Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Informal Survey on Trophies

My favorite are the pictures from my hunts and my hunting journal. Have been at both of them for about 20 years now, wish I had started sooner. I do have a few mounts of Whitetails and a nice Antelope from Wyo. My mulie is a bleached skull mount that I did. Mt son has his mulie the same way. Also have a few horn mounts on plaques. I had the first turkey that I took mounted, my daughter's friends are scared of it. They think it looks like a buzard coming at them <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />. My wife is pretty understanding, now. Most of the mounts are in our finished basement rec room. The family room has a south west decor and she put the Antelope and mulie mount in the room along with a old damascus shotgun that I inherited.

Like I said earlier, she is understanding now. The year we were married was a very good year for me hunting wise. I took 2 10 pt Whitetails, both on opening day from the same stand...yes legally! Well being the newly married King of the Castle I decided to have both of them mounted. After all, how often does that kind of thing happen to a guy. Off to the taxidermist I went, she didn't ask and I didn't offer. At the time our furniture consisted of a 19" TV sitting on cinder blocks, a bean bag chair from her childhood, a used kitchen table and 2 chairs that had seen better days, and a bedroom set. Well when the King of the Castle brought home that first mount it hit the fan big time. In my infinite wisdom I commented something like...well since your so PO'd anyway I might as well let you know that the second head will be ready next week! WOW was she hot then. 23 years later we laugh about it and she enjoys telling the story to friends, but she always reminds me that if we ever part company she's taking both of the heads just to get even with me.

The only things currently in the house are foot black-bear rug on a wall, a moose over the fireplace, pronghorn shoulder mount, european mount of my first white-tail buck (archery) , european mounts of several mule deer, a couple of impala plus wall-mounted shoulder mount of my watebuck. Pedestal mounts for my sable and for my kudu (8" ceilings are a problem) and my leopard is mounted full-size.....have a couple of shoulder mount caribou and white-tail at my folks place as well as another black-bear run plus a brown-bear rug...and some birds.

I like the Early American Taxidermy deco!!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Jeff says If you owe your taixdermist more than a months wages you are a redneck. Been close on that one several times.

John Frazer

...and a jet assisted take-off!

BCR,

I tried to mount a young, very good looking female one time, but the wife had a FIT!! said she would divorce me if I tried again, so I had to let that trophy go to another hunter.......... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Had the first woody I ever killed mounted when I was younger and It finally went bye the wayside somewhere and never did get anything else mounted. Took plenty of pictures of what I considered trophy's of Fish and Wildlife and have several sets of antlers laying around here and there and maybe one day I might put some of them on a plaque. But I won't rule out a mount sometime, it will just depend on the way I feel that day I guess.

Used to do some Striper fishing in January on lake Cumberland in KY. Caught a 39 pounder one day and brought it home and wrapped it, put it in the Deep Freeze with intention of getting it mounted. Well, here a few years ago we had one of those Noah's Ark floods here in KY. Needless to say I lost everything in the freezer and numerous other things in the basement of my house. When we were cleaning up a few days later, I took the fish out of the freezer and took it down to the stream behind my house and put out on a gravel bar where all the local people come to drown their worms. I've often wondered how many seen that fish and got all hiped up trying to catch one in that stream that ain't knee deep at normal pool. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I re-started actively hunting late in life, after retiring. In the past seven years I have taken some trophies -- exceptionally large examples of a Whitetail, Sika and a Fallow Deer and a good Russian boar. (The latter burned up in a fire at the taxidermist's shop. There is a lingering suspicion that my wife called in Uncle Guido "the Torch" from Detroit for the job.)

The Whitetail was the first and my wife was not happy at the idea of a dead animal on the wall. I brought the shoulder mount home and she allowed as how it was not all that ugly and asked if she could name it. Easy answer!

The Fallow Deer is a skull mount on a plaque. The Sika is a standing shoulder mount poking out of heavy foliage. (It is a 'museum quality' mount by a guy who used to work fro the Smithsonian. Looks cool but it takes up a lot of room.
All three of the deer qualify for Safari Club awards -- the whitetail is # seven in the record book for SE Whitetails. I don't have room for many more mounts but If I luck into more big trophies I'll be using European style skull mounts. 1B