I may be building a new home and will have a trophy room. What is the minimum ceiling height? My larger trophies are elk, kudu, sable, gemsbuck, cape buffalo.
Thanks

For large horns and antlers 10'

A vaulted cieling is also valuable for hanging options

10' will work 12 better so the mounts will be high enough kids can't reach them.

My friend's Kudu mount was 6' from the bottom of the neck to the tip of the horns. He had an 8' ceiling. So he raised the ceiling by changing the trusses from flat to cathedral, and while he was at it remodeled the rest of the house. The results look great but a LOT of work.
I have a 14' ceiling so I just put a screw in the wall and hung up my Kudu.

Mark

Mine is a combination of 10 and 14 feet; there is a four foot wide strip where it drops from 14 to 10; I have a topi, Grant's reedbuck, ibex, and blesbok on that. The bigger stuff is in the 14 foot section. I would never go higher than 14.

More importantly, sheath it with 3/4 inch plywood.

the taller the better imo. depending on what you can build. here is an 18' ceiling in my living room.
http://forums.accuratereloadin...1821043/m/3061098812

the elk is a total of 5' tall from base of chest to tip of tallest antler.

The most you can get.......it will fill up and you will want the room.

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Originally posted by AnotherAZWriter:

More importantly, sheath it with 3/4 inch plywood.

OSB is much less expensive and will hold any screw/animal you wish to hang

My side walls are 10 feet and with a cathedral ceiling the end walls are about 19 feet at the peak, I have 3 Kudu skull mounts (and an Impala) over an 8 foot french door on one end and on the other end is a ceiling height stone fireplace holding my first Cape Buffalo. What they are suggesting about sheathing with plywood or OSB is great advice, makes the walls much stronger and you can mount things anywhere.

My side walls are 12', which allows ell or stag to be mounted and some smaller things below. Peak of my ceiling is 16'. That is nice.
I put 2x12 blocking around room 3-4' down from ceiling and covered the walls with 1/2" plywood before drywall. Makes hanging easier

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Originally posted by cooperjd:
the taller the better imo. depending on what you can build. here is an 18' ceiling in my living room.
http://forums.accuratereloadin...1821043/m/3061098812

the elk is a total of 5' tall from base of chest to tip of tallest antler.

There is a limit; my living room has 20 foot ceilings; I have no mounts in it and don't intend to, but 20 feet is too high. In fact, 20 feet is too for anything except large paintings. Makes for terrible acoustics as well.

My family room is 18' and I put an ibex up fairly high and a croc flat skin near the top also and the giraffe shoulder mount needs a bit of height also.
If you can make it to 18' or so I definitely would.

10' is not enough. My gunshop has 10' sidewalls and a 12' ridge. Its not enough if you have or will have several large trophies. The kudus set about 5'8" at the breast with the horns 6" shy of the 12' mark, yes they are large kudu. I can't fit a big eland here.

My walls are 13' high, cathedral ceiling peaks at 24'. If I ever build another house and room, the next walls will be 14' high. With large animals like kudu, moose, elk, they are still not that far off the floor.

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Originally posted by K Evans:
My side walls are 10 feet and with a cathedral ceiling the end walls are about 19 feet at the peak, I have 3 Kudu skull mounts (and an Impala) over an 8 foot french door on one end and on the other end is a ceiling height stone fireplace holding my first Cape Buffalo. What they are suggesting about sheathing with plywood or OSB is great advice, makes the walls much stronger and you can mount things anywhere.

Does the plywood or OSB need to be glued to the studs, or is nailing it good enough>

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I built my room 28 X 40 feet with 12 foot side walls. By building these side walls this height you have room to put some larger animals on them. On all my walls that I am hanging animals I covered them with 3/4 inch plywood. Over this plywood I covered them with 1 X 6 incense tongue and groove cedar. I now have walls of 1 1/2 inches and I don't have to find a stud to hang my larger animals. My ceiling is 24 foot.

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Originally posted by df06:

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Originally posted by K Evans:
My side walls are 10 feet and with a cathedral ceiling the end walls are about 19 feet at the peak, I have 3 Kudu skull mounts (and an Impala) over an 8 foot french door on one end and on the other end is a ceiling height stone fireplace holding my first Cape Buffalo. What they are suggesting about sheathing with plywood or OSB is great advice, makes the walls much stronger and you can mount things anywhere.

Does the plywood or OSB need to be glued to the studs, or is nailing it good enough>

Screw or nail it to the studs. Glue is used on sub-floors to heplp prevent squeaks.

Being a Taxidermist I would prefer the mounts to be eye level or slightly higher. Up 12-14 feet up kind of takes away from seeing all the attention to detail that goes into a high quality mount, looks nice higher for big mounts, Elephant, buffalo and skull/horn mounts, jmo.

Went to a seminar at DSC this year put on by Julian & Sons on design of trophy rooms. They really seem to know what they are talking about. I think recommendation was 12 to 14' depending on the size of the room.

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Originally posted by lavaca:
Went to a seminar at DSC this year put on by Julian & Sons on design of trophy rooms. They really seem to know what they are talking about. I think recommendation was 12 to 14' depending on the size of the room.

I would totally agree with that and Paulbacs - up too high and there is not detail. I have several elk, caribou, moose, kudu, etc. up high, but smaller stuff like klipspringer and warthogs look better lower, as do deer skull mounts and euro mounts of hartebeest, etc.

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Originally posted by lavaca:
Went to a seminar at DSC this year put on by Julian & Sons on design of trophy rooms. They really seem to know what they are talking about. I think recommendation was 12 to 14' depending on the size of the room.

I inquired with them as well, when I built my new room. They were north or 100K for JUST THE MILLWORK!!!

I gave myself a moment and didn't do the detailed millwork that they are famous for.

My room is a bit different. I needed as much square feet as possible and only had a certain sized footprint to use. (zoning) I have a 25 foot "do not exceed" limit as well. With roof pitch and all the other engineering, I had a 17 foot ceiling max. So, doing the math, I built a room with a balcony that surrounds the main open room. The ceiling is only 8 feet in the balcony area and under the balcony. It is actually fine for the regular stuff, without towering horns or antlers.

The balcony doesn't go around completely, there is a 25 foot and a 14 foot wall that both go floor, to ceiling, plenty of room for anything, including an Elephant shoulder mount. (planned)

The exterior balcony wall, gives me a third level wall to use as well.

Build the happy medium between your unlimited desire and whats practical. Use your height wisely.

Interesting post to read. Because of cost my current trophy room is 9' 5" and needs another couple of feet at least. My buddy was at 14 feet and it was so high all we could see was the base of the neck and mount. I really like the 11-12 ft range but having a peak in the middle is not bad either. All depends on amount of available space and $$$$. I had less $$$$ so I could only go 9'5".

An elk mount in an upright posture will be 6' from tip of antlers to bottom of brisket. You won't want to have the tips touching the ceiling either, so add another 6"-8" onto that vertical dimension ...having said that, a 10' ceiling with elk on the menu is not enough. 12' side walls would be my minimum if you're going to have vaults that go higher, 14' if you won't. I think you'll be surprised how much wall space these critters take up!

Of course, you can choose a mannequin arrangement that's not as tall, but why limit your options right out of the gate!?

Cheers!
Lee

Ten feet is good.

Eleven feet is better.

Twelve feet is best.

Any higher than twelve and you're staring at chins and briskets.

These are eleven to the coffer and twelve to the ceiling.

Will, you could open a Cabelas in there :-)

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Originally posted by Biebs:
Will, you could open a Cabelas in there :-)

If we evicted the lawyer, it could be a fine gun room and book store. Like Kevin's.

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If we evicted the lawyer

That could be messy. I hear they leave a slime trail, like a slug :-)

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Originally posted by safari-lawyer:

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Originally posted by Biebs:
Will, you could open a Cabelas in there :-)

If we evicted the lawyer, it could be a fine gun room and book store. Like Kevin's.

Would that be Kevin's in Thomasville? Just curious because I enjoy dropping by and browsing in their gun room upstairs over the store.

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Originally posted by Biebs:

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If we evicted the lawyer

That could be messy. I hear they leave a slime trail, like a slug :-)

That's why I keep rugs on the floors.

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Originally posted by jdollar:

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Originally posted by safari-lawyer:

quote:

Originally posted by Biebs:
Will, you could open a Cabelas in there :-)

If we evicted the lawyer, it could be a fine gun room and book store. Like Kevin's.

Would that be Kevin's in Thomasville? Just curious because I enjoy dropping by and browsing in their gun room upstairs over the store.

Yes. One and the same.

Slither away! :-)

I had my house built with an extra large living room knowing that with my limited funds it would have to double as a trophy room. It has a 12' ceiling and that is just high enough for my kudu's horns not to hit the ceiling and still have clearance for a 6' man not to get the top of his head into the long hairs hanging off the kudu's neck.

I just did the entire first floor at 18 feet. No issues.

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Originally posted by holysmoke:
I just did the entire first floor at 18 feet. No issues.

Tough to appreciate large trophies without lots of height. Got 18 feet here as well. Big old Grizz rug looks right at home with the elk.

Grizz

I'm 6'1"+ and this is a 9' ceiling. 10 feet would be a lot better.

My walls are 9 foot but my ceiling is 21 feet to inside peak. I have an octagon window just down from the ceiling.My mounts are staggered and they look nice that way. I had to move my kudu from center to put my 73 inch moose in the center. Kudu took a backseat and went on another wall.