What is your Trophy taxidermy protocol?

[2rocky]

I grew up in a hunting family that never had antlers in the house. I begged my dad as a kid to hang his best mule deer antler plaque in my room. All the others got nailed to the outside of garage or hung on the dog kennel outside.

So when I killed my first archery buck, a Pope & Young Blacktail, I had it done as my first shoulder mount. Five years later I had a shoulder mounted Tule elk done, since I'd likely never get another.

I had my first elk a 6x5 bull I killed in Oregon done as an antler plaque as I did with my next three bulls and a mule deer from Wyoming. Ironically my biggest bull came when I was moving and remodelling my home. It sat in the barn and is weathered and faded, now in my garage. My last elk was a euro skull mount.

My two antelope have been done as euro skulls, If I ever kill a book buck it will be a shoulder mount.
The same is true for mule deer. If I get a book buck, I'll do a shoulder mount. Don't have one yet...

As much as I want to hunt in the future, I'm going to have to start making plans for what I'll do if I kill something of some significance. My SO has hinted strongly that I need to build a man room to store/display those trophies. I told her that the one 12x16 wall in the nook was created for those mounts. She thinks it will get too crowded....

 

[geetar]

Next buck I get mounted ( whitetail or muley. ) = has to be bigger or more unique than the last one I had mounted.

Next duck I get mounted = has to be a full sprig bull pintail or a bull canvasback. ( don’t have either one of those yet.

Ram to be mounted = any legal one from Montana unlimited areas. ( It would cost me missing too many other hunts to pay for a Dall. )

Mountain goat = any legal mountain goat from a tag I draw. ( this is the one and only animal I want done full body. )

Bear = I haven’t killed a bear yet but my first one will likely be a basic rug.

Elk = I have not killed one yet but I will decide when I do if I want shoulder mount or euro style.

Bison = If I draw a tag and kill one I’ll shoulder mount it if space permits. If not I’ll just do a skull and rug.

Moose. = Probably just skill cap it and mount antlers on a plaque. ( I’m not crazy about moose shoulder mounts or euros. )

Fish. = If I ever do have one done it will a fiberglass replica. Requirements are largemouth bass over 10 lbs or a really nice musky.

Most of my harvests over the next few years will be euro mounts because I am saving wall space for goat, bison, and ram taxidermy.

 

[Hunting Wife]

Most of ours are in the shed. I have some euros around the house and at the office. I haven’t shoulder mounted anything, and probably won’t. They just take too much space, and it takes very few to overwhelm a room IMO. Hunting Husband has a bear and mountain lion rug, one each shoulder mounts of mule deer, whitetail and mountain goat. And we have a few birds I guess. Otherwise everything is skull capped or euro mounts. My only rule is no taxidermy in the dining room. We are hard pressed for wall space and I try to balance taxidermy/antlers with artwork and other decor. As I get something bigger or cooler, I swap them out. Just not enough room to keep and display everything.

 

[OntarioHunter]

We are in the taxidermy business and I still prefer euro mounts. Even if I had a house big enough for the space needed to hang a lot of shoulder mounts, I'd still go with euro. Besides being 100% easier to maintain, they're more compact and easier to fit into a decor without overwhelming it. In my small living room I have five euro skulls: wildebeest, springbuck, blesbuck, impala, and warthog. Four of them are above the piano. If they were shoulder mounts, they would take over the room. And the gemsbuck and kudu skulls fit neatly in a corner. One of them shoulder mounted wouldn't fit there. And there's something about walking into a room and looking half of a mounted animal in the eye at eye level just doesn't seem right to me. Only four fur mounts are in the business showroom. All were school projects and none are personal trophies. Full body cougar and fox were purchased pelts. The 5x5 whitetail shoulder rack I salvaged from a roadkill in 1974 and a good friend donated the rack for pronghorn shoulder. Both capes ordered on line. Right now we are restoring and cleaning a client's once spectacular full body silver fox. A real mess. He nearly wrecked it trying to clean the thing. Most old shoulder mounts aren't worth the effort needed to try fixing them up. Cheaper to pull the horns off and mount in a new form with a fresh cape. Birds are notorious for fading. Pheasants may look fantastic the first year back from the taxidermist but five years later they stop looking real. No way can iridescense be restored. A skull's appearance never fades or changes. No one did euros when I was young or all my cap mounts would be free hanging skulls.

 

[Happy Myles]

I never had a taxidermy protocol, so now at the age of 82 i have a warehouse full of 70 years trophies. My wife does not like them so she and her decorator have maybe twenty or so scattered around our home. Used to have a dozen or so at my office until I retired.

 

[OntarioHunter]

I never had a taxidermy protocol, so now at the age of 82 i have a warehouse full of 70 years trophies. My wife does not like them so she and her decorator have maybe twenty or so scattered around our home.

Okay. I have seen images of your reloading chambers. Seems to be about the size of the main floor of my house. I'm thinking the "twenty or so" mounts scattered around the rest of your palace left a lot of extra room for the decorator to play with. Just curious, what is the oldest trophy in your collection?

 

[Happy Myles]

 

[Happy Myles]

Top photo my old office, bottom one A wall in the family room

 

[bobbydean]

I love the office. I highly like the family room.

 

[Happy Myles]

Thank you. I have been a very lucky guy

 

[OntarioHunter]

Top photo my old office, bottom one A wall in the family room

Must have been a bit tricky hanging those family room shoulder mounts on that irregular "board and batten" panelling. I really like the looks of that stuff. An interesting use of wood (and as you can tell, I like the warmth of wood). One wall of our trophy room and most of the basement rec room are panelled with genuine barn board backed by cheap 1/4" plywood to seal the cracks. Works well because I can hang nails anywhere and move them without worrying about filling the holes.

 

[Happy Myles]

Ontario, it is far from a palace but is a nice home.

 

[Pucky Freak]

A shoulder mount would mean I sacrifice a future tag or my next piece of gear that is screaming to be upgraded. So an animal would need to be something REALLY special or unique in order to be mounted. I don’t even target animals like that so it would have to be a freak occurrence and a lot of luck to happen.

My wife on her own has said I should get a shoulder mount of any trophy I kill. I’m glad to have her support, although it would be interesting to see when it came down to brass tacks if she’d be willing to have the cost be in addition to my hunting funds.

She also doesn’t allow dead animals displayed in the house except for my man cave. Said 10x10 cave has 4 euros in it now, and any more would feel crowded. I have spillover wall space on one garage wall and one shop wall, which have mostly empty space for future euros.

I think a shoulder mount would look fantastic above our fireplace mantle with a vaulted ceiling. However, she disagrees. Where the heck would I put a shoulder mount then anyways?

We’ll be building our own house within 10 years. I think one consideration in design will be how to display my current and future mounts.

 

[beginnerhunter]

Mine are mostly euro mounts. At $100 it's not even worth the trouble of DIY. Our state has a 3 pt rule so pretty much every buck gets a mount. I do think the antler mounts with the velvet cover and gold ropes are cute tho. I have a small set done that way and I was going to do the same to a small buck I shot at last night but unfortunately I missed.

 

[cahunter805]

I have a few shoulder mounts but I agree that euro mounts can and do look very nice also. If I had vaulted ceilings that might change a bit though.
If I ever draw sheep/mt goat it will be at the very least a 1/2 body wall mount or pedestal.

 

[Bambistew]

I have quite a few in the "some day, probably" pile. I need a bigger house to mount all that I'd like done. Currently have 2 sheep a couple deer and an elk, but just don't have room, or really want to spend the money to be honest, at this time. Thats like $6-7k worth of taxidermy = a hell of a lot of hunting. Another downside, is once they're on the wall they can't be fondled as easily.

 

[The Hedgehog]

Most of my stuff is in my garage, hanging in the rafters, or in piles. Not exactly sure how many animals I have in my home, but I did a quick walk through and counted 137. There's a few sheds, but that's not counting them, only skulls, full hides/rugs, European and shoulder mounts. My trophy room, office, living and dining rooms, all the bedrooms, and hallways have some sort of taxidermy displays. Only the bathrooms and kitchen don't have a mount or head of some sort. It doesn't take a score or a book head to go somewhere - I fit them where I like. Not sure what I'll do when I move from this place, or where I'm going to put the antelope head I shot Sunday, maybe at work in my office.

 

[timmy]

I will only do euros going forward. Expensive, take up too much room, and you can’t hold them. Certainly won’t do another elk no matter how big. If I ever did another it would be a deer.

 

[The Hedgehog]

I just went out to my office fridge to grab a beer and noticed I missed 4 - so 141 in the house - not counting the tangled mess in my garage. I’m home in quarantine- so working in my dining room, where I’ve put this years AZ pronghorn. I have an excellent unlicensed European mount specialist.

 

[Happy Myles]

This was my son’s room before he left home decades ago. Since it joined my reloading room i turned it into a research library plus a couple trophies. A couch unfolds into a bed but most guests do not sleep well, feel they are being stared at.