Hanging mounts on off centered studs?

[MTPipeliner]

I’ve made several brackets for hanging mounts so that I can get the support of several drywall anchors. I use a piece of plate steel about 6 or 8” square, drill holes in each corner for the drywall anchor screws to go through, then in the center weld a bolt at a slight upward angle for the mount to hang from.

 

[TheGDog]

Thanks everybody for the suggestions. I should mention that it will be going through both the 5/8" sheetrock and about 1/2" of shiplap. I may just stick to a lag in the stud and leave it off centered. Shouldn't be terribly noticeable, but wanted to see if I had any other options out there.

If you're gonna drill-in a lag bolt, be sure to pre-drill a guide hole, and then still, drill out that initial guide hole such that it's wide enough that when the wider lag bolt gets driven into your stud, especially off center so less thickness, it's not displacing a lot of the woods material outward and thus prevents it from creating a split/crack in the stud. Typically the manufacturer will have a recommended size of guide hole you should do, just like when using in those drywall anchors you pre-drill the hole for and then hammer down into it.

Or in terms of putting in cross-bracing pieces... if you used a 2x4 you can buy an angled bolt-hole cutting jig and use it on the cross members such that you can mount them to the outside edge of the studs extremely firmly and cleanly with the two angled-in bolt mounting holes the jig helps to easily create for you in the cross member piece.

If you have to cut into the drywall, another trick my GrandPa always did was where two pieces of drywall would come together on a ceiling... on the backside of the drywall he'd both clamp-down with glue and also screw into the drywall a backing piece of plywood. Small little 6x6 squares would do it. The drywall screws pull the board tight to the drywall so the glue sets well and the two adjoining pieces of drywall get to become pulled nice and tightly drawn together at their seam with your screws going thru and pulling the backing piece of wood tight to the backside surface of the drywall junction. Makes for nice precise thin seams which are easy to place the mesh seam tape on and spackle over it, especially since the backing piece of wood pulls the two edges taught with each other. Also prevents cracklines from happening when some EarthQuake shaking might hit.

 

[coloyooper]

Well, finally took the time to hang him up. Decided to just go through a stud even though it’s slightly off center. Even the wife loves it, so we did alright.

 

[beerbucksducks]

I’ve made several brackets for hanging mounts so that I can get the support of several drywall anchors. I use a piece of plate steel about 6 or 8” square, drill holes in each corner for the drywall anchor screws to go through, then in the center weld a bolt at a slight upward angle for the mount to hang from.

I have done the same with a piece of flat bar. Drill holes the in top and bottom, weld a bolt on it and use two 1/4” “butterfly” anchors to fasten it to the wall. Seems to work well for my boss’s kudu mount.


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[roadrunner]

I have never hung an elk shoulder mount but would definitely recommend adding a brace of some sort either in front of or behind the sheetrock. Unlike a heavy picture which is hanging close to the wall and therefore imparting a vertical stress to the sheetrock (as Def90 pointed out) most of the weight from your elk will be out away from the wall which will cause it to want to pull an anchor through the sheetrock. Last thing you want is to have the mount fall and get busted up. Sheetrock is way easier and cheaper to patch up than a shoulder mount.

An elk shoulder mount isn't a true cantilever scenario. The bottom of the mount where the brisket is located "pushes" back against the wall nearly equal to "pulling" away from the wall at the hanger. The pivot point is in between these two areas. The true line of action is somewhere in the neck area as most of the mass from the antlers is located in this area and not the head.

 

[PaBone]

I would never hang and elk mount unless it was anchored to a stud, my buddy had his elk mount fall off his fireplace one night and hit his son. Luckily he wasn't hurt bad.

 

[Billinsd]

Some good and some questionable suggestions above. You do not want to hang an elk from sheetrock alone.

THATS FOR SURE!!!!!

 

[hobbes]

Definitely not just a sheer load. There is a significant percentage of the weight out away from the wall so there is definitely a pullout force that the anchor needs to resist. Use whatever method works best for you but make sure you have anchors in solid wood.