These are some pix of my older trophy room. Photos of the newer one I built, which contains all my critters from Africa and New Zealand, are in the A Few Test Shots thread.

The ones in this message are overall views, while the ones in the reply are closer looks at some of the critters.

I originally built the room and then did all the remodeling work, including building the cabinets and end tables, which are made from 50-yr. old recycled pine paneling from a downtown Phoenix landmark that was razed when Chase Field was built. The chest is also something I built. The real problem will arise when I get my 11 African mounts back. -TONY

This is through the entry from the living room, which once was a 6'-wide sliding door. AZ blackbear rug on the wall with my grandfather's Parker Bros. 10 ga.



The finished alcove. Coyote has a Gambel's quail in it's mouth. There are bear skulls, blackbuck horns, a couple small whitetail racks and Mexico Coues deer rack scattered about. The turkey is an eastern from MO, but I didn't do anything with the Merriam's, Rio Grande, Osceola or Gould's that I also killed over the years. On the wall with the tom are a pair of Mearns quail, chukar and flying ringneck.



Photo from the entry toward the left. BC blackbear hides hanging in the corner and covering the armchair in lower left corner. A mountain lion hide drapes the chest and a blackbuck hide covers the end table. That's a Russian boar in the upper left next to my best mulie buck, which is hung next to a mulie doe. Antlers on the lamp shade are an SCI book blacktail buck (CA) that wasn't officially entered because I don't do record books.



Photo from the entry to the right. 5X6 elk antlers in corner and horns from a Santa Cruz Island Merino ram on the table atop a hairless deer hide. Fish over bear is a 14# brown trout, Alaskan pike upper rght is 23 lbs. That's a bobcat rug on the wall and just the very bottom of a BC mountain caribou showing.



Photo of wall over the entry. NWT central barren ground 'bou to the left and an AK barren ground in the middle. Lower left is my first Coues deer, a javelina and 3.5# grayling from a river that runs into Great Bear Lake, NWT. Whitetail is from MO, mulie is my first mule deer buck, killed in 1961. There's a separate photo of the 60" BC moose in the next message.

Here are a few close-ups of various trophies.



Two AZ 'lopes and a TX whitetail.





North Kaibab buck and his mate. Little Coues buck on plaque.





BC 60" moose and the nose of a 34# lake trout from the Yukon to the right. The two exotic sheep behind the moose are a Corsican and a black Hawaiian. The antlers below the moose are a small 4x4 mulie.





Coues deer on left, my first AZ 'lope (1963)in the middle and a Montana 'lope on the right.

Love it....absolutely love it. Very fine trophies!


Regards,
Dave

Wow!! Alot to see and take in. The Alaskan Pike and the AK barren ground boo are my favorites!

You will definitely have trouble when your other dozen animals show up! Maybe they should direct some of those John X animals my way to hang out with their relatives here

Did you make the mirror hanging to the left? Are those sheds/racks used? Are there any closets or spots behind the walls you could knock out and make more enclaves out of?

Brad

Hey Tony!!



I see that you've been doin' a little house cleaning since the last time I was over!!!



Looks good my friend!! Any ideas what you're going to do when the Afican stuff gets back? Maybe it's time to consider an ADDITION!!!



-Mike

Thanks Outdoor Writer, shows what one can do with limited space. Looks like you'll have to break down a wall and expand a bit once you get more though ;-)

Frans

Very tastefully done, IMO.
You have some very fine trophy quality Tony!

Brad,



I was in AK to do an article on sheefish for Outdoor Life when I wrote regularly for it. One night over dinner, the lodge owner mentioned a place he knew that produced a steady catch of big pike, and I love to catch big pike. So I convinced him to take me there the next day.



The 23-lb. pike was one of 102 over 10 lbs. that we caught during a single, long day of fishing in a tiny backwater slough off the Hotlitna River. It probably wasn't 100 yards across. Six of the ones I hooked were over 20. Caught them all on largemouth bass-type spinnerbaits.



The AK 'bou was killed on the Mulchatna on an outfitted but do-it-yourself hunt, i.e no guides. I had 17 big, bedded bulls to choose from after I had glassed them from a mile or more away and stalked to within about 50 yards. The one I shot "made" me and stood up to check me out before I could look all the other ones over. So I figured, "what the hell" and put a .264 bullet in his chest. I still believe there were at least two larger ones in the bunch.



I can't recall what the actual unofficial score was, but even though it had weak bezes, at the time it was enough to make the B&C book. A couple L./R. drop-outs of it that I had done for an article several years ago are at the bottom.



The mirror, which is nothing but cheap plaster cast, entails a funny story. My wife spent 16 years as the manager of a floral shop. During a move to a new location about 3 years ago, she discovered the mirror stored under 6 inches of dust. The lady that owned it was 85 years old and told Ellen to just take it home since it was all broken anyway. In reality, there wasn't a thing wrong with it. Unfortunately, it will be the first "casualty" when I start looking for additional space. -TONY



P.S. Did you see the bear images I had added to the other thread of mine in this section?

Hey Bigga Mike,

Yeah, Ellen finally made me put the rifles away and get rid of all the stuff still lying around from the Africa trip. She needed the room to do Christmas.

Mark finally got our bear hides back from the tannery and will start work on mine shortly.

So what's happening with you? If you're out and about in the neighborhood whenever, holler on me. -TONY

Frans,

That room is about as expanded as it's gonna get with something on every side except the back wall where the bear rug hangs. But if I added on there, I would be close to being in my neighbor's backyard.

BUT...not too far off, I am adding a 14'X 25' addition on the present 13' X 22' family room. So I'll be working toward using at least some of it for just the 11 critters from Africa.

Thanks, Nickudu. A guy sure can collect a lot of stuff over 45 years or so. -TONY

Nice room O.W.! I always figured that having studs on 16" centers was overkill unless you planned to put them to good use (like you have!).

Cheers,
Canuck

ps: Hey Mike! Nice to see you online!

Canuck,

The walls are on 16" centers but the upper wall over the entry has 2"X 6"s on 24" centers. So I hung the heaviest critters where I could use a stud, then used some heavy duty hangers for sheetrock for some of the smaller stuff. Of course, I'm always concerned about the big crash occuring.

Fortunately, even though Edgar the Moose's antlers weigh 65 lbs. on their own, he shouldn't be going anywhere. He's suspended from a long and heavy lag bolt into a stud. -TONY

Hmmm, it appears all of the threads in this section have been chopped up into several itty-bitty ones during the changeover. I'm adding the most recent acquisition back on the end.-TONY

The bear and landscape were done by Marc Plunkett at Wildlife Creations in Phoenix, AZ. I built the roll-around wooden base, which matches the trim, tables and cabinets in my trophy room.

Those who had viewed this thread early on will also note the addition of lots of African stuff about the room. I finally got it all here. Now just waiting on the capes to be tanned before getting them mounted.



And a closer look:

Not bad at all! You couch kind of well, nevermind.

My mounts from Africa are finally getting done by Marc Plunkett at Wildlife Creations. Here's the gemsbok, and the kudu is almost ready. Next up is the nyala. -TONY

Very nice themeroom OD.W

Tony,

What is the ceiling height in your room?

The problem I'm dealing with right now is that I have a large 18x20' room with only an 8' ceiling. I had a new roof put on less than a year ago - if I had planned ahead I would have seen about raising the ceiling using scissor trusses or something else.

Oday450,

This room and the new addition are built to the same specs with a hallway and small outside patio between the two. The only difference is the length -- one is 20' and the other is 36'.

Both outside walls, which are 8' high, are 14' from the old house wall. The shed-type roof then slopes up toward the house to 12' high. All the mounts with tall antlers are hung on the high wall, for the most part.

I had to hang the moose lower because the height from nape of neck to brisket was more than the distance from the bottom of the windows to the top of the doorway. But it's still plenty high enough not to impede on people traffic. -TONY

Very nice trophy room thanks for sharing it with use, Bill

Thanks, Bill. -TONY

quote:

Originally posted by Outdoor Writer:
Oday450,

This room and the new addition are built to the same specs with a hallway and small outside patio between the two. The only difference is the length -- one is 20' and the other is 36'.

Both outside walls, which are 8' high, are 14' from the old house wall. The shed-type roof then slopes up toward the house to 12' high. All the mounts with tall antlers are hung on the high wall, for the most part.

I had to hang the moose lower because the height from nape of neck to brisket was more than the distance from the bottom of the windows to the top of the doorway. But it's still plenty high enough not to impede on people traffic. -TONY

Thanks Tony. It's quite impressive.

This is my latest addition to the trophy room, delivered yesterday by my taxidermist, Marc Plunkett of Wildlife Creations. I killed this management buck in 2007 with Atkinson Expeditions in north-central Colorado.

It's a pedestal mount, but I still need to build the wooden base part in my shop. It will be about 3' tall. The deer head is removable and swivels in place for proper positioning. It was made to sit in the corner to the far left where the bear hide is hanging in the 3rd photo down in this thread.

First photo is in the field. The other three are just quickies taken at delivery. Note the different positions in the last two pix.

P.S. - I need to get the base built quickly because the mount won't remain on the dinning room table long, according to my wife.

This is another mount Chris Krueger recently finished for me. It's resting on the table in my old trophy room until I can get to building the pedestal base. He is now working on two Coues bucks that will be in a similar pose/setting.

Those are some very nice trophies.