He's a Northern AZ buck, south of the canyon. Took him two years ago. Had scouted him up since the previous summer and fall, kept an eye on him for about 4 months, have pics and video of him in velvet, and my son and I closed the deal on him finally on day 6 of the hunt. Had wanted to get my son's tag on the buck, but he took a shot, wasn't sure if he'd hit the buck or not, so I moved to what we thought was the other nice 4pt in the group (this buck) and took him. Buck scored right at 180. I might get so lucky some day to take a bigger buck, but a better hunt will be nearly impossible to come by. Actually had the story written up in Eastmans' Journal last year. What a hunt for me and the kid.
The taxidermist was Chris Favour of Mount-N-View Taxidermy in Flagstaff, AZ.
http://mountnviewtaxidermy.com/index.html
I kicked around a lot of different ideas with him, and settled on a pedestal mount finally. Gave him some thoughts of what I was looking for, how I wanted ears placed, and some thoughts on habitat for the mount, but the finished product was all him. The mount he gave me blew me away. He did a bobcat mount for my son that the kid called in on the same hunt, and did an outstanding job on that mount as well.
I constructed the pedestal myself. Wanted a rough sawn, weathered "barnwood" look. As there's no barnwood to be found in my area, I picked up some cedar fencing, and "weathered" it with a black stain followed by hours of wire brush to remove the stain to get the look I wanted. Thought it was a great mount to commemorate a once in a lifetime type hunt.
