Euro mounts- Am I smoking the devils lettuce?

[PARA45]

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Gorgeous house and trophies @Red Leg ! Must be great to go perusing through all those memories and souvenirs on a daily basis!

@Red Leg, It must be quite a task to clean the man cave. LOL!!!!!! Gorgeous place, and beautifully decorated. Congrats sir!!!

 

[chashardy]

The advantage of Euromounts is you can group a lot of them in a relatively small area. Luckily I have 22 foot ceilings in my living room.

 

[jac211]

I prefer Euro mounts too. Yes, I had shoulder mounts of my two SCI bronze buff but hanging those beasties was a chore. Now that it looks like we are moving, I am really not looking fwd to taking them down, crating them, hauling them and re-installing them. Ugh.

 

[Vintageguy]

I like euros — I like the simplicity of it - I like that I dont need to deal with their hide or hair getting dust and cobwebs in it. But this’d past weekend— my neighbors came over and we’d were looking at the whitetail I have taken on this ranch (all euros) and all four of them said— a 161 needs to be shoulder mounted on a low fence ranch in the hill country- thats a trophy— kill another buck with a good cape and make it happen. ‘’I was floored” I love my euros— I dont like waiting 1-2 years for a mount to come home —and I guess I am probabaly leery of when my Dad passed — he had many mounts and they were a PITA to deal with in fact— I didnt deal with them— I had no money and no space to deal with them then and he didnt leave me any to help with CHORE.
Euros mounts in my oppinion as much easier to deal with , smaller, take less space, still offer the memories of the hunt. I dont care about scores— I hunt what I like. Am I alone ? Do I do an animal a disservice if I dont shoulder or pedestal mount it? On the upcoming hunt— I will shoulder the kudus, the buff may be shoulder maybe pedestal and the the sable will def be a pedestal — the eland will be euro, warthog - euro, zebra-skin and others will be euro— nyala— undecided — bush buck as well — impala— euro — gemsbok euro — i will have the skins tanned and the meat will be used— Am I missing something — do you feel like one animal is deserving of a shoulder over another? Plains game mostly — I guess I hold the big 5/6 in different regard. But that being said — I’d euro a buffalo if I liked the plaque or the buff was a second or other reasons ... — I surely would— others outside of Leopard— I have no interest in— I think cats deserve a full body — they are special— but I dont want any of them currently . Am I out of my mind? Sorry about run on sentences and punctuation — I are an Aggie.

I prefer euros for whitetail. Everyone has whitetail shoulder mounts. I notice few visitors take notice of them but they do notice the euros.

 

[Rob404]

I Chose a pedestal because I had the right spot for it

 

[VertigoBE]

I Chose a pedestal because I had the right spot for it

I really like the idea of the skin in the form of Africa as well!

V.

 

[Muskox]

The advantage of Euromounts is you can group a lot of them in a relatively small area. Luckily I have 22 foot ceilings in my living room.

That is breathtaking, and I think the room and cost savings is enough to go again.

 

[Muskox]

Thanks much. The previous owners had run their business from the carriage house. We gutted it and turned it into the Trophy Room, guest house, and gentlemen / ladies' bar. It is a good place to spend time over a single malt.

Impressive.

Where did you find that old India travel poster?

When I was single I had several photo and advertisement prints from the movie Hatari framed and hanging on the wall and a couple of other period African movies.

They were striking, but damaged on our move from Australia to the US in 2013.

Like the mix of trophy photos, skulls, art and taxidermy.

I have a collection of Persian carpets for later when we have a place to show them off again. Right now we are living in a rental looking for a property to build on.

Goal is to have a room off the garage with high back burgandy leather chairs, skulls, taxidermy, art and a reloading room and hunting storage room set up for pre-chip convenience.

 

[Red Leg]

Impressive.

Where did you find that old India travel poster?

When I was single I had several photo and advertisement prints from the movie Hatari framed and hanging on the wall and a couple of other period African movies.

They were striking, but damaged on our move from Australia to the US in 2013.

Like the mix of trophy photos, skulls, art and taxidermy.

I have a collection of Persian carpets for later when we have a place to show them off again. Right now we are living in a rental looking for a property to build on.

Goal is to have a room off the garage with high back burgandy leather chairs, skulls, taxidermy, art and a reloading room and hunting storage room set up for pre-chip convenience.

Came out of a UK auction. Not many bidders due to the "horrific" subject matter (hunting tiger from an elephant).

Fortunately, we have hardwood floors throughout. They are perfect for our Eastern carpets.

 

[Troubleshooter]

I love the way German castles and Schloesser look with rack after rack of antlers and skulls all over the walls, and how some of the British manors did the same during Victoria & Albert's time.

I have euro mounts for my European animals for precisely the same reason; it just looks right to me. I would probably make an exception for something like a chamois, should I ever take one of those. My North American animals are a mix of shoulder mounts (mostly) and a very few euros.

Having never seriously contemplated an African plains game safari until the last several years, I hadn't spent a lot of time considering what to do with those mounts. Likely will do a shoulder plaque for zebra and gemsbok. Currently thinking euro-style tusk mount for warthog. Kudu could go either way. Of course there is still the little matter of successfully taking them first...

Fortunately there is a high ceiling in part of the house, courtesy of a remodel some years ago. It was specifically done to allow hanging trophy mounts (although again, Africa was not a consideration at that time).

So OP, do what makes YOU comfortable, and what makes sense in terms of your budget, preferences, and the layout of your house.

 

[Troubleshooter]

There are other options beyond euro mount too. I like antlers/horns with the skull cap, covered in leather, suede, or tweed and then mounted to a plaque. They look very distinctive and women tend to like them quite a bit. I’m not personally a fan of bleached skulls so this is yet another alternative.

I've seen some as you describe with the leather or suede covering, but never tweed. Trying to visualize how that would look; but it sounds very distinctive.

 

[ArmyAV8tor]

Rob404, VertigoBE and Troubleshooter,

Your comments prompted me to share these pics. The Zebra works perfectly with a curved wall that is unfriendly to pictures. I just recently said to my wife that I was thinking that if I am successful on Eland later this year, I would get pedestals for the sides of the fireplace and voila', there they are your Kudu horns for me to show her. The Chamois was taken in southern Germany in the 90's and fits in well with the Steenbok and I hope to add a Duiker to the mix this year.

 

[Troubleshooter]

Those are very nice! Thanks for posting, it's helpful to have good ideas to consider.

 

[Troubleshooter]

View attachment 392656

Having never seriously contemplated an African plains game safari until the last several years, I hadn't spent a lot of time considering what to do with those mounts. Likely will do a shoulder plaque for zebra and gemsbok. Currently thinking euro-style tusk mount for warthog. Kudu could go either way.

And here we are two years later, with the trophies in queue at the taxidermist's shop and as I reconsider my previous thoughts. Contrary to my pre-hunt post, I probably won't have any euro mounts done from this trip. Unless I do something with the warthog skull, but then I would need to add some fake tusks, as the real ones will be on the warthog mount.

I am now planning to have the Gemsbok mounted on a shield similar to what PARA45 has done. I've used this particular taxidermist several times over the past ten years or so, and he always does a good job, but most of his workload consists of simple shoulder mounts or euros. He's never seen the shield mount and has no idea where to obtain one. Fortunately, a friend-of-a-friend is an accomplished woodworker who enjoys challenging projects. We've already sketched out some designs and will soon make a mock-up prior to cutting the actual shield. What we need now are some dimensions. For PARA45 and others who have these shield mounts, would you be so kind as to provide me with the height of the shield and the width at its widest point? Also, rough size of the Africa-outline base. Then we can play with the mock-up and determine the appropriate angle to balance the mount(s). Our current plan is to build-in two hard-points in order to allow for potential attachment of a second mount at some later date.

As mentioned in my hunt report, the Kudu was an old battle-scarred survivor with a split ear and has earned a pedestal mount. We're working on a crate pedestal (designed to look like something that came off the cargo ship) built out of wood salvaged from an old barn and loading chute.

Funny how plans change once the animal is in the salt!

 

[Firebird]

At a local museum there is a life size warthog bronze sitting on top a shipping crate-it looks really cool. I wish I had a picture of it to show you

 

[RR 314]

Headed over in a couple weeks for buff etc. if successful on buffalo I will likely have it caped, but really thinking about just doing a euro on this one. I have a friend that does bases for them and they are really growing on me. Thoughts?

 

[Fatback]

That euro of the buff in the Africa base looks awesome.

 

[Flipper Dude]

Love my European mounts. Have several.

 

[fourfive8]

Concerns over how to save or what to do with trophies are very legit. Good photos can be a reasonable substitute also. Skull mounts are less expensive, save space and can be very attractive. Like many, I have a mix of shoulder mounts, skins and skull mounts. To be honest at times I wish I only had photos. Other times, I’m glad about having some taxidermy. Usually skull mounts are the most versatile, can be more easily cleaned and can be moved around with little effort for sake of motif look or change.

I can easily move a buffalo skull mount from place to place. Some people really enjoy touching and studying things up close like this one on a coffee table. Really generates a lot of interest and conversation amongst most guests. Easy to move or store if desired.

 

[migrabill]

I MUCH prefer shoulder mounts to Euros. The point you bring up about taking them down to dust and maintain them, I overcome by making them Pedestal mounts. That way your guests can also see them much closer up. And... you don't need tons of wall space. PEDESTAL mounts, I think, are the way to go.