One wild career: Nimmons’ love of hunting turned into lifelong passion for taxidermy

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  • Andy Nimmons' dog, Simba, walks through the entryway at his showroom and workshop earlier this week. The photos lining the walls show past hunting trips, all of which Nimmons said he remembers. (Ella Kroll/The Oglethorpe Echo)
    Andy Nimmons' dog, Simba, walks through the entryway at his showroom and workshop earlier this week. The photos lining the walls show past hunting trips, all of which Nimmons said he remembers. (Ella Kroll/The Oglethorpe Echo)
  • Andy Nimmons’ workspace in his workshop in Lexington includes a list of animals he wants to mount, photos and reminders. He’s run Andy Nimmons Taxidermy for 30 years. (Ella Kroll/The Oglethorpe Echo)
    Andy Nimmons’ workspace in his workshop in Lexington includes a list of animals he wants to mount, photos and reminders. He’s run Andy Nimmons Taxidermy for 30 years. (Ella Kroll/The Oglethorpe Echo)
  • Andy Nimmons displays his taxidermy collection at his workshop showroom in Lexington on Monday. He hunts for pleasure and runs his business to support his family, which includes eight children. (Ella Kroll/The Oglethorpe Echo)
    Andy Nimmons displays his taxidermy collection at his workshop showroom in Lexington on Monday. He hunts for pleasure and runs his business to support his family, which includes eight children. (Ella Kroll/The Oglethorpe Echo)

     

    Andy Nimmons grew up in Athens, a self-proclaimed “city kid” who rode BMX, but discovered hunting was his passion at age 15. He graduated from the University of Georgia with an economics degree, but never attended a Bulldogs football game  — hunting season is in the fall. 

     

    The Lexington-based taxidermist holds a World Taxidermy Championship title for Best In World, Medium/Small Gamehead from 2005. After learning taxidermy from scratch in an apprenticeship, he has now been working for himself at Andy Nimmons Taxidermy for 30 years.

     

    “I’ll pick something, and I’ll take it as far as I can take it,” Nimmons said. “I did taxidermy that way. I competed, took it as far as I can take it, won World Champion, that’s as high as you can go.”

     

    Laminated photos of Nimmons’ hunting trips over the years line the entryway to his showroom and workspace. Nimmons pointed photos out and detailed stories behind each one.

     

    “Once you harvest that animal and you hold it, you never forget,” Nimmons said. “You can point at any animal in here and I can tell you the month and year it was killed.”

    In addition to taxidermying local game like deer, coyotes and wild hogs, Nimmons said he enjoys traveling around the world to hunt for different or exotic species. He’s been “everywhere from Alaska down to South America” and has visited Africa nine times.

     

    A hippopotamus, a zebra, a baboon, a South African springhare and a rattlesnake are just a few of the wild animals that Nimmons has hunted and keeps in his showroom.

     

    “I have total respect for everything I harvest. I utilize everything I can on it,” Nimmons said. “(Hunting) is a very, very deep, connected, spiritual thing.” 

     

    In competition, taxidermists lose points for getting an animal’s mouth color wrong, making the crease of its eyelid inaccurate and other strict factors. Nimmons said he maintains a high attention to detail throughout his process and emphasized that anyone who works for him has to meet rigid, stringent criteria for the quality of work they do. 

     

    For his 2005 World Taxidermy Championship-winning piece, Nimmons pulled fine hairs off the snout of a dead hog with tweezers, one hair at a time, and super glued each hair onto the taxidermy to make it exactly match that of a live hog. 

     

    The piece took him 80 hours to complete.

     

    Nimmons’ daughter Madison is a fifth-year senior at Emmanuel University and one of eight children in the family. Nimmons taught her how to mount waterfowl, which she now does for the business. 

     

    Madison said she learned from “the best of the best.” 

     

    “Most days, he’s in the shop from first thing as soon as he wakes up until dinner time,” Madison said. “He works a lot. He puts a lot of effort into it.”

     

    According to an October survey by taxidermist Ashley Eve and sponsored by Ohio Taxidermy Supply, the average deer mount price in Georgia is $744. However, Nimmons said he charges $575 for his deer mounts, which take him about two hours to complete.

     

    “I’m so efficient and fast at doing them, that’s why I can charge lower,” Nimmons said. “I can do it with my eyes closed, that’s how long I’ve been doing it.”

     

    Nimmons said the most challenging part of his business is from November to February each year, when his phone rings 24/7 with orders and he has 12-hour work days for three months straight. 

     

    But Nimmons said it’s rewarding to work for himself, and he loves the craft that he has honed over the past three decades.

     

    “Hunting for me was very hard, but I loved it, so I never stopped,” Nimmons said. “I love what I do. If you love what you do, you’ll never go to work.”