Esplin's Wildlife Studio

12/02/2025

Rest Easy our dear friend Wayne Carlton Native by Carlton 💔
We will forever cherish the memories of you, especially back before you did your diaphragm calls and you had your pest spray business and would spray our old Delta Elevator

28/01/2025

Hey Everyone! We haven’t posted anything in a while, but we’ve been busy working in the shop 7 days a week. There’s going to be some changes going forward to ensure that we can keep things running in the shop:

- Effective immediately we are going to ask that when we go to order your form that you pay the remainder balance .. lately we’ve gotten work finished BUT people haven’t been coming in for weeks/months to pay and pick up their mounts (for the first time EVER we’ve had to implement our storage fees and ended up having mounts forfeited due to no payment) If you’re not able to pay then we will move you down the line until you’re able to. Again, this is due to people who’ve hounded us to get work done but they haven’t paid, so it ruins it for others.
- So we can keep things moving in the shop we are going to being open to the public BY APPOINTMENT ONLY.
- If we haven’t contacted you on starting a mount, then it means you’re not in queue yet, so don’t text/call nonstop as that slows us down. If you do have to call us please refrain from doing it on the weekends, while chances are high we are in the shop, it is also our main family time with our children (we still have a 5th and 8th Grader in the house)
- Slowly we’ve been getting in some of our older tanning, which has been great since all the Covid stuff has slowed a lot of things in the industry. Just know we want you to have your piece back as much or more than you do because we know how much it means to you and there’s no pride in us having it.
- We are extremely grateful for our clients that have trusted us to do their work, and we refuse to let our quality slip.

******BEAR RUGS- We are behind on them due to back log with who we use.. we’ve tried several other people and have not liked their quality so unfortunately we are working on their time, hence why we refuse to take any more in ******

18/07/2024

Another Lifesize Mtn Goat ready to head home

22/06/2024

Another Successful Year at the Colorado State Taxidermist Association Show!

Bobby- Masters Division
1st Place - Mule Deer and won Best Mule Deer
1st Place - Desert Sheep (excuse my crappy picture)
2nd Place - Whitetail and won Best Whitetail
He also won the Pro-1 Award for the Maters Division

Franny - 1st year in Masters Division
2nd Place - Mule Deer

Will- Youth Division
1st Place Mule Deer and Won Best of Youth

12/06/2024

A little before and after action on this beautiful buck!

This was a buck we did for our seminar at the Colorado Taxidermist Association show in Gunnison this year.

15/03/2024

Mountain Goat ready to head home!
We’ve been working non stop in the shop

23/12/2023

Just putting this out there. If you call or text us “how’s my animal coming along” today through Christmas or New Years Eve/Day you will NOT be getting a response…
This is time to spend with loved ones not to be just “checking in on progress”. Every year it happens and there will be no more of it or the ones that do will be fired from having future work done.
We hate to be this way but most people have a regular 8-5 job with weekends off and we do not, so the holidays we try to take an actual day or two off as we have kids and a life too.

Have a Merry Christmas may you all be blessed in the new year with good health and happiness!! 🎄🎄

The shop will be closed today through Tuesday, New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day and January 16-17

26/11/2023

Congratulations Delta Panthers Football!!! 💚🖤💚🖤

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE DELTA PANTHER FOOTBALL TEAM - 2A STATE CHAMPIONS!! WE ARE SO PROUD OF EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU!!! 54-14 win over the Rifle Bears! WHOOP! WHOOP!

23/11/2023

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our Customers, Family, Friends and Loved Ones 🦃🍁🦃🍁
We are thankful for each and every one of you

30/09/2023

Okay, folks. It’s unfortunate I even have to type this out, but here we go.

If you have a mount here and you have NOT heard from us; it is NOT done. We are behind on our log from due to things out of our control - slow turn around times at tanneries, slow shipments of forms, and one of the BIGGEST manufacturers of the glass eyes went out of business all factor in to this.

Our short turnaround time relies solely on TIME IN THE SHOP. When we are stuck on the phone; work is not getting completed. When people are sending constant messages wanting to know “when it’ll be done,” it takes away our time in the shop.

On average, we are getting messages/phone calls adding up to 1-2 hours a day asking about updates which adds up to around 8 hours a week…which is a FULL work day to most folks. In a full day, when we are able to mount things, we can do approximately 3 standard shoulder mounts. We are getting behind approximately 12 mounts a month dealing with these calls and messages that are unnecessary. This is time that could be better spent getting things completed in the shop, if we could be left to do our job.

The first phone call or text message asking about the status of a mount will be a freebie. Any additional phone call, text message, or Facebook message inquiring about the status of a mount, in which we have not called you about yet, will automatically incur a $25 fee per call/message. Three times and you will be moved to the end of the line or you can come pick up your antlers/horns, hide and form. Do not expect your deposit back as it went to our time to take care of your skin, tan your skin, and order your form.

We assure you, we want your mount done just as much as you do. We are not holding your animal hostage for the pure joy of making you wait. That’s obviously not how money is made.

We also ask that you have some patience during hunting season. We are working 16-17 hour days RIGHT NOW while also trying to raise children. Raw skins coming in take precedence over hides that are tanned and waiting to be mounted. The previous year, YOUR skin took precedence over other folks’ mounts getting done as well.

I also want to add that we really truly appreciate our patient customers that are so understanding, you folks make our job worth doing. We always strive to give the best quality mounts possible and when we are not rushed it makes the mounts turn out even better.

Thank you all and I hope everyone has a great day!

(Yes we used with permission this statement but changed wording that fit us)

29/09/2023

The unfortunate truth of owning and running a business.

Running a business is really hard.

What they don’t tell you is that it can cause severe stress and anxiety, and drains you mentally to the point of depression in even the most laid back people.

People will talk about you, compare you to others, use you, they will view you as a service and not a person anymore.

Friends and family will expect discounts and people will value you and your hard work less than a big chain store.

You have to worry about if you forget to email/message someone back, are they going to think it was on purpose? Did you disappoint them? Will they hold that against you? When in reality you just can’t get to everyone’s messages and emails.

Starting up and running a successful business puts incredible strain on personal lives and relationships, many of which fail because there is just often no work life balance. You need to be the director, the worker, the admin, the marketing team, the accountant, the cleaner..... All whilst being a parent, a husband or a wife, family support, friend... it’s one of the hardest things you will try and balance

There’s a reason you don’t see many people succeed in small businesses after 5 years. If they are successful they are overwhelmed. It takes a toll. It’s freaking exhausting. Especially the past couple of years when so much has been out of our control.

Here’s a small reminder that we are just normal people with hectic lives. Be kind, be patient, support small businesses…….and hopefully more of us will stick around!

I copied this from another small business owner.

16/08/2023