that, he was off on everything else except maybe that he didn't learn anything and the only reason I say that is that maybe he was too experienced going into the class?? (giving him the benefit of the doubt). Dan's classes are geared 100% towards the novice taxidermist. We had a range of experience from a person who had never even skinned a deer (let alone it's head) to others that have tinkered around with taxidermy for a few years and had actually mounted deer before. Dan himself taught the class that I was in. EVERYONE had his or her own deer to work on. If you didn't have a hide that you brought, he had capes for sale there. It was a requirement (known to everyone before registering for the class at home) that you had to have a hide to work with, either your own or one purchased from him. Dan would demonstrate on someone's cape, the step we would be doing at that time (using a different cape for each demonstration) then would let us go back to the workbench and do the work ourselves on our own deer. We did everything from skinning the head, cutting off the antlers, rough fleshing the hide, splitting the lips, eyes and nose and turning the ears. We tanned our own capes in a pressure tanner, final fleshed, thinned them down using a variety of different tools (to see how each worked). We prepped the mannikins, cutting lip slots, dremeling nasal cavities, sanding, filling, etc. The only thing that we didn't do there was the finish work because the mounts weren't dry. He did however, give a demonstration on finish work on another deer and also gave us a copy of his DVD which fully explained what he went over in class, start to finish, so that we could do the finish work ourselves back at home. We were invited to give him a call personally with ANY questions, which I did, which he personally answered the phone and helped me out.

As far as the ability to give a good "hands on" experience with that many people in the class...I wondered the same thing myself when I first got there. "How the heck was he going to do it?" Well, he has system that really would take to long to try and explain here (as if this post isn't already too long ) but suffice to say that he can and does do it remarkably well.

The $2600 fee for a week course is a bunch of bull. Go to Dan's website yourself and see that a week long course only runs $895. He may have paid $2600 to takes Dan's full course which includes, Fish, Birds, Medium Mammals and Deer Head Course over the course of 5 weeks but that is priced now at $3495.00 so unless he got a discount....I'm not sure where he got the $2600 amount from.

Please do not bash someone unless you have first hand experience of getting the short end. This business is hard enough without having people belittle you with no just cause. I have no affiliation with Dan Rinehart, nor am I trying to promote his business for him in any way, as there are many other very fine schools out there. I'm just trying to relay my own personal (very positive) experience that completely contradicts the statements made in the previous post. Dan is a respected taxidermist in this country, has served as president of the National Taxidermist Assoc. (and still may be, I'm not sure) and I don't think that he would still be in business if he conducted a school in the way that it was previoulsy portrayed.

Sorry for the long (okay VERY long) post. Again, just expressing my .02. Thanks.

I just got to thinking that maybe he got the $2600 from the cost of the course, plus lodging and meals (which are not included in the course price). Even still, that's alot more than what I spent staying in a hotel for a week and buying all of my food there.


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## neil duffey (Feb 22, 2004)

well im happy for you that you got your monies worth... u get a smiley face for that im telling you what the guy in my class said, and he said its a joke. he hardly got to work on anything, the instructor did almost all the work, and showed them methods that, compaired to the school we are now in, where unconventional, time consuming and not as thurough. the instructor i have now has had sevral people from reinharts "school" come to him to learn the right way. no offence to you, but ill take my fellow students word for it, as well as my instructors. now let me add a disclaimer here. my instructor has never met reinhart, never even talked to him or anything... but he has delt w/ a few of reinharts former students, and he says that this guy is confusing people in the ways that he is teaching them, and not giving them a compleat understanding of the trade. im not going to buy into some guy just because he has a tv show and makes some fancy dancy eyes... its not too far fetched to belive there are people out their that could give two craps about anything but the ol green back, and to me, this guy seems like one of em, from the stories iv heard. jmo, like it o not... why in the world would this guy make up a story and tell it to me? i have/had no intrest to go to school any where else, never even heard of it till this class im in now... i have no reason to not belive him, and i certainly have no reason to not belive my instructor as i know the man on a personal life style, and hes not the fibbing type... so dont get all defensive about it. have a good one, and good luck to you and yours


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## WTT03 (Feb 13, 2007)

No problems here.... I didn't mean to come across as all defensive about it. Not my intention at all. I apologize if I came across that way. It's difficult on the forums to come across with the right "tone of voice" sometimes. I'm not knocking you or your buddy or your instructors or anyone else. I am/was just relaying MY experience with D. Rinehart. That's all. My main point was just that you personally haven't had any experience with the man and I have. Again, just relaying MY experience. I can't vouch for what your buddy went through, nor can you really. We just have to go by what he tells us/you. No school, business or instructor is going to please everyone all the time with everything. I'm glad you found someplace to learn that you have confidence in and that you enjoy. I wish all schools were like that. Yes there are schools out there that are into it just for the buck. I PERSONALLY don't believe that is the way with D. Rinehart. But that's just my opinion. If you don't like the guy, that's fine. I do. We both have our opinions. I don't buy into him because he has a TV show and makes fancy eyes either , I do it because of my experience with the man. 

I hope you have a great time at the school here in MI. Have a great one! See ya in the outdoors.


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## Ebowhunter (Apr 5, 2000)

These threads make my head hurt. Hopefully it has run its course.


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## neil duffey (Feb 22, 2004)

WTT03 said:


> No problems here.... I didn't mean to come across as all defensive about it. Not my intention at all. I apologize if I came across that way. It's difficult on the forums to come across with the right "tone of voice" sometimes. I'm not knocking you or your buddy or your instructors or anyone else. I am/was just relaying MY experience with D. Rinehart. That's all. My main point was just that you personally haven't had any experience with the man and I have. Again, just relaying MY experience. I can't vouch for what your buddy went through, nor can you really. We just have to go by what he tells us/you. No school, business or instructor is going to please everyone all the time with everything. I'm glad you found someplace to learn that you have confidence in and that you enjoy. I wish all schools were like that. Yes there are schools out there that are into it just for the buck. I PERSONALLY don't believe that is the way with D. Rinehart. But that's just my opinion. If you don't like the guy, that's fine. I do. We both have our opinions. I don't buy into him because he has a TV show and makes fancy eyes either , I do it because of my experience with the man.
> 
> I hope you have a great time at the school here in MI. Have a great one! See ya in the outdoors.


here here my good man, here here.


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## fowlmen-too (Apr 21, 2008)

i went to one of Rinehearts fish painting seminars when dans father [jOHN} taught it.it was a weekend seminar i think it was mounting a deer head painting a fish and finishing a bear rug..although we didnt get to do any of it we watched him do it all..and i think the cost was 35-40 dollars.. it was well worth it, very informative i learned a great deal i would definatly go again but i dont think he does it anymore,One was in indiana,and the other was in ohio

it was cool


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