Catching Up with NWTF 2023 Grand National Taxidermy Winners
The 2023 NWTF Grand National Taxidermy Competition saw a couple of familiar faces in the winner’s circle, proudly hoisting the trophies signifying their Master of Masters championship triumphs.
Tennessean Ryan Scearce reprised his victory of the pre-COVID 2020 conference with his outstanding depiction of a gobbler scratching through the woods at partial strut while feeding.
Scearce, a mailman in his day job, owns Billingsby Road Taxidermy and specializes in birds. The turkey is one he shot on his home farm in Paris, Tennessee. The bird had a unique beard, little in terms of length and thickness, but with unique rusty coloration at the tips where the beard was either damaged or suffered from a vitamin deficiency induced beard rot.
“I liked how it had a little frosted tips action going on,” Scearce smiled.
The base of the display features oak leaves and acorns. Scearce obtained thin silver flashing and cut out the leaves, painting them bronze and copper before scattering them below the bird.
“I wanted them to have a patina look,” he said. “I thought it was a cool concept. You’ve got a bird who’s showing off for the ladies but also moving through the woods trying to get a bite to eat."
Scearce said the opportunity to compete and possibly win at NWTF’s 50th Anniversary conference competition was a motivator in entering this year.
“I thought that this might really be a show to remember, one I might be able to say I did something cool at,” he said.
Scearce began working in taxidermy in 2015. He said a next major goal is to compete successfully at the world taxidermy championships.
Butch Irwin of Albany, Kentucky, is a repeat winner from 2022 in the white-tailed deer Master of Masters Division. Irwin’s winning entry is an open-mouthed, heavy-racked buck mounted on a pedestal base.
“I took the buck two years ago," Irwin said. "The cape was pretty rough, so I got a good cape from a mature deer from a buddy. You need to try to pretty them up, make them as beautiful as you can. To compete at this high level, you’ve got to do an open-mouth pose. You’ve got to do a lot of size adjusting to the mannikin to get it to perfectly fit the deer you’re mounting.”
Reflecting on his latest win, Irwin said, “It’s kind of amazing for a boy from a small town with three stop lights in it to come here and compete with this kind of work, to be at the top of your game – it’s almost something that leaves me speechless.”