You need a new and bigger house now!!!

quote:

Another Safari Or Two & I'll Need A Bigger House

That's a nice problem to have. I just starting bumping animals out of my room to other rooms in the house preparing for my next round of trophies from the taxidermst.

You have some very nice mounts.

What's up with the pink walls?

Nothing goes with dead animals like pepto gay pink walls!

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That's a nice problem to have. I just starting bumping animals out of my room to other rooms in the house preparing for my next round of trophies from the taxidermst.

You have some very nice mounts.

Thanks, my South African taxidernist does a great job on everything.

I already have mounts all over the rest of the house. I've reserved room for some mounts in process and a few more that I hope to harvest this fall -- but, after that, I'm about full.

I'd love to have a bigger house -- and this is a great time to buy one -- but, it sure would be a pain in the butt to move 20 years worth of junk. LOL

quote:

Originally posted by D99:
What's up with the pink walls?

Nothing goes with dead animals like pepto gay pink walls!

That wall isn't really pink, it's actually mauve and quite a lot darker than it appears in pictures. And, there's a story that goes with it:

Originally, the plan was to panel that wallin dark oak to match the french doors. We mounted the animals that would be displayed there while we were doing some other work, to get them out of the way, and see how they looked vis a vis positioning. Meanwhile, lots of folks visited the house and many of them suggested that they thought we should forget the paneling, they liked it just the way it is.

So, my wife and I decided to leave it alone for a bit and take a poll of everyone that had occasion to see the room. Over several months, we collected something over 125 votes, 80% or so voting to leave the wall alone.

So, I'd like to have the oak still, but I've been in no hurry to change it and may never as I'm really running out of room, have no plans to stop hunting, and must either build an addition to the house or just move on to a bigger place.

In my opionion very few animals look decent on wood paneling. Mountain goats, polar bears, addax, and scimiar horned oryx come to mind.

Mostly you want some kind of transition.

Mauve? That word isn't in my vocabulary, as it hurts my tongue to say it and my ears to hear it.

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Mauve? That word isn't in my vocabulary, as it hurts my tongue to say it and my ears to hear it.

My wife isn't in the room, so I'll say it for her:

"You must be a BARBARIAN!!" LOL

Excellent, some very nice mounts there. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for your gracious comments.

The pictures, the video's and the mounts sure do keep the memories alive. Hunting, particularly African hunting, deserves to be relived every day of one's short life.

Very nice trophies and mounts OHH.
LDK

I don't care who you are that is one very nice collection.

I'm proud that I took each and every trophy in an ethical way using a handgun --

But, in the final analysis, the quality of the trophies is a product of the skill of the PH -- he finds the beasts; coordinates the stalk; and points out which of the beautiful beasts to put the crosshairs on -- and if, God forbid, I make a poor shot, he helps me find the wounded animal as quickly as possible such that it can be dispatched with minimal suffering. Then, the taxidermist puts the memories on permanent display for me.

All in all, it's a pretty good deal.

Thanks for sharing the fine trophies and mounts from your beautiful home.

I'll bet the lion taken with a handgun is a great story!

By the way... when I was a lad, our landlord painted the exterior of the building "Tahiti Coral." All the peers in the 'hood insisted it was just plain bright pink.

I look back with thanksgiving for the landlord's creative palette that had the same effect on me as the name "Sue" in the Johnny Cash classic:

"Well, I hit him hard right between the eyes
And he went down but, to my surprise,
He come up with a knife and cut off a piece of my ear.
But I busted a chair right across his teeth
And we crashed through the wall and into the street
Kicking and a' gouging in the mud and the blood and the beer.

...But ya ought to thank me, before I die,
For the gravel in ya guts and the spit in ya eye ..."

The Lion with a handgun is a handful -- but the real challenge, in my mind at least, is taking the Cape Buff cleanly with a handgun.

There is nothing quite like Mbogo to get one's heart pumping.

That's a nice variety. Any leopard or elephant?

G'morning, OldHandgunHunter-

I'll bet the Buff really did get the ol' ticker pumping.

Which caliber did you use on him?

Thanks again for sharing.

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Originally posted by yukon delta:
That's a nice variety. Any leopard or elephant?

Not yet -- I've hunted Leopard without success, but I'll be doing it again in a month or so and expect that I'll have my chance this go around. Last time I fed a huge Tom for over two weeks without getting a shot at him -- but a woman took him shortly after my hunt and he's now her Muzzleloader world record. I'm happy for her, he was one gorgeous beast.

I have Elephant on my future agenda, but it's something of a problem for me because virtually all of the locations with the big tskers are either off limits for American elephant hunters (like Mozambique) or hunting with handguns is illegal (like Botswana). One day everything will come together and I'll get it done.

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Originally posted by Hawkeye Mountaineer:
G'morning, OldHandgunHunter-

I'll bet the Buff really did get the ol' ticker pumping.

Which caliber did you use on him?

Thanks again for sharing.

I shot the Buff with an Encore chambered in the wildcat caliber 378GNR. It's basically the ballistic equivalent of the 375 H&H, but optimized for the short barrel pistol and without the belt you have on the 375 H&H, so that one can reload quickly and while keeping one's eye on the beast. Belted cartidges, dangerous game and single shot pistols are not a good combination. I used 300gr Barnes solids at about 2500fps on the Buff.

You can hunt ele in Zim with a handgun. Buzz guided several for it last year. It also happens to be the cheapest ele you can hunt in any of the countries and many of the world's best PHs are guiding there.

Howdy OldHandgunHunter --

Thanks for the reply. I guess a 378GNR with 300 gr Barnes solids at about 2500 fps would do the job nicely on the ol' Buff.

I recently acquired my first hunting handgun and look forward to trying it out on Whitetails and perhaps Black Bear here in Appalachia this season. First, I plan on spending more time at the range-- and the likes of what is on your mauve walls would be a long way off.

Meanwhile, thanks for letting us share the joy vicariously!

Don't you take no $h!t from these guys about your mauve walls!! I sleep in a room every night that is supposed to be "mango" (my ol' lady has the weirdest taste in colors and decor). It actually looks more like a melted cream-sickle.
Awsome looking trophies! My hat is off to you and my respect given. I'm an up and comer into hangun hunting and would love to try a short gun on my next outting in Africa.

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Originally posted by yukon delta:
You can hunt ele in Zim with a handgun. Buzz guided several for it last year. It also happens to be the cheapest ele you can hunt in any of the countries and many of the world's best PHs are guiding there.

I've always expected that Zim would be where I would take my elephant -- but, I've committed to not hunting there as long as Robert Mugabe survives in power. This is a personal view and I don't expect that everyone agrees with my position on this, but I also don't expect that I'll be changing my mind. I just can't help but believe some of my money would find its way into his hands and I can't accept that outcome.

Very nice animals.

I would guess that the hardest to get with a pistola would be the Vaal Rehbok and not the lion or buffalo.

You and I are probably alone on saying no to Uncle Bob. For me its to close to hunting Chamois in Hitlers Germany.

Have you had any fading of your mounts from the sun?

You're quite correct, I do consider the Vaal Rhebok to have been the hardest won of all my handgun trophies. I finally connected with mine, on my last hunting day, after five days of hard hunting and several misses at distances approaching 300 yards. But, when I finally did score, we had successfully stalked to within 25-30 yards -- a major accomplishment with these guys. The only problem was that, at the end of the stalk, all that was exposed to me was his head and about six inches of VERY skinny neck. But, I got a shot through that neck and it was over for the old ram. The Vaal Rhebok is a challenge to anyone and something really special to a handgun hunter.

He was taken in the Baviaan River area -- BIG country -- vast expanses of true mountain country, reminiscent of Colorado:



We would spot a group of these little guys from 2-3 miles away and, if we took one step in their direction, they were gone in a flash. Success finally came when we determined that they viewed danger primarily as something that came from below and, if we approached them by circling around them for miles and then climbing the mountain from the other side to get above them, they wouldn't be nearly so alert to the danger. Elevations even at the base of those mountains is significant and the lack of oxygen at their peaks was another challenge for this old guy -- it was like hunting Mountain Sheep.

That said, I'll be doing it again. I thoroughly enjoyed that big open country and the smallish, very wary beasts that live there: Vaal Rhebok; Black and White Springbok; Southern Mountain Reedbuck; Red Lechwe; and, Bontebok. They were all a handful in that tough country.

I haven't had a problem with sun fading as yet, but it may be coming. One thing that helps, I'm guessing, is that the trophy room doesn't get any direct sunlight. It can be bright in there from time to time -- after all it's Florida! -- but the windows are shielded from direct sunlight by some high shrubbery. We'll see.