Which ones to mount?

[death-from-above]

Very nice critters. Especially the red hartebeest. Congrats.
And yes some trophy room pics would be kewl.

Pictures of the animals or the room? You can see the animals here: http://www.africahunting.com/namibia-hunting-reports/11558-i%27m-back-my-first-safari-namibia.html
You have to scroll down a ways to find the pics.

I'll see what I can do about trophy room pictures during the day on Wednesday when I'll have the benefit of some natural light.

 

[Mtgoat]

Until a couple years ago my wife put u with my mounts in the bedroom, including a Shiras moose from Idaho........have I mentioned what a lucky man I am?

I'm with you. My wife put up with a bison in our living room, plus other critters in our family room until the trophy room was built.

 

[Diamondhitch]

I don't know how to answer this one, out of space is out of space and with nowhere to build you are out of space.
One sure cure would be to give up hunting but I'm sure that will be called plan "B". LOL

As mentioned the group pedestal mounts look great and use up far less space. Skulls of other animals can be placed around the base and a creative Taxi should be able to do an attractive collage of skulls to form the pedestal portion of the mount. That would certainly save a lot of space.
More mounts of smaller animals to fill in the gaps rather than larger game unless the animal is really special.
As mentioned your Kudu is nice but with plans to go on future safaris you are likely to do better.
BWB make great rugs but I assume it is too late as it is probably cut as a cape.
Depending on floor space, Lifesizes of special animals such as the Nyala you plan to hunt could save some wall space if planned out before you leave.

There are always options.

 

[Nyati]

In my case the choice is easy. I Live in an apartment, so no trophy room.

The trophies are all over the house, 31 of them, and three more on the way from SA.

My only reasonable option, euro mounts !

 

[sestoppelman]

In my case the choice is easy. I Live in an apartment, so no trophy room.

The trophies are all over the house, 31 of them, and three more on the way from SA.

My only reasonable option, euro mounts !

Dont feel bad. I have a house and also no trophy room! Like you I have heads all over the place and no more room for more, so everything from here on will be euro or just photos. Certainly no more hides or rugs. I have 4 shoulder mounts in my front room. Sable, nyala, bushbuck and sitatunga.

 

[Diamondhitch]

Dont feel bad. I have a house and also no trophy room! Like you I have heads all over the place and no more room for more, so everything from here on will be euro or just photos. Certainly no more hides or rugs. I have 4 shoulder mounts in my front room. Sable, nyala, bushbuck and sitatunga.

You also have a trophy wife - very understanding! :first:

 

[Diamondhitch]

In my case the choice is easy. I Live in an apartment, so no trophy room.

The trophies are all over the house, 31 of them, and three more on the way from SA.

My only reasonable option, euro mounts !

Nyati, you may have the ultimate trophy wife!!!

 

[Bobpuckett]

I would mount them all, I have the same problem if you want to call it that my game room walls are getting full so for my bigger african animals I did floor pedestal mounts still going to have to do some shuffeling got about a month or so and 12 more coming in 4 which are full body mounts and an Eland shoulder mount that will take up a good part of a wall by it self. post some pics of the room when you get a chance we would love to see your mounts.

 

[dobber]

good friends of mine put up vaulted ceilings for their mounts, their one place in Canada though has a special mount, a full body mount Polar bear, the thing is massive, and they almost built to suit their needs, even their summer place in the US has some full size mounts, including a grizz.
If I had the money then they would all get mounted, my first trip to Africa in 2015 I have decided to go euro mounts, might get some skins done for a rug or two, i figure if i go with euro mounts this time, then it only gives me a reason to go back to get shoulder mounts for the wall

 

[Mtgoat]

And yes some trophy room pics would be kewl.

Here are some pictures of my trophy room. They're not the best (should have used a tripod and a different camera) but they give an idea of what I have to work with. It's approximately 20 feet from the Christmas tree to the mule deer. From the Christmas tree to the muskox, is about 30 feet. The wall with the muskox is about 25 feet wide. The wall with the fireplace and moose is 18 feet wide. The fireplace is 7 feet wide (that is, the stonework).

The caribou next to the pronghorn was my first one and part of the reason for starting this thread. There is an outside chance that it could be squeezed in above a window next to the other caribou.

Finding places for the medium - small antelope with shoulder mounts or for european mounts of any of them is not a problem. There are lots of gaps where they can be fit in. The wall above the bar and room entrance has capacity for lot of European mounts - again provided that they're from medium - small animals. It's the larger animals that are going to require some serious planning.

A pedestal mount could work in the space where the Christmas tree is situated.

Again, the advice from everyone in this thread has been very helpful in getting this sorted out in my mind.

 

[enysse]

You have a nice place. You are correct not to crowd your mounts, you have a classy set-up and it won't look good crowding them.

I not sure what I'll do with my mounts, they are currently in storage. But I wanted to renovate or built a vaulted ceiling room for them, possibly above a garage, seperate room in a garage or add on to the garage.

 

[RickB]

Decisions decisions! I will give my 2 pennies for what its worth. After seeing your trophy room pics, which is very well done. I feel you have room for some more mounts. The smaller animals will fit fine (i.e Impala, spring, heart). I don think you should do the Kudu as others have said. You can do better and they take up a lot of space. My dad had his done in a euro mount. Looks very good. Same with the blue wildebeest as well. It is a large mount (I had mine done because I thought he was big) and it takes up a good about of wall space in my basement. You don't need both gemsboks either. Pick the better of the two and have a pedestal mount done. To me gemsbok and zebra make the best looking pedestal mounts. The are beautiful animals! but bottom line, its your call as I am sure you already are aware. Hopefully you can come up with a plan! Good luck!

 

[Mtgoat]

Once everything arrives, the taxidermist will score them. That will help in making a decision. That, together with Brickburn's advice of mounting those that were memorable should get me close.

 

[Diamondhitch]

I had a very different picture in my mind when you said you were out of room. It looks to me like a large part of the problem locating more large mounts likely stems from the need to attach them to a stud. Eliminate that by placing 3/4" plywood under your drywall and then you will have total freedom as far as spacing goes. Realistically you should be able to free up 25-30% more space without crowding by doing this. Just be sure to use metal wall anchors in the plywood for the large heads as well.

BTW that is a very beautiful trophy room you have there.

 

[Diamondhitch]

Plenty of room for pedestals or small lifesize behind the couth and chair as well. You are far from out of room.

 

[Nyati]

Nyati, you may have the ultimate trophy wife!!!

I can t complain about that, she likes hunting and used to hunt with me before she started with medical problems.

 

[Mtgoat]

It looks to me like a large part of the problem locating more large mounts likely stems from the need to attach them to a stud. Eliminate that by placing 3/4" plywood under your drywall and then you will have total freedom as far as spacing goes. Realistically you should be able to free up 25-30% more space without crowding by doing this. Just be sure to use metal wall anchors in the plywood for the large heads as well.

BTW that is a very beautiful trophy room you have there.

Actually, when planning the room, I spoke with a retired architect who had been an avid hunter (multiple safaris with Joe Jonas Jr.). I followed all of his recommendations - 3/4" plywood was one of them. The builder decided (on his own) to add in some extra strength in a couple of spots - 2x4's spanning the gap between the studs (above the fireplace and behind the elk). Another recommendation was to use toggle bolts. (I don't like them and have only used one for a single mount.) He also told me to use a thinner than normal sheetrock (1/4" ???), 2x6 studs with 12" centers.

One thing that has to be taken into account when placing animals is to make sure that they don't obstruct the view of any animals on an adjacent wall.

Thanks for the compliment. My wife and I really like it. We spend a lot of time in there and it is where we do a lot of our entertaining. I still haven't figured out how to put a TV in there, but I'm working on that question. I'm leaning toward putting it on one of the benches next to the fireplace - that wouldn't interfere with the mounts. When the room was built, I had them put outlets for power, internet and cable everywhere in the room, so that won't be an issue.

 

[kal]

This is a great subject, I have found myself going over this as I prepare for my first African hunt this summer. The animals that really make me think are the pigs, if I luck out on a bushpig do I euro or shoulder? A good problem to have I suppose. I love the way your room is set up, will be interested to see how Africa animals fit in.

 

[Stocky]

Just my two cents

Since you're going back to Africa, first thing I'd do is have the animals scored. If they're not SCI bronze or better you might want to think twice before you mount unless they are very special for some reason as you mentioned. I'm not saying you're necessarily a headhunter, but there's so many animals in Africa that is not a very high bar for most species if you're hunting the right areas for them.

I realize now that I should've made a plan to begin with, but I had a great pH they got me lots of gold right out of the shoot that are going to be really hard to improve on so I got lucky.

In fact I'm in the process of trading my few SCI bronze and silver animals in for gold as I go along, plus some are way harder than others to score into gold on, like Kudu, Sable and warthog. Not actively since there's so many different species but as targets of opportunity. I'm not going to shoot most anything else if it isn't gold, unless of course it is for some reason special, or it's something I absolutely must have to make the African 29 and the chances of getting anything bigger aren't that great.

I would also look at some of the animals and try to decide what you like best. For example you can do a springbok slam with four different color phases. Or you can go after a spiral horns slam with your kudu, add a Bushbuck, Nyala and a Eland, and do a display like that. It's all online at the Safari Club International awards section.

The next idea I'll offer is to Google image search every different animal and look at the variety of creative displays there are out there for that animal. For example, I saw pedestal mount on a canoe the other day that was really cool, it just leans up in the corner, you could do the same thing on a Zulu shield or whatever, lots of creative things to do with skulls and horns as well.

Skins make great motorcycle seat covers, pillows, quilts of various skins sewn together, lampshades, table cloths, placemats, whatchamacallits that go under coffee table or end table statues and lamps, etc. lots of ways to honor the animal like this. I'm having my crocs tanned black and are going on my Harley seats. Ostrich, buffalo and elephant make great boots.

Everybody keeps the horns and skin, but few people think about the bones. My giraffe leg bones are being made into curtain rods and towel racks for the bathroom. I have a skull being bleached to sit on the coffee table or behind the door as a doorstop.

Simply stated use your imagination! Better yet have your wife use hers, LOL. But I can tell you right now, if you are going back to Africa you are going to need more trophy space.

 

[enysse]

Wow Stocky, excellent post.

I fully agree no matter what he will be short on space. And if you are hunting addict it becomes a more of a problem.