Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Shoulder mount? Euro Mount? or just hang antlers on barn?

Ralphie's post got me thinking -
At what score do you decide how to remember your bull?

It matters a whole lot how many you already have of course.
If it's you first (and possibly only one) then I think most anyone would want a nice trophy of some sort.

These days I would need to kill something probably 340 in order to convince my wife to let another mount in the house. Not even sure that would do it. I think any nice 5x5 or better looks good as a euro mount and is way easier and cheaper to deal with.

What say you?

My 2 cents: Hanging antlers on the barn is fine if you don't care much about keeping the antlers looking nice (assuming they are hung on the outside). Euro mounts are certainly cheaper since you can do them yourself, but you still need room to hang or display them in the house, and even a 5x5 takes up plenty of room. Of course, quality taxidermy in the form of a shoulder mount takes up even more space and is expensive. I'm with you, though, I've already got too many mounts in the house and have an even bigger set of elk antlers in the garage collecting dust. I'd have to shoot something in the 340 and above range to justify mounting it and even then, I'm not sure I would do it since I don't have anywhere to put it. Unless I go back to Africa and get a bongo or some such, I doubt I will do many more shoulder mounts. The exception to that rule would be if I ever get a bighorn sheep or a truly exceptional mule deer. Other than those, I think I'm covered.

There is something about a nice elk that needs saving. This isn't a 340 bull, but certainly was worth mounting. I didn't have room in my house, so I hung it in my parent's cabin...

I killed a pretty nice bull 7 years ago. I ended up with a European mount. Would have loved a shoulder mount, but at that time it wasn't an option because of the cost.

It would have to be a very nice rack for me to get a shoulder mount. I have a 6x6, two 6x5 and a 5x5 rack sitting in the barn waiting to get hung on the outside.

Have a bunch of Euro mounts. I moved quite a bit and the Euro mounts tossed into a box was way the heck easier than my mounted heads. Plus moths have no desire to mess with them.....

I do like a lot of really good photos though.

Score means nothign at all to me. Its all in the hunt.

While I said that, obviously really large animals to me, I will mount also, but I have some smaller mounts, one of a caribou from AK that most folks would bust out laughing at. But the memories of that hard long tough hunt, with a great friend, just come rushing back. More so than the pictures, and we have quite a few of those, usually take close to 500-600 snaps on a longer hunt.

I even have a doe. Hardest deer I ever hunted with a bow. Seems to me by mounting her I, in my way, showed the most respect I could to a worthy adversary.

Honesty the biggest bucks I have, except one recently taken, have all been just pure blind luck that they walked out, and I was good enough that I've not missed many blind luck shots. I did miss one really nice muley shot once that I wish I'd have made plus a shot with a rifle on BIG muley that I refused due to ethics of not making the shot with certainty.
But neither have cuased other issues in my life. LOL.

For me, its all in what they mean, rather than the score. Of course score sours me when I know that folks buy score all day long, and all they do is manage to show up and accidentally make a killign shot...

Reminds me of an old boss.... wanted a big WT. Hunted down south every fall. But ran a sporting goods... Torrel slings at the time had a place... they called him and told him that they had a high scoring 14 point typical, I forget the score but was around 200 IIRC. Told him to sight in at X distance and be ready to travel.

Got a call one day, hooked it and came back a few days later, buck was gone.... a few weeks later the guide called, he was gone in an hour, and down there in about 4 more. Got up the next morning and was home that day to the store by 3pm IIRC.

That was/is not hunting.

BTW on big antlers, my other deal... call me weird, if you are not going to do somethign with it to preserve it, IE just nail it on a barn wall or toss it in the barn, then shoot something small and or a female to eat. Let the promising ones for those looking for them, or get another year under their belt.

I'd rather see someone shoot a first or second year animal that still had years to go, than one that with another year or two would be special, just to waste the antlers.

Just hang the damn things on your barn...

Score has nothing to do with the decision for me. I hunted a bull in a heavily hunted unit for 3 years between a friend and I before I was able to kill him. He was only a 320 bull but 2 biologist put him around ten years old. His ivory was down to his gum line. It was a no brainier to shoulder mount him for me. I chuckle every time I look at him and think of the little hole he ran off to to hide every year after the rut.

If I had just stumbled across him while hunting I would have just hung him in the garage.

They'll last a long time outside on the barn but they'll quickly bleach out. If you want them to continue to look new, you have to keep them out of the sun and weather.

Damn things... lots of respect there..

The answers got me thinking that the reasons one might get something mounted are VERY different - even if it is the same person.

If I could keep only one of mine it would be my first one or the one that I mounted because it was a hunt that I never wanted to forget. It would not be the one that I mounted just because of the size.

Yeah.

Impressive.

I like that! Well done.

Like you, my toughest hunt was a stalk on a doe. Or rather a pair of them. Spotted them in open sage a mile off. I was able to close half the distance fairly quickly using a hill for cover, but the next 400 yards was on hands and knees and the last 100 or so was a belly crawl. And I still had 350 yard shots.

Bulls and bucks haven't been that hard. I go for healthy, mature animals but don't spend my hunts looking for "trophy" animals. Often they have often been more of a waiting game than anything else. On one occasion I did have to push myself, headfirst on my back, 100 yards through sage, snow and cactus to get a 6x5 bull but we had been watching him and the herd of about 80 for about 6 hours prior through bright sunshine, rain, sleet, 4" of new snow and finally more sunshine. Still, getting the does was harder.

One of my toughest and I didn't even mount it...

Lump jaw?

I've got my best one shoulder mounted----scores right at 300. A couple that are skull caps. Several I've given to Army vets in the VA hospitals------they don't have theirs--gave them a couple on mine to remind them of their hunts.

Now, I usually pass on the raghorns & take a nice fat dry cow.
Those dang horns get in the way of cleaning out the animal & are another trip out. Now I just collect the ivories---got a bag of them---can't figure out what to do with them.