About Us

Three generations of Wisconsin taxidermy — and the shop behind every course

Taxidermy Insider is the training arm of Stehling’s Taxidermy, a full-service studio founded in Jefferson, Wisconsin in 1978. Greg Stehling started it on a single bench. His sons, Aaron and Austin, grew up in it — mornings before school, summers on the bench — and today they run it as co-owners and master taxidermists. More than 20,000 custom pieces have left the shop since 1978.

Aaron and Austin are second-generation taxidermists in a family now three generations deep, and they teach every course on this site themselves. Many of the techniques you’ll see here were developed inside their studio and were never released publicly until Taxidermy Insider launched in 2016.

From one bench to a production powerhouse

Greg Stehling came to taxidermy as a trained industrial engineer, and it showed — precision, efficiency, repeatable process. His speed and skill on fish made him one of the most sought-after fish taxidermists in the country. Through the 1980s and 90s thousands of specimens moved through the shop every year for sportsmen, museums, nature centers, universities, biological supply companies, and other taxidermists who couldn’t keep up with their own demand.

That volume is where the methods in these courses come from. When you mount thousands of animals a year, you find the fastest honest way to do every single step — and that is what gets filmed.

Two studios, one standard

The Jefferson flagship runs 8,000 square feet of production space with climate control, a state-approved paint booth, dedicated fish and bird rooms, and a showroom. A second studio in New Franken, just outside Green Bay, serves hunters across northeast Wisconsin and the U.P. Roughly 11,000 square feet of shop between them.

Work from those benches has gone out to Bass Pro Shops, Cabela’s, Texas Roadhouse, zoos and museums — and in 2026 the shop was voted Best of 2026 for taxidermy in both Jefferson and New Franken.

Why we built Taxidermy Insider

In 2016 we put the first complete online taxidermy training platform on the internet. It began as a way to help fellow craftsmen and has since trained taxidermists on six continents. Every lesson is filmed in our own studio, at the bench, start to finish — no highlight reels, no steps quietly skipped.

Learn the craft from a family that has made a living at it since 1978.