Give them back to nature. Ash to ash, dust to dust.
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What do you do with all those antlers...
- Thread starter MattMan81
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I budget for a mount every year. I still have the memories...way more of those than bucks I kill...Hopefully both last a lifetime.
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I did say it was a big box right? I do need to qualify that statement by saying, with a few exceptions, it needs to be a big box because of quantity, not quality (translate to "I shot a lot of little bucks in my early years.")
I grew up when the fellas would head to PA with rifles for opening week and a "buck was a buck was a buck". My Dad's hunting mentor said it was a lot harder to get the smallest ones because you had to get close enough to be sure they had antlers. It was buck only.
He had a big box filled with spikes, and some of those were teeny tiny. Of course he had some nice big bucks mounted as well, but he showed that box to me with pride and never gloated about "trophy" deer.
They all thought I was strange for letting bucks pass.
I had dreams of having a grand trophy room/bar room someday then when I realized how hard I'd have to work for that I realized why all the rich dentists and lawyers buy their trophies via guided hunts.
So all mine live in the basement where only I see them, but it's all good. I earned them, they are 100% mine,and I get to relive those memories every time I go down there.
So all mine live in the basement where only I see them, but it's all good. I earned them, they are 100% mine,and I get to relive those memories every time I go down there.
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When I was around Traverse City MI, there were two Woodland's Creek furniture stores. They were amazing with rustic and rustic/contemporary decor. I used to drive out and spend part of a day roaming and looking about and watching them make furniture. They had all sorts of stuff like that. If I ever have a cabin or lodge, I think a certain sort of that can be done quite tastefully and be pretty neat.
It's hard to get an idea of how nice some of this stuff is without an in store experience, but..they have an online marketplace it seems...
Han
Hanging hook systems in your garage or cave, coat racks, find a good knife maker and turn them into knife handles, strap to an old Jeep hood or cabin entryway, make a samurai helm…ndless possibilities really
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A small part of the collection at Larry Benoit's home. He was no rich man, but a heck of deer hunter and deer tracker.
Craig Jaques wrote of visiting his home, "we were standing in Larry and Iris Benoit's modest home....I stood there realizing that if I closed my eyes and tossed my hat, it would land on a set of antlers."
It's not exactly the aesthetic my wife would agree to, lol. But I'd need many lifetimes to put something like that together anyway.
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Oh I've been in some rooms like that. Rednecks all over have rooms like that nobody knows about, and a few write books and whatnot. Neat to see them, but it's not an aesthetic I would agree to, let alone even mentioning it to my wife.
That's what I'm saying though from my observations you can put in the time to build a nice trophy room and fill it with hollow purchased trophies, or you can take the time to shoot a bunch of authentic trophies and stick them on a crowded 8 foot wall. Very tough to thread the needle of work and hunting dedication it takes to do both.
Just my opinions on it, not trying to hurt anyone's feelings one way or another.
I have antlers literally everywhere. Den, basement, workshop, yard. I've given a ton away over the years as well my dogs used to love to eat them. I think I have 2-3 shoulder mounts laying on the basement floor, another 5 shoulder mounts in the den (Daddy's room as its known at my house). Now to figure out what to do with that bear I just got...
I can remember my hunting buddies chiding me and not believing me after I started passing on small deer. At that time it was kind of unheard of, at least among my hunting circles. It was at that point that I started carrying a camera with me in the stand, just so I could prove to them I was passing actual shot opportunities. I still laugh thinking about their responses to photos of small bucks quartering away inside 20yds.
EDIT: Of course in those days you had to wait until after the film came back from the developer to show them off . . .
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I don't think it has to necessarily be a decision between a quality room or quality trophies. I think there can be a healthy in-between. Of course you need the sqft to have a bonus room -Office, Bar/smoking lounge, library, etc- and probably someone's permission, lol.
Sure if you've a hundred trophy mounts to display like Larry B. you may want lots and lots of sqft (like a Cabelas, lol). But you can scale back and still put something nice together imo.
Same goes with finishes and furnishings. I get that Larry's modest room may not be what everyone has in mind, but there are ways to dress up simple walls and achieve something more showy without a pedigree in medicine or law. A lot can be done on a reasonable budget. Just depends on how realistic or unrealistic a persons vision is and whether or not there is a willingness to compromise and accept an alternative vision when necessary.
For example, tall ceilings aren't mandatory, imo, to have an extremely ornate trophy room. It might not fit your vision of a trophy room, but I've been in rooms like the one below, and they are still very trophy-roomy to me.
Also, I have to laugh, my dentist (who does pay to hunt in the mid-west, lol) shot his biggest buck on ground that lots of blue collar people hunt in Western NY. I've seen the trophy collection, in his basement.
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I actually like skull caps better than euro mounts, personally. I like one straight cut like (example from internet) below, but it's not the easiest cut to make.
Funny, my wife doesn’t even hunt but when I started she said “I’ve always wanted a wall full of skulls” and so far I have been quite happily married.
Legally-taken animal skulls, you weirdos.
Legally-taken animal skulls, you weirdos.
deertrout
Well-Known Member
I've got a pile of euro mounts in my basement. Not to sound too cliché but the meat has always been the real trophy, but that said, it's fun to dig through that pile every now and then to relive past hunts. I'll also say that as that pile grew, it got easier and easier to be more selective about what I shoot- made it a lot easier to wait for a bigger one when I realize how useless the antlers are and that they're just going into a pile anyway. I got into flint knapping this last year and plan to turn most of them into knife handles or knapping tools when I get better at it.
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Ya know, I find myself thinking sometimes that it's a shame I have all of that hard-earned calcium and phosphorus just sitting there gathering dust when there's critters out there that would kill for it.
Funny you grabbed that pic. That looks like a red deer mount. We have 2 of them just like that but smaller in my fathers basement that came from some level of great grandfather on my mothers side.
tailgunner
Well-Known Member
Open season in down town portland....blue hair is à trophy