Which animal makes the most impressive taxidermy mount?

[ActionBob]

A red stag would certainly look great as a shoulder mount hanging over the fire place in my medieval castle/evil villain lair.

Or if you, the Lord of this evil villan lair, are an International hunter, that needs to be a rhino rather than a red stag

 

[Tundra Tiger]

There is SO much that can go into this, IMHO, and pretty much all of it is subjective.

For myself, my kudu I shot in May, that is somewhere in RSA undergoing its dipping and packing... as cliche as a shoulder mount kudu might seem, I have wanted one over 30 years. It is very likely going to become my favorite, hands-down, for that very reason.

As an Alaskan, I really like how a large, well done caribou shoulder mount, with a bit of habitat to enhance it, looks. A funny thing: I've killed some large bulls, and still have yet to get one mounted.

As someone who has had a taxidermy business, I probably look more at the add-ons too, such as bases and habitat and such. Even a little, tastefully done, helps, IMHO. Have any of you seen that brown bear and deer mount in the Anchorage airport? If you get a chance, take a closer look. The sockeyes in the stream that are a part of the overall mount? The freaking fish aren't even finished. The paint jobs aren't finished, and they are supposed to be spawning sockeyes, yet they have no teeth. Little things like that drive me nuts. But I digress...

My vote goes to a nice kudu, as I am hoping mine will be, when it's done, someday...

 

[AES]

People tend to gravitate to my Full body Muskox. I think it is such a statement because most people don’t even know what it is.

 

[johnnyblues]

Super difficult question. This is truly in the eye of the beholder. For me a large well maned African lion is quite the trophy.

 

[Lmcquin]

Gotta say there are a ton of beautiful mounts. Nature scenes, pedestals etc. but I’m always drawn to mean faced Cape buffalo mount.

 

[Buffalo1]

North America- Mountain goat
Africa- Nyala
NZ- tahr
Europe- Wild hog

 

[Mtn_Infantry]

I’ve got a nice elk on the wall I killed on public land, but the mounts I’m looking most forward to are my Buf, Sable, and Nyala from June. Can’t wait to see what @gizmo can come up with.

 

[Whitebear995]

I love bears, They are scary at night.

 

[IvW]

Scull mount hippo, croc and warthog.
Sculls of lion, hyena and leopard are also impressive.
Wall plaque bushpig tusks

 

[Sarg]

I think full mount of Tiger would be hard to beat, but again not happening in this day & age .

I like Skulls & while the Warthog skull is cool it can't compare to Giant Forest Hog skull, I managed to scrounge one from the Taxidermist I help out, just stuck some Warthog tusks in it for now I have a nice set of repo GFH tusks coming !

 

[gizmo]

I’ve got a nice elk on the wall I killed on public land, but the mounts I’m looking most forward to are my Buf, Sable, and Nyala from June. Can’t wait to see what @gizmo can come up with.

We’re gunna rock em!

 

[baxterb]

I have very little interest in mounts overall, but when I see a good sable mount, well, I start to change my mind. They can be spectacular.

 

[Mtn_Infantry]

I think full mount of Tiger would be hard to beat, but again not happening in this day & age .

I like Skulls & while the Warthog skull is cool it can't compare to Giant Forest Hog skull, I managed to scrounge one from the Taxidermist I help out, just stuck some Warthog tusks in it for now I have a nice set of repo GFH tusks coming !

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I had a friend growing up who had a full body white tiger his Grandfather had killed in their house. He had a lion, some elephant tusks etc as well. I used to go and look at the tiger every time I went to their house. I haven't seen him in 15 years and no one in his family hunted, so it's starting to make me wonder what happened to that mount.

 

[Rick Cox]

OK, one of my most impressive mounts...

Last summer I was fortunate to be able to attend the Boone & Crockett Club's 30th Big Game Awards ceremony held at the Bass Pro Shop's Wonders of Wildlife Museum in Springfield, MO. Describing the taxidermy in that museum as spectacular is an understatement. I have never seen mounts or wildlife dioramas in any museum of natural history or even in Safari Club's wildlife museum in Tucson, AZ that are as impressive as those that are in the WOW museum.

I personally think that shoulder mounted animals look better than European skull mounts, and that full body mounts are more impressive than shoulder mounts. The amount and quality of habitat in full mounts does a lot to increase the impressiveness of the mount.

I also think that mounts of rare or exotic animals are more impressive than mounts of common animals.

Usually a larger mount is more impressive than a smaller mount. A shoulder mount of a bull elephant is more impressive than a warthog shoulder mount, a standing Kodiak bear mount is more impressive than a black bear rug.

In my 50 some years of big game hunting, I've been fortunate enough to have acquired (I think) a pretty good taxidermy collection. I have many of the mounts that some previous posters said they would like to have just like there are many previously posted mounts that I dream of.

In my own trophy room, very often I think that my newest mount is my most impressive. My newest mount right now is the pedestal Caribou mount that I was invited to have in the 30th B&C Awards ceremony and I think that it dominates my trophy room.

Dream caribou!

 

[Hunt anything]

While it doesn’t compare with my Buffalo or sable, my tundra swan with a 7 ft wingspan is pretty impressive! Along with the king eider they are the pinnacle of birds for us North American waterfowl hunters.

 

[shootist~]

My vote goes to a nice kudu, as I am hoping mine will be, when it's done, someday...

+1

 

[Ragman]

I think nearly all game animal mount are impressive. However I recently saw a couple that really grabbed my attention. A little over a week ago my family and I took a tour through Jim Shockey’s Hand of Man museum. The number of mounts and skulls in there was almost too much to take in, but to my surprise the two that I kept going back to were the full mount Bongo and Mountain Nyala. Kudu horns are still my favourite but the body size of the mountain Nyala and the coloration and horn mass of the bongo was amazing.