One day, not too long from now I'm going to have to start hanging heads. What brings me to my question is that I've got a box sitting in my son's garage that has to go into storage. It's a cape buffalo mount. I don't know how much it weighs, but it's not light; definitely a 2-man+ job just to get the box into the back of a pick-up so I can get it to the storage facility. If I can get that done without hurting my 61-year-old back I feel like I will have accomplished something.

Fast-forward, and at some point I will have to man-handle this head onto a wall; likewise a 6X6 elk.

How do you get these heavy heads into position? I can hang a deer, but even my Aoudad is close to being unmanageable when you are ten-feet up a ladder. Have you found some trick, or is it just more men and more ladders?

I only like touching the horns when I'm hanging heads. With heavy mounts, how do you avoid putting your hand on the hair or skin? Is it best to wear a cotton glove to keep perspiration off the mount?

That crate in your garage weighs about 200 lbs. It doesn't hurt to ruffle the hair a little when you hang them, it can't be avoided, just brush it back into place and they will be fine. No need to wear gloves, quick contact with your hands won't do anything to the mount. There are no tricks, I've hung hundreds of heads, it just takes man power, if you are hanging your heavy heads up high, don't do it from ladders, I recommend renting a painter's scaffold. It can be very dangerous trying to hang the big heads using ladders.

It's no joke what Jerry states
about ladders. Scary memeories here.
8 years ago Myself and two helpers were hanging a very old redone moose 14' above a fireplace, the moose was 250lbs, a ladder collapsed and I fell,They lost control and balance on the moose. The moose came down on top of me and its front brow tine pierced my right arm passed thru it between my bicep and the bone. It went completely thru and the tine pierced my chest. My ribs stopped it.
Another inch in and it would have hit my lung and then my heart. I got my first ambulance ride with that one.
I'll rent a scaffold everytime , no matter what it costs.
Ladders are NOT worth my life.

Damn!

Maybe I better just sit the heads around the wall, on the floor. Talk about pay-back. Kill a moose, and then get killed by that same moose.

Scaffolding it is. Thanks.