# Congrats Rick!



## Duckslayer100 (Apr 7, 2004)

Read the article in The Herald. Sweet read!

The link: http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/200376/

And the article: 
*'Rockin' Rick' Acker: Making waves as a taxidermist*
By Brad Dokken, Grand Forks Herald

Rick Acker might be best known as "Rockin' Rick" to Grand Forks radio listeners, but the local media personality also is making waves in taxidermy circles.

Acker, 45, owns Roughrider Game Birds and specializes in waterfowl and upland bird mounts; birds are all he does, and he does them very well indeed.

"Most taxidermists will tell you birds are the toughest," Acker said. "It takes a long time to put them together. They have so many moving parts."

Acker in recent years has racked up a string of awards for his work during annual North Dakota Taxidermist Association competitions. This year, he won Best Duck for an Aleutian green-winged teal and Best Bird for a pheasant in the Masters Division.

And for the third consecutive year, he won the Taxidermist Choice Award, given by fellow taxidermists from around the state. Acker's Taxidermist Choice winner this year was a white-fronted goose.

He says he's especially proud of the Taxidermist Choice awards.

"There are a lot of really good taxidermists in North Dakota," Acker said. "I feel very fortunate."

Getting started

An avid waterfowl and upland bird hunter, Acker said he started dabbling in taxidermy as a teenager. He recalls shooting his first duck, a green-winged teal, near Devils Lake and asking his dad if the duck could be mounted.

His dad said no.

"I'm glad he did," Acker said. "That gave me the drive to figure this out myself."

He started with correspondence courses but said they didn't provide enough information to master the art. Acker also took a taxidermy class in high school. But the turning point, he said, came when he worked as an apprentice for longtime taxidermist Jim Benson at Sportsman's Taxidermy Studio in East Grand Forks from about 1999 to 2003.

"He's the guy who really showed me the ropes," Acker said. "I really credit him for where I am today."

Operations manager at XL93 in Grand Forks, Acker said his taxidermy work continues to be something he does after his day job. Starting a taxidermy business

wasn't in the original plan, he said, but then he mounted a bird for a friend, which in turn produced more taxidermy jobs.

Acker launched Roughrider Game Birds in 2004 and now does 50 to 150 birds a year for customers from Maine to California. He relies on the Internet and word of mouth for all of his marketing.

"I'm fortunate that I have two jobs that I love," he said. "I'm as busy as I want to be."

Winning streak

Acker said he had no idea there was such a thing as taxidermy competitions before he started working for Benson. Occasionally, Acker said, Benson would remark on a mount and say it was pretty good, but not competition-worthy.

"He just kind of put the drive in me to want to compete," Acker said. "And I've always been a very competitive person - just ask anyone on my softball team."

Acker says paying attention to details and creating realistic-looking poses are crucial to good mounts. He's collected thousands of images of birds from the Internet, saying the photos of live birds help him create more lifelike mounts.

"You can look at a live bird so many times and not see the detail," Acker said.

Completing a mount, from the time he skins the bird until he applies the finishing touches of paint, typically takes about 10 hours, he said.

"You could spend two hours" just grooming the feathers, he said. "It's just amazing how beautiful birds are. The detail is just amazing."

Acker's son, Hunter, 6, shares his dad's passion for birds and convinced Acker to raise wood ducks. So, after obtaining the necessary permits, they purchased four live wood ducks they keep in a fully enclosed backyard pen.

Having living birds close by comes in handy, Acker said - especially wood ducks, which he says are the most difficult birds to mount.

"Imagine working with a skin that is like wet toilet paper - and that's no lie," Acker said.

Hunting memories

Acker, who spent a couple of years working in California before returning to Grand Forks in the early '90s, said he still hunts every chance he gets but not as often as he'd like.

Twice, he's hunted ducks in Alaska, where he bagged his prize-winning Aleutian greenwing - North America's rarest waterfowl species - and the harlequin ducks that won him Best Diorama in 2007.

Someday, Acker said, he hopes to add a King Eider, a large sea duck, to his collection.

In the meantime, though, North Dakota continues to serve up plenty of opportunities for a hunter who also happens to be an award-winning taxidermist.

"I spent two years away from duck hunting (in California), and those were the longest two years of my life," Acker said. "I've always been a bird guy.

"The reason I live in North Dakota is because of the hunting and fishing," Acker said. "If you're a sportsman, there's not a better place on earth."

On the Web:

www.roughridergamebirds.com.

Dokken reports on outdoors. Reach him at (701) 780-1148; (800) 477-6572, ext. 148; or send e-mail to [email protected].


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## Rick Acker (Sep 26, 2002)

Thanks for the kind words DuckSlayer! :beer:


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