2/27/2016: I added a gun cabinet--see below.


My wife and I recently relocated from Atlanta to Jacksonville, Florida, and I am extremely fortunate in that my wonderful wife has allowed me to decorate her new home in Early Dead Animal!

I don't have a "trophy room" as such; all my animals and other hunt-related items are displayed in our great room. The rest of the house is "normal," except my wife has declared the enclosed Florida/sunroom as her "woman cave" and she can decorate it anyway she wants. Seems like a fair trade-off to me.

Some of the mounts technically belong to two of my sons who accompanied me on a safari to RSA (both) and Zimbabwe (youngest). They are adults now, in their mid- to late-thirties, busy with careers and don't have room for their trophies, so I am the caretaker for now. In fact, regrettably I don't have room myself for the best trophy, a pedestal mounted Cape buffalo my youngest son shot in Zimbabwe on his college graduation safari present.

The caribou was shot in Alaska on the McComb Plateau when I was stationed at Ft. Greely in 1976.

The bushbuck, sable, blue wildebeest, and genet cat were killed in Zimbabwe.

The other African animals came from the RSA.

The deer is a Texas whitetail I shot on a trip I won on a hunting show hosted by Dave Watson back in 2000--he still has a show, but the name is different now--back then it was Bushnell's Secrets of the Hunt. The hunt was filmed & my segment appeared on the next season's lineup.

The two hill stags (shoulder mount and skull) were taken in 2002 on a hunting estate in Scotland just outside Brora, a town right next to the North Sea--the estate was called Kintradwell and I had the pleasure of hunting free-range stags with outfitter Mike McCrave--the Man in the Kilt.

Also pictured is my small collection of antique pistols, and my very limited library.

And before anyone asks, the black and white kitty cat is NOT stuffed.



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Please raise the roof , those beasts need more head room . Very nice .I hope they can take the FL climate !

Really nice.I like the book case too.

Tastefully done. Very Nice!

Great room with some great trophies, thnks for sharing

Very nice set up!

quote:

decorate her new home in Early Dead Animal!

I just love that...... hope you don't mind but I WILL steal that!

Nice stuff there.


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I like it

Very nice indeed, sir!

Nice room

Looks like a place I would enjoy having a beer and relaxing. Thanks for posting, you have some beautify trophies!!!

Eddie

awesome room

Very nice trophy room, and welcome to Florida!

I could live with that very easily! Nice, tastefully done.

Very well done. Congratulations.
PS.......I've always thought a Zebra shoulder mount was beautiful.

First congratulations on great trophies! Very nicely done and organized.

Exceptional Tuxedo Cat taxidermy, did you shoot him and the civet with the same rifle?

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Originally posted by Big Wonderful Wyoming:
Exceptional Tuxedo Cat taxidermy, did you shoot him and the civet with the same rifle?

Please see last sentence in OP.

We used to shoot roos on a big farm outside the ACT limits in Australia every couple weeks.

The farmer told us to knock down every cat, fox, dingo and roo we saw. So naturally we did.

He invited us back about once a week to take care of his fox and roo problem. This goes on for a while, and eventually he calls and tells us we can't come back. We enquire as to why and he says, the wife's cat is missing and she blames your lot.

What part of shoot all cats did we misunderstand?

Oh well, I always have a laugh when I see a cat in a trophy room.

I added a gun cabinet.

I like this one for a couple of reasons. First, it doesn't have glass panels and doesn't scream "Guns!" to casual visitors.

Second, it opens easily enough to show friends who are gun enthusiasts and also trustworthy.

Third, it holds twelve guns in a compact space. The front and back rows are staggered and although it's somewhat a tight fit, none of the guns are touching.

The front row will take scoped rifles, while the back row is for shotguns (or rifles without scopes); I guess the only drawback is the back row restriction, but for my purposes, the space-saving factor makes up for it.

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I built a gun cabinet with solid wood doors maybe 40 years ago. I was proud of its design and workmanship, and it served me well for decades until four or five years ago when burglars stole the 35 rifles and shotguns I kept in it.

The few guns I have left are kept in a safe that is bolted to the floor and wall.

Bill Quimby

quote:

Originally posted by billrquimby:
I built a gun cabinet with solid wood doors maybe 40 years ago. I was proud of its design and workmanship, and it served me well for decades until four or five years ago when burglars stole the 35 rifles and shotguns I kept in it.

The few guns I have left are kept in a safe that is bolted to the floor and wall.

Bill Quimby

Mr. Quimby, I get the message. And yes, I'm taking a chance--not a huge one; we live in a relatively safe neighborhood, pretty far back in the subdivision, but I realize thieves are everywhere and a repairman, delivery person or whoever could see my taxidermy, and a closed cabinet, and figure out pretty quick what is in it.

Thing is, my only other option is to put all my guns in the back corners of a couple of closets. There's no place in the house a gun safe can go, really, and it sure wouldn't be very attractive in the living room.

I have been thinking about getting a security system installed. And better insurance coverage for my guns.

My cabinet also didn't have glass or scream "guns," and I made it a point to never show my guns to anyone.

(I had 35 high-end rifles and shotguns, including three replica Pennsylvania longrifles I built myself from maple blanks and parts.)

The cabinet was seven feet wide and seven feet high and looked more like something to hold clothes than guns.

Our home is in a quiet area in the foothills above Tucson. Each home is on a minimum of one acre, and most are built on ridges above natural desert. Homes are far apart, but neighbors can see each other's homes across the arroyos.

The gun cabinet was in my trophy room, though, and as you said, after years of having no problems, we had workmen in our home to repair damage from a minor fire in a bedroom. To reach it, they had to walk through the trophy room.

Six months later, while we were at our cabin, our home was burglarized and my guns were gone.

The crooks drove up in a pickup truck. While two of them went around the back of the house and broke a kitchen window to get inside, a third man started cutting and stacking palo verde branches. Our neighbors said they thought we had had hired landscapers.

The insurance company's appraiser said I had lost an estimated $42,000 worth of firearms. Dumb me, I hadn't increased covered as the years went by and the guns increased in value and I had only $16,000 in coverage.

Bill Quimby

No idea why, but I'm really drawn to that Red Stag mount. The idea of taking one of those in Scotland still pulls at me...