When To Mount

[Bonecrusher101]

Dan the Man has a doe mounted in his house! I think he's as proud of that white doe as any of the other slob bucks he has on the wall. I haven't read the thread or story on it but Dan always has good stories.

It's rare, most hunters never see a piebald or albino deer in their life. I haven't seen one in real life.

I had this same question of "when to mount" rattling around in my head earlier this season.

I already have a big one on the wall that grosses over 150 and nets over 140. I killed a nice 120s (gross) 11 point this season and was big time on the fence about whether or not I should mount it or not.

The circumstances in which I killed that buck made it very special to me and I wanted to remember them by having that pretty buck mounted. There were 3 reasons I decided to mount that buck. My wife is super cool with my deer hunting addiction. She had delivered our first children (twin girls) on a Thursday morning 11/17/2016. We were still in the hospital on Saturday morning 11/19/2016 (opening day for gun) but she said she didn't mind if I went hunting till lunch. So after sleeping on a couch in the hospital room for a few days I was eager to change the scenery. Within a few hours I had him dead in the leaves with steam still coming off of him! Number 1 reason to mount him was it was my first hunt as a father and made a neat story. Number 2 reason is it came from a wma that's close to my home and I have spent a ton of hours in. I had seen good bucks in there just haven't had everything come together. That wma has never once been easy on me in 6 seasons of hunting it. That was my first trip in there all year and I made a quick kill. That made this buck even more special to me. Number 3 reason was I bought a brand new slug rifle with this wma in mind. This morning was my first hunting trip with my new gun. I missed a nice buck in the same area last season with my muzzleloader. The buck was following a group of does and walking quick. I had to get off my rest and quickly shoot freeHand. Later I ranged it to be over 100 yards. My ml is older and I knew I couldn't get it to group well past 80 yards or so. This was a bit of redemption for me, and I think this is a better buck than the one I missed last season. This wma is shotgun or muzzleloader only so I was stuck using my ml only during seasons past.

Anyway I was a bit on the fence about mounting this buck initially so I asked the same "when to mount" question to my taxidermist. He simply stated, if it's a trophy to you and you have the money to allow it, Get it mounted!

[WV Bowhunter]

I find myself staring at my mounts and reliving each hunt on a regular basis. I've spent a bunch of money on my mounts but love thinking back on each hunt every time I look at them.

[Stanley]

If I had the money and space I'd shoulder mount every buck I ever killed.

But 4 or 5 hundred buck$ can buy a lot of beer,
So right now it would have to score 150+ if I was gonna invest in a shoulder mount.

Down the urinal or a buck mount up on the wall. The money is whizzed away either way.

[Dewey]

If I had the money and space I'd shoulder mount every buck I ever killed.

But 4 or 5 hundred buck$ can buy a lot of beer,
So right now it would have to score 150+ if I was gonna invest in a shoulder mount.

Down the urinal or a buck mount up on the wall. The money is whizzed away either way.

This is a no brainer for me....

Beer....drink and pee out shortly after.

or

Buck mount.....hang on your wall, look at it and enjoy the the memories the rest of your life.

[stash59]

If I had the money and space I'd shoulder mount every buck I ever killed.

But 4 or 5 hundred buck$ can buy a lot of beer,
So right now it would have to score 150+ if I was gonna invest in a shoulder mount.

Down the urinal or a buck mount up on the wall. The money is whizzed away either way.

This is a no brainer for me....

Beer....drink and pee out shortly after.

or

Buck mount.....hang on your wall, look at it and enjoy the the memories the rest of your life.

Or do a euro myself and use money to buy a tag for Minnesota. Plus have enough for gas!!!!

[JoeRE]

I've always been pretty frugal having grown up Without for the most part. Its personal preference, don't let anyone else give you crap for mounting or not mounting a deer.

Unless you mount a big shed buck because then I'm even gonna give you crap. Still waiting to see a picture of someone doing that

I euro mount all the bucks I shoot, clean them up myself. The act of it is satisfying to me, just like butchering the deer. Most other hunters will think I am insane to euro mount 160+ inch bucks and that's fine if they want to think that, its a free country. I am going to keep doing it.

Keep in mind ANY taxidermy in the eyes of most non-hunters is nuts.....have reminded of that by many non-hunting friends.

[Rich M]

I've always been pretty frugal having grown up Without for the most part. Its personal preference, don't let anyone else give you crap for mounting or not mounting a deer.

Unless you mount a big shed buck because then I'm even gonna give you crap. Still waiting to see a picture of someone doing that

I euro mount all the bucks I shoot, clean them up myself. The act of it is satisfying to me, just like butchering the deer. Most other hunters will think I am insane to euro mount 160+ inch bucks and that's fine if they want to think that, its a free country. I am going to keep doing it.

Keep in mind ANY taxidermy in the eyes of most non-hunters is nuts.....have reminded of that by many non-hunting friends.

The GA hunting forums....some guy watched a deer grow into a monster nontypical and then it gets nailed by a truck and the antlers shatter. They wrote an article on this dude collecting the antler fragments and then getting a mount done with either the glued together pieces or a replica made off the glued-together pieces.

I've also seen guys post up pics of shed mounts to commemorate a deer.

Both of those, are IMO, way overboard.

Back in the day I was on a quest to collect mounts of every duck/goose species on the eastern flyway and had 18 waterfowl mounts. When I decided enough was enough, I gave the mounts away and mostly non-hunters wanted them. After all that, I made the decision not to mount anything again.

Do have 2 fish mounts remaining from my taxidermy days.

[Bucky]

I just cut rack off 140s ten I shot this yr.... although I did cape em