Kind of premature but will be doing a hunt in SA and would like some opinions on minimum ceiling height. I have 8' ceilings now and can vault ~8-10' of wall space. Maybe get 9.5'+. Will a Kudu and Gemsbok work with that height? This has got to be the place to ask. Thanks, smoker1

If you have the floor space, pedestal mounts of kudu and gemsbok would work great within your 8 foot ceiling height. Shoulder mounts of the smaller stuff will be fine.

In my opinion it is not so much the ceiling height that could be an issue. You can still hang your larger animals at a pleasing level. Where it does not work well is in a small room because the animals will stick out from the wall three to four feet. You need a large enough room so that you are not running into mounts. Hanging them up higher than nine feet is great because it gets them out of the way but you have to be careful with that also. If the room is too small your animals will be too high for a good view and you will be looking up under their chins.

Be thinking about your placement when you are working with your taxidermist. If they are hanging up high, select some forms that are in a"sneak" or droop position with the heads lowered. If the animals are hanging at eye level select more of an alert position. 8 foot ceilings are not ideal but plenty of people make it work. Work closely with your taxidermist on this and I think you will be happy. I hope this helps.

Great info Grafton! The head position when elevated does really make a big difference. I have a Muley mount that is not huge by any strech but there is ~ 4" from the top of his horns to the ceiling and that really looks nice. So I figure if I'm lucky and get either a Kudu or Gemsbok I'll need a little more distance from the floor. smoker1

Grafton is correct about large mounts sticking straight out in a small room. They eat up space. Consider a mount such as this. A straight semi-sneak gemsbok would not work in this room, but this right turn works fine.



I have a total of 5 animals (with 1 to 2 more on the way) in this study which is probably smaller than your average bedroom and they all work fine. Make good use of your corners.

Haven't seen many trophy mounts but the right turn is very intersting. Normally my mounts are the 'sneak' straight on but the turn sure does utilize space efficiently. Thanks Jorge400, appreciate your time to help. smoker1

Hey Smoker,
if you don't mind I will just throw in my 2 cents, I have a bunch of mounts, and the higher the ceilings the better. I have 14' vaulted so two walls with cathedral ceilings leaves plenty of room for a big eland and big kudu.

Also, let me just advise you that I personally don't like straight mounts of any kind, even sneaks. For some reason, to me they just look funny. I have a friend of mine who went to africa shot a bunch of stuff, and I had spent quite a few hours in his trophy room, and I just thought to myself, man I really hate all of his mounts, and I couldn't figure out why. Then I started talking to my taxidermist one day, and he said, straight mounts never look right. And it clicked...all of my friends mounts are straight.

Food for thought, consider where you will hand the animals, and before they are mounted, map out the possible turns you would want, I always try to turn animals into the room, or towards doors. Even though I know I won't be living in the same house in 5 yrs, I figure I can still make due as long as they have some turn.

Many taxidermist like to just do the same mounts over and over, so I encourage you to get onto the Mckenzie website and just look at their online catalog, it will give you some ideas about mounts and differnt poses. Sometimes when I just want a 5 minute break, I pull out a pad and start taking notes of how I want my stuff mounted while looking at the catalog. Hope this helps.

You can still make it work, even if your ceilings are not that high. Mine are at 7'10" and while seemingly a little crowded, they still make nice trophy rooms. Look how low you have to mount a kudu to get the horns to clear the ceiling.



Free standing pedestals are a really good way to go, and I have used my friends swinging mount on the wall with success.

Anton What a different mount. Is that yours?

Thank you all so much. Your great info has saved me many mistakes. What creative ideas!!! smoker1

Anton that's one of the coolest mounts i ever saw. Is it yours?

Its not mine, but almost.

http://forums.accuratereloadin...1821043/m/7461048101

Scroll down.

quote:

Originally posted by Oryxhunter1983:

Many taxidermist like to just do the same mounts over and over, so I encourage you to get onto the Mckenzie website and just look at their online catalog, it will give you some ideas about mounts and differnt poses. Sometimes when I just want a 5 minute break, I pull out a pad and start taking notes of how I want my stuff mounted while looking at the catalog. Hope this helps.

One of the things I do is try to make a stick sketch (only kind I can make!) of exactly how I remember the animal looking when I shot it. I try to do it that night or the next day so it is fresh in my mind. On some animals it may not matter, but on others it might be important when you think about your mount.

The other thing I do is save images I see online into just a taxidermy folder on my desktop so that I can look at those also before I make a decision.

Just FYI.

Gotogirl- I do the same thing, my pics is filled with mounts...haha...

Shoot animals with small horns. Just a though

samir, never thought of that!

I figured out where I wanted each one on which wall, then figured the turn angles so they would be looking at the archway you pass through to enter the room (using the opposite, left and right walls) and gave these angles to my Taxidermist and asked him to do what he could to match up. I also have low ceilings (7'-10") and had the Kudu mounted in a sneak position. The room was formerly the 2 car attached garage, so that will give you an idea of space.
Now all I have to do is build a new garage!

I have a good number of trophies and an 8 foot roof but my mate has about the same with a 14 foot roof and i can tell you right now that the more hight you have the more impressive your trophies will look! TRUST ME

Zhaba is correct, look at my ceiling height, it is 10 foot and 12 foot in the center. Just look at how many more trophies can be displayed in the 12', Full mount bushbuck with a buffalo over the top. Mine were set as they are by HOA restrictions.

Nganga

Thank you folks. good suggestions and ideas. Trying to find more pictures of mounted Kudu and Gemsbuck in varying positions. Hunt went very well. Happy to be home. smoker1