What’s the plan for your taxidermy after you die?

[4090Sharps]

I inherited a pile of taxidermy and have taken great pleasure in letting my kids play with all of the tanned animal skins that were hanging on the walls of my dad and grandfather’s homes or housed in some trunk—neither category to be played with. It seemed a terrible waste to me as a kid and still does.

I have no interest in hands-off mounts. Life is too transitory for that, in my opinion. My family can do what they want with the skulls and antlers, sell them for dog chews for all I care. Hopefully the furs are well worn out by the time I go.

 

[TaperPin]

The estate sale and a giant dumpster will take care of anything the kids don’t want. *chuckle*

 

[thinhorn_AK]

My family has a couple of mounts from Sagamore Hill - Theodore Roosevelt’s house.

I’m not saying you’re lying, but I’ve had half a dozen or so people claim the same thing. Maybe he had so many mounts that there are that many floating around. Sort of like those Picasso drawings that are on napkins that can be had for a few hundred bucks.

 

[S.Clancy]

This is why I have sold all of my elk antlers but the last 6 or so, and I really should just sell them too. Too big to really put anywhere and no one else would want them

 

[mainbeam pursuit2]

My son wants all of mine.

 

[CMF]

Family can do whatever they want with them, I won't care.
I don't do many actual mounts, mostly skull mounts. I only have one whitetail shoulder mount and its at deer camp. The kids are on the way to having more mounts than me, barbary and oryx when we get it back.

 

[EastHumboldt]

I also read the title as “What’s your plan for getting stuffed upon your deceasement?”

My will clearly states this: I am to be left in the deep freeze for a week. Then sharpen my head with an axe ( it’s pretty much solid bone). Take me out to the tundra, stand me on my head, and have a pile driver whack my feet til I disappear. Then tequila shots for all participants.

 

[Mr. October]

I'm not sure I care.

 

[Yoder]

Nobody wants or cares about your taxidermy. It will be a burden to your children and family. Get rid of it all before you die unless someone specifically wants one of your trophies. I want one of my dad's deer heads. We were hunting together when he killed it, and it was a great memory. The rest of them will just make me feel bad selling or giving them to my dogs to chew.

 

[*zap*]

What taxidermy?

 

[Q_Sertorius]

I’m not saying you’re lying, but I’ve had half a dozen or so people claim the same thing. Maybe he had so many mounts that there are that many floating around. Sort of like those Picasso drawings that are on napkins that can be had for a few hundred bucks.

There were an absolute ton of them. Sagamore Hill is still stuffed with them. They only kept the more spectacular ones at the house. There was a huge sale back in the early 1950s of TR and his son’s “overflow” trophies. My grandfather bought a seladang or gaur for the princely sum of $8. It dominates my older brother’s sitting room. There’s some other smaller SE Asian bovine with swept back horns my mother got for $2.

 

[rookieforever33]

Ultimately this question goes wzy beyond taxidermy, and its the same answer for everything you own.