To Mount or Not To Mount-Taxidermy

[silver15tacoma]

I will only shoulder something if its big or a rare tag. My metric is 200" Mule Deer or 360" Elk (Still may not shoulder mount the elk because of how damn big they are).

As of right now my only shoulder mount is my Rocky Mountain Bighorn Ewe. Everything else euros!

 

[Duckhunter14]

It sounds like a lot of us have similar approaches. It’s interesting how your approach changes as you get a little older, more experienced, and hopefully kill larger more mature animals. I wish I could have chatted with my younger self and convinced him to euro a lot more animals when I was young! As many have mentioned a majority of those early mounts have moved to the garage and hindsight should not of been shoulder mounted.

Appreciate everyone’s perspective. It’s definitely a personal thing and I still love to see people’s collections and more importantly the stories that come with each mount.

I love the photos of some of the mounts! I’ll share a few of my recent favorite euros. I’ve tried a bunch of different approaches over the years trying different boil and bleach and degreasing methods. I feel like I have a pretty good system now. And I have a good buddy with beetles for the tougher jobs (like the bison skull).

 

[Duckhunter14]

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[svivian]

Maybe im an oddball but the bigger the animal the more I want it to be a euro mount. Alot easier to take a euro off the wall and let someone get their hands on it to appreciate the size of the animal.

 

[Dexter Grayson]

I have 13 shoulder mounts (and 1 at the taxi now), 3 bear rugs, 3 full body turkeys, and 3 ducks. I am mostly out of room. But that said, I still have plans for exceptional sized annimals in the category of elk, muley, 3 more turkeys, and possibly a bison. I compare taxidermy to tattoos, pay for quality and when I’m gone they’re gone.

 

[PredatoronthePrairie]

Skull cap everything these days.
Would rather use the funds for tags.

 

[Brock A]

I have one shoulder mounted Elk and one shoulder mounted Mule Deer. Neither are huge, but good representations of the species and most importantly were AWESOME hunts, which is the reason I chose to shoulder mount them in the first place. With that being said, they are both in my garage. I euro mount everything else (DIY) so its costs me very little. I have my bigger bucks/bulls in the house and they look great. When my kids get a little older, I am telling them that when I die, keep what you want and sell the rest for dog treats and do what you want with the cash, no hard feelings. Lol

 

[Ross]

When you’re drinking your coffee, reliving and chilling, you look up and it is easy to smile and relive every moment of that day. Skull capped or euros don’t give that same feeling when I look at those. Yes elk take up a lot of space and are pricey, but are so majestic when you look at them.

 

[wind gypsy]

All euros for me with the exception of one dall sheep pedestal mount. Dont have space for shoulder mounts.

If i happen to draw a sheep tag some day or shoot something else world class id maybe reconsider. A prime wolf might get made into a pillow mount. Id make a rug out of bear or mountain goat if I did that.

 

[voltage]

I currently have shoulder mounts of a whitetail, pronghorn, and 2 elk. I am a bit of a taxidermy snob, and unfortunately, good taxidermy costs some coin. I also have a couple pheasants (I always like to get one from each dog I have). I have euro mounts of 15ish whitetails, 5 mule deer, and 5 pronghorn. Fortunately, I know a guy that will euro mount anything for $75, and he does a nice job. I am mainly a euro guy now.

I have always promised myself I will never pay for decorations if they keep me from going on a hunt, and elk mounts are basically at that point.

 

[voltage]

I currently have shoulder mounts of a whitetail, pronghorn, and 2 elk. I am a bit of a taxidermy snob, and unfortunately, good taxidermy costs some coin. I also have a couple pheasants (I always like to get one from each dog I have). I have euro mounts of 15ish whitetails, 5 mule deer, and 5 pronghorn. Fortunately, I know a guy that will euro mount anything for $75, and he does a nice job. I am mainly a euro guy now.

I have always promised myself I will never pay for decorations if they keep me from going on a hunt, and elk mounts are basically at that point.

One more point.... I don't see taxidermy as an "investment", so I could not care less what my wife and kids do with it when I croak. My wife has strict instructions to consult with a buddy of mine on selling the guns for market value and not what she may think I paid

 

[Live_weighT34]

I’m echoing others sentiments here but well done taxidermy is true artwork and I love looking at good mounts.
That being said other than if I kill a huge caribou, elk, muley, sheep or a Cape buffalo I’ll never get anything shoulder mounted or full body for that matter. Skulls and skins look cool to me

 

[Boarmaster]

No doubt I love to be working in my office and look at my shoulder mounts to relive those hunts. It just becomes a matter of space to hang them. When I was young in my early 20s and had my first three bucks shoulder mounted I never imagined I would spend the next three decades killing them every year.

 

[displacedtexan]

I personally prefer euro mounts, and also keep some hides.

 

[Texashunting25]

I have 20 shoulder and pedestal mounts, ran out of room, euros now, but I have 30 of those. I’m thinking I need to sell all the eight points (family land) or something. I’m also inheriting a trophy room of my dad’s stuff. No idea what to do with those. It’s gotta be special for me to shoulder mount, I’m starting to realize my kids are just gonna pitch all of this anyways. Feels like an era of torch passing that isn’t going to work

 

[Hydra6]

I went to South Africa on a Plains Game package - left everything behind. The PH team consumes all the meat and finds uses for everything else. The PH took great pictures. I have limited space for trophies but - mainly - I decided to put taxidermy/shipping fees to a return trip.

 

[buffybr]

I'm just opposite of most of the posters on this thread. I like taxidermied mounts way more than euro mounts. Growing up in Colorado before it became Californicated, I loved its outdoors, mountains, and wildlife. After college I covered my walls with big game animal pctures. After moving to SW Montana many of those pictures were Nancy Glazier Artist Proof pictures.

I didn't start hunting until I was in college where my first deer was a spike muley buck, and I proudly hung those spike antlers on my bedroom wall. The next year I shot my first elk, and again I proudly hung his 5x5 antlers on my wall.

After college and my tour in the Army, I shot my first black bear and had a rug mount that is sitll on my wall some 50 years later. While I still lived in Colorado I shot two 30" mule deer. At that time I couldn't afford to have them mounted, so I bought the materials and shoulder mounted the 4x4 myself. Years later I had my taxidermist professionally finish his face. The other buck had quite a few "sticker" points and I just had his antlers on my wall until about 20 years ago when I had my taxidermist do a shoulder mount of him.

After moving to Montana in 1975, my hunting opportunities greatly expanded, as did my taxidermied mounts, and shoulder mounts relaced my big game animal pictures. In the late '70s and through the '80s I was lucky enough to draw or buy tags for almost all of Montana's big game animals, and my taxidermy quickly outnumbered my wall space.

In 1988-89 I added a 2000 sf, two story addition to my house, with the upper story being a 30'x35' Trophy Room. In 1999 I went on my first guided and international hunt for a Dall ram and a Mountain caribou in Canada. Since then I have gone on about a dozen international hunts, bringing home animals to be mounted from most of them.

Now my 1000 sf Trophy Room and my Living Room are filled with shoulder, half, and full body mounts of 80 animals that every day I enjoy looking at and re-living the memories of their hunts.

 

[chasewild]

Personally, I've not shot an animal that I thought was "big enough" for a shoulder mount. They get expensive for sure and take up a lot of space. Most of my mounts are euros. I have a Dall sheep hunt coming up in Aug and still undecided what I'll do, but I believe I'll likely do a pedestal mount with replica horns and a euro of the real deal. Who knows if I'll do another sheep hunt, so I feel it's worth it.

At some point though, I'd probably just cut the antlers off my euros and sell them to an antler buyer. I doubt my kids will want old mounts, nor do I care to leave behind a pile of stuff they then have to deal with.

If you don't mount your dall, I'll hunt you down.

 

[Stache Attack]

I will be purchasing my first shoulder mount this year. A big white tail that is unique and i spent a lot of time out there. It is expensive but I just want one cool whitetail, mule deer, and antelope. Hopefully one day a goat too. When my wife saw the buck she told me to mount it. We had both been against shoulders due to space and money

 

[chasewild]

I've selectively mounted animals and will continue to do so. When I'm older I look forward to mornings where I wake up with a cup of coffee and reminisce about hunts in a room dedicated to those memories. On some shallow advice, I did temporarily consider not mounting anything, but I course corrected when I realized that we slowly age and its nice to have more than just photos or memories.