trophies are on the wall!

[bdmd5093]

Well, I have intentionally stayed away from the site for several months because hanging out here just makes me want to go back to Africa immediately. However, my trophies from my May 2012 hunt with Nico Smith at Amakulu Lodge arrived this week, and I now have them on the wall. While I am no professional taxidermy contest judge, all in all I am pleased with how they turned out. I especially like how the hartebeest and gemsbok were done with the skin on the plaques. I have included some pics of the mounts, and as soon as my skins flatten out, I will post those. I have put all of the mounts in my current home office/study.

However, we are in the process of working on plans for a new home on our farm/homeplace, and those include a walk-in gun/trophy/hunting room. It will be accessible from a large mudroom that connects off of the garage, as well as accessible via a hidden door from inside the house. Both doors will be walk-in safe doors, and the room will be constructed to be fire-rated for 2 hours at a minimum. I can't wait to see how these will look in that room!

Enjoy, and please give me your feedback!

 

[bdmd5093]

I forgot to mention that we used Red Dune Taxidermy in Kimberly. They were air-shipped in one crate from SA to ATL. We used Coppersmith to arrange clearance in the US and ground shipping from Atlanta to our home (3 hours south of Atlanta).

And no, we did not pick up a pintail drake and hooded merganser on the trip, but I threw them in with the pics for good measure

 

[desertloper]

Look great-thanks for sharing.

I might have to steal that idea of using flat skins to cover the plaque-i haven't seen that before

 

[ThomasBeaham]

Interesting presentation for the Warthog.
Thanks for posting here.

 

[bdmd5093]

Interesting presentation for the Warthog.
Thanks for posting here.

Thanks! I am not sure what that white block of wood is for in the snout cavity. I have emailed the taxidermist to see if it was put in there for support for shipping, and if so,hopefully I can remove it. I got the idea for that mount and the skins on the plaques from some examples I saw in the lodge where we were staying. I recovered the bullet from my gemsbok and I am going to somehow attach it to that mount.

 

[Bobpuckett]

Nice mounts, has the office looking good.

 

[enysse]

Nice work, very classy!

 

[Cliffy]

That room looks GREAT!

 

[KMG Hunting Safaris]

Nice work, very classy!

Agreed.Nicely done!

 

[Nyati]

Nice room !

 

[BRICKBURN]

Thanks for sharing. You are selling me on euro mounts.

 

[bdmd5093]

FYI.. I contacted the taxidermist about the block of wood in the warthog snout, and he indicated it is in there for permanent support. He said I could place some bondo in front of it and paint that white to disguise it. He seemed distressed that I was not 100% satisfied (even though i was not complaining and was really only curious about it) and offered me "one free taxidermy mount" on my return trip! I certainly was not fishing for anything like that, but that's great customer service!

I emailed him back saying that a full leopard mount will look great laying across the top of my credenza

 

[35bore]

love those mounts. they look great.

 

[enysse]

FYI.. I contacted the taxidermist about the block of wood in the warthog snout, and he indicated it is in there for permanent support. He said I could place some bondo in front of it and paint that white to disguise it. He seemed distressed that I was not 100% satisfied (even though i was not complaining and was really only curious about it) and offered me "one free taxidermy mount" on my return trip! I certainly was not fishing for anything like that, but that's great customer service!

I emailed him back saying that a full leopard mount will look great laying across the top of my credenza

Wow, what a taxidermist, you gotta love him!!!