Okay, here's the deal. My son and I just finished the hunt of a lifetime. Excellent hunt where we took a 185-190 class muley buck (taxidermist says over 190 "easy", but I'm not so sure) that we've been scouting since summer, and he took a nice bobcat that we called in, which we've been trying to do for him for over 3 years now.

When we had just the deer, I had decided to go with a "full sneak" wall mount, but was considering a pedestal mount as well. Now that my son took the bobcat on the same hunt, we are thinking of doing some kind of pedestal mount incorporating both of the animals in the mount. I'm not sure about having the animals "interacting" together in the mount, but the taxidermist thought maybe having the deer above the bobcat who might be laying under a rock ledge the deer was "standing" over.

Not sure what to do, but at this point, expense is not the primary consideration. I don't have limitless funds for this, but will put forth some coin to do something nice.

Ideas?

When I kill a cat that I want a full body of he'll be pawing at either a quail or a rabbit with his right front foot...

Of course, if you want the cat and deer on the same mount this goes out the window...

Personally, I'd do them separate and let them stand alone. I think a simple and classy way to mount a big deer is for a simple shoulder mount. It is not busy and lets the looker enjoy the beauty and size of the deer without the mount being too busy...

A prey animal flushing or running while a full body mounted bobcat paws at it is a very classy cat mount...

Of course, YMMV...

How bout a (Dead) cat hung up in his antlers...sure would be different...never seen one before

You might want to consider a 3/4 sneak. My father in law has a full sneak, and I have a 3/4 sneak. The full sneak sticks out of the wall considerable farther. If you have the space, no big deal, if space is a consideration, take a good lood at the 3/4.

For the bobcat, tough call. I always wanted one either swiping a grouse of pheasant, of having one lay near it head with it in a sitting position.

Personal choice really. that is what makes them so cool, everyone likes somthing different.

I have seen nice ones of
* Bobcat jumping for a fox squirrel on its way up a tre
* Bobcat in mid air attack on a fawn
* Bobcat standing at alert over a dead rabbit
* Bobcat reaching for a flushing pheasant

I like your initial idea - I'd go half body, front feet on rock ledge with cat laying under ledge at buck's feet.

Whatever you do, do not go to the GUN DOGS Forum and look up the thread titled "Free bird-dog pups coming soon (see picture)". You don't want to go there. Don't do it.

Being a taxidermist, I tend to think of things a bit more relaxed for the most part... I can easily see the art in having the buck come out as a part of a ledge and having the cat laying on its side underneath relaxed would be really interesting and have a rounded out complete mount and nature scene all in one. I am not sure I"d be thinking half mount on the deer though, more like shoulder pedestal, coming out of a built up rock scene, and the cat under it.... I could see that being cool, plus the cat on its side shows lots of the different fur patterns...

Still interested in the score of that buck.... if its 180-190 I sure screwed up on one in NM a few years back then...

Jeff

I have a number of so called "Museum Quality" mounts involving multiply animals/fish/birds/scenery/artificial mini-mountain w/water flowing & they really highlight a trophy room. By all means do the combo mount. It will be spectacular. Post a photo when complete.

Here is the best advice you are going to get....

Find a guy that does great cats.
There are only a few of them out there.
Most predator mounts look like SH*T.
Period.

Most taxi's can do a decent deer as they do them all the time.

If you are going to do this, do it right and spend what it takes for supreme quality, I promise you you will be sorry if you don't.

Examples of superb cat mounts...











Other examples????


[img]http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d63/HunterHarry/bca.jpg[/img]

Get the picture???

I almost died when I saw those bottom 2...

Holy cow that's funny...grin...

I've seen a cat and fox with this pose and they were both excellent. Each was simply standing with a slight turn and had a very limp and also well done cottontail in its mouth.

Here's my bobcat and my first buck. Duck creek taxidermy in South Carolina did them. I like the poses a lot. PS The bobcat's a little one, and looks skinny but a farmer asked us to shoot the bobcats and foxes eating his turkeys and so he's on the wall. I wanted him leaping up to grab a quail with one paw but I lost too much of him to the .300 Win Mag for that pose.

I've seen and watched that guys work for years. An absolutely outstanding artist. Not on his website anymore, but this is one of his mounts I had pics saved of on my computer.









Hands down the best bobcat mount I've ever seen.

Then there's so many of the others. Ouch. After looking over a couple dozen taxidermist's sites over the past couple days for ideas, I'm horrified that 90% of the bobcat mounts make the cat look like he's undergoing a colonoscopy or he just got out of the spin cycle. Horrendous mounts for the most part. I really hope that it's just the photography on some of them that make them look so poor.

I couldn't tell much detail from the pics at the taxidermist I dropped it off at, but the cat he had on the wall that he just did for my meat processor looked pretty damn good. I think my plan now is to talk to him, and tell him I don't want anything innovative or flashy, just a nice standard cat mount done to the best of his abilities. I'll pay extra for him to pay the finest attention to the details. I'd wanted to take it to a proven cat guy in Tucson, but had to get my son to the airport first thing the next morning, and simply had no way to get the cat to that taxidermist.

Hope I don't regret it, but if he can do as good or better as what I saw on his wall, I'd be satisfied with that.

So at this point, I think I'm going for the above on the bobcat, and will remain with the full sneak mount on the deer I seem to like.

Dave,
That is one sweet mount.
Wayne & Sue won it all at the world championships with that mount.
The guy I currentley use is superb on cats too.
His mountain lions have won Big at the world championships too.



This Leopard took second last year.



He took second in smaller game division with this Lynx he did for me.



You should do alright, looks like you have good taste.
Post up the mounts when finished.
Looking forward to seeing them.
Take care,
Sal...

Beautiful Mounts!

I wouldn't combine the two unless by proximity. I'm not sure I can come up with a situation that's believable. A full shoulder mount with the deer standing on a rock ledge with the cat sunning below or off to a side is as close as my mind can see the two co-existing naturally. A single quail feather stuck to the muzzle as the finishing touch.

My father in law has an awful Bobcat mount. The exposed fang look ruined it in my opinion. The rock looks like the paper mache it's made of, and the sponge paint looks at home in an elementary school art room.

Looks like we've got the same taste in cat mounts. I've got the pic of that lion mount saved on my computer too. I typically don't like the open mouth poses because nobody can do them realistically, but that guy knocked it out of the park on that one. Best lion mount I think I've seen.

Nice Lynx mount! I hope my boy's bobcat mount turns out half as nice. To say I'm nervous about the outcome of the mount would be an understatement. I should have found a way to get it to the guy I really wanted to do it, but it would have meant an 8 to 10 hour round trip driving, and my son's flight was leaving in 12 hours. Just couldn't make it happen. I don't feel it would be proper now to go pick up the cat and tell him I want someone else to do it either. I'll just have to work with him, explain exactly what I want and that I'm not shy about paying for quality, and hope for the best.

My parents built a house last year and built this "cave" in the wall looks pretty cool I realize its alittle easier on a new house but it could be done. The only pic I got is a close-up