I am having an aggravating Sunday afternoon and an issue is constantly on my mind. I thought I would seek opinions.

The taxidermist was just here. He dropped off a number of things including one of the most magnificent full mount leopards I have ever seen. I parted with a bunch of money there. Then I got a bill from another taxidermist that has some whitetails ready that we shot last year. It wasn't a good day for my check book!

This forced me to go 2 things. First, I had to unpack and put up everything from a recently completed dove/duck in Argentina. That is never fun. It also forced me to evaluate the state of my trophy room.

My trophy room is about 1600-1700 square feet. It is getting really full. I have a lot of stuff. Some of it over 20 years old. I am kicking myself in the behind for not making the walls higher when I built it. After I dropped almost $20,000 with the taxidermists today, I had the one that was here help me take down 5 full mounted mountain animals. He is going to build a rock pile and put these on the rock pile so I can have more space. That is going to be another expensive proposition.

I still have a bunch of things that he is working on including but not limited to 2 more full mount leopards, a magnificent 44 inch sable that my oldest son shot, 2 tahr, a red stag, a black swan and 6 Argentine ducks. On top of that, I leave September 29 for a 21 day hunt in the SAVE and in December I am going to Spain to hunt ibex.

I don't know that I have the room for all of these things. Thus my questions.

Do you all ever dispose of old mounts? If so, how do you dispose of them?

How do you feel about shooting things and not mounting them?

To further complicate this, at 53, I am thinking more about retirement and saving my money than I was when I started hunting internationally.

Thanks.

Larry,
I am in the exact same situation. I have a house full of stuffed stuff and and head full of memories. I have decided to part with the collection and focus on photos. I may stay with all euro mounts or a few rugs/pillows, but the heads and bodies are heading out the door. I prefer to spend the money on more hunts than fund my local taxidermist's retirement.

As far as not mounting them, I do not worry about it. They would all end up in a garage sale or a Cabela's store after I die. If I leave them behind, the safari outfits will use them or sell them. No loss.

I doubt Boddington mounts much of his stuff anymore. After 20 elephants and 50 buff, he likely does not have room or inclination.

Sorry, I'm of no help here. I can't get past the fact the missus and I have, at times, raised two kids and a dog in accomodations smaller than your trophy room.

quote:

Originally posted by Badger Matt:
Sorry, I'm of no help here. I can't get past the fact the missus and I have, at times, raised two kids and a dog in accomodations smaller than your trophy room.

Me too! Larry, you interested in adopting an old man??

How about moving the older, or less interesting, mounts to other parts of the house or basement? I get too much satisfaction sitting by the fire looking at the trophies (and reviving memories) from past hunts, or showing some wide-eyed young hunters what animals there are to be had in other parts of the world.

I have a house full of mounts and I love them, but I've already decided to not mount anything more unless it's a new world record or something like that. Some time ago, I decided to never mount two of the same animal and that turned out to be a great decision -- once you have a really good example of a particlar species, why have another?

When I go on to my permanent dirt nap, the trophies won't really be important to anyone else and God knows where they'll end up, so it's really not all that important to collect them past the point where they provide for my personal enjoyment.

Why not donate them to a museum, I am sure you could find a natural history museum somewhere that would love some new displays/exhibits. If you were lucky you may get a tax write off, if not, at least they went somewhere constructive.

Somewhere around safari #10 I stopped having mounts of even very good trophies done (43" Buff & #11 Lion for example). The only exceptions have been having a couple of Buff hides tanned for boots and accessories. However, I did have two full mounts of of new #1 w/handgun Sunni and Red Duiker done. They have since been bettered by my brother-in-law in the same area of Mozambique.

There is a finite amount of room for trophies in any home, and I've exceeded mine a number of years ago. Photos do me just fine now.

Aren't many museums that need any of this stuff which is why you see so much of it lining the ceilings of Cabelas, Bass Pro, and Gander Mountain stores. A friend of mine built a house around a trophy room and has a couple hundred high end trophies. He's hit 80 now and has pretty much given up on trying to sell or donate his stuff for some type of tax deduction.

My checkbook could only handle a couple shoulder mounts and I had to choose between paying taxidemists or going on another trip. Now I take photos, perhaps do a European, and hope to go on another trip.

Larry:

This, my friend, is one helluva fine problem to have. I'd personally like to see some pictures of your problem.

I just solved my space problem by purchasing an additional 1500 feet of "office space" adjacent to my present law offices. 50x30 with 16 foot ceilings. Renovation to start later this year.

If you're not into adding on or buying another house, why not go ahead and make a plan of what to do with your collection when you die. Then you can make lifetime transfers of less than all of your trophies from time to time as you need to make space for new mounts. You are the CPA, but there have to be tax advantages to this as well.

I hunted with a gentleman in the Cameroon who donated his trophies to the university where he was the dean for many years. He retained his big five specimens and at last report, he had a large room of just big five mounts.

I've thought about this as well. I'm still young but, Lord willing, one day I'll get to the point where this becomes a problem. I think it would be nice to have a big fancy trophy room full of 1-2 specimens of each species you've hunted, and then have another smaller trophy room with neatly organized European mounts of all the duplicates of each species. If you shoot a duplicate of a species that just so happens to be much larger than the one you have mounted, then you can get it mounted and toss the cape of the older mount.....and do a "horn mount" on the older animal and put it in the European trophy room. Just a thought.....

google Lolli Brothers in Missouri. they buy and/or sell on consignment unwanted trophies.

I am already thinking about this. I think I am going to start not mounting animals and I have only been to Africa once. I saved some money from my recent trip by only euro mounting my eland. I am still mounting my blesbok and kudu and gemsbok. I am rugging my zebra.

I am going to KZN in may and plan to hunt Nyala,and some others but I don't know if I will mount anything but the Nyala.

Mounts just take up incredible amounts of room and if you ever have to move the stuff, what a pita.

Larry just put them up for sale here or on taxidermy.net. You can also just use ebay or something similar as well. I am sure you will get some takers. The problem is you will never get out of them what you paid for them. If you can live with that as well as parting with them in the first place then go for it. The auction houses are ok if you want to sell an entire lot and not hassle with it. I dont think in the long run you come out ahead money wise. If you can afford to take your time on the sales you will do ok. It all boils down to time, money, and space. I wish I had your problem. I have stuff all over the house because I dont have a trophy room as such. Like you I am mounting less each year.

Tough problem! My first house, bought when I went overseas, was 750sf.

Thanks for the comments.

Will, I have e mailed you some pictures.

I have an awful lot of stuff. It kind of sneaks up on you. I thought about building a new house. However, it seems kind of stupid to do so especially at my age. Not to mention that trophy rooms are not great investments in terms of getting your cost out of the house. I had a 60X30 room with 24 foot high ceilings in my prior house. When I tried to sell it, I quickly realized it had little if any value to a purchaser. I ended up losing a mountain of money on that house.

When I parted with as much money as I did yesterday, it really made me think about this. At this point, I wish I had had really good pictures framed and had saved all of the money I spent on the mounts with a few notable exceptions. I think I would have mounted the big 5 regardless and perhaps a few others.

I have no idea how many mounts that I have in there. I would guess it is something over 200.

Thanks again.

In case anyone had any doubts I have been to Larrys house and the trohpy room is just as large and grand as he describes. I am beginning to have the same problem but do not have that much floor space occupied. I have decided in recent years to mount a lot less as well.

Also, Larry, you had a chance to meet up with me Sunday although early and maybe the day would have been better. Will get in touch.

Larry

I have a large amount of mounted birds, especially waterfowl, most of them I had to sneak, smuggle, or otherwise bring back to mexico covertly... However i have never been into mounting big game animals, they just take up too much space, especially in an apartment etc.
When I go to africa next year I think I will just be bringing back pictures unless I shoot something exceptional and even then, might just stick to pictures.

Also trophy importation into mexico is a pain in the ass.

Would you post a few pictures of your trophy room on here Larry? Or would you not feel comfortable with that?

I have some. I am a computer retard. I will see if my assistant can do it tomorrow. She know infinitely more than me about those matters.

Larry,

Getting my CO on 1500 ft trophy room this week. The pain and expense of that (builder declared bankruptcy) leaves me more shaken than a buffalo charge. We must compare notes. Got your pics of Argentine...awesome...been on the run. Let's catch up.

Jeff

I've run out of room for trophies. I'm telling people if it has hair I'm not going to shoot it.

Dave

Here are some pictures from the trophy room. I didn't post them all. I am going to try and make them bigger.

The leopard with the springbok was just delivered. We had to move a bunch of things. My apologies for the mess.

The buffalo under the bison has bosses over 20 inches.

Financial security is first and foremost.

You have some beautiful trophies!
I live in a small house plus have no one there to say "you can't put that THERE!"

Larry, It broke my heart to think of leaving 11 mounts behind when moving out west. Downsizing from 2 homes to one, and lesser wall space came with a stiff price. The memories are still there, but I feel it was an unjust thing to decide who shall come and who would be left behind. Some life size and some shoulder mounts were left with a very respectable taxidermist 2 years ago... where they still sit. I have not mounted every animal I have taken, but those I did I fully intended to keep. Only you can decide, if I were to do it all again, I would not keep the taxidermists in business. The Eurpoean way is the best, simple and tastefull.

The North Texas Chapter of SCI has a "sensory safari" program that may be able to use some of your mounts. We prefer full body mounts (so the kids can see and feel what the animals are like, size and texture wise) . I believe tax deductable donations can be done. let me know if any of you are interested.

I hate to give any of them up. There are so many memories over so many years. I just have so many and more coming.

I have tried to keep most everything in the trophy room so it doesn't clutter the house. Plus it does give me a lot of pleasure to sit down there and recall the hunts.

I may not have started thinking about this had I not had so much come at one time this past weekend.

Mr Roberts, should I decide to donate, I will contact you.

Larry,

First off, I wish I got to hunt as much as you to have your current predicament.

You could always put an addition on the house, but design it in such a way that there are multiple smaller themed rooms that easily convert into suite sized bedrooms or additional garages when you move.

Another option is you could look into is procuring a small office building or showroom that has gone out of business and putting the animals there. I saw this done by a gentleman who had run out of garage space for all his cars - different items, but same idea. Put some couches, a pool table, and a minibar in it and you've got your own little man cave.

I too ahve limited space. I treat it as a museum, keeping things in storage and circulating the collection. You can empasize Africa one year, N. America the next, or any other way you wish to do it. I find over-filled trophy displays detract from the enjoyment. JMO.

One thing I thought I would add here is something I have done on my whitetails. I have over 50 deer that range from 120-199. What I have done is make sure I have the best 15 or so on the wall and if I shoot something better than some others I have I do an antler swap. That way I do not accumulate.

I have personally come to the conclusion --- it is not the price of the taxidermy work nor not even the price of the hunt -- it is the cost of adding several thousand square feet to the house for the friggen trophy room that will short yur lights out.
G