Trophy Room II -- OW's

OutdoorWriter

Long Time Member
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I apologize if some of you have already seen any of these elsewhere, but an MM member asked me to post photos of my trophy rooms here. So I started a new thread so DL time isn't exceptionally long for those with dial-up connections.

These are older pix of my original trophy room. Although I've done some rearranging, the general concept is the same.

I originally built the room as a spa room and then did all the remodeling work to convert it into a trophy room instead.
The next reply will show the new 14'x35' addition I put on the family room. It now houses all my mounts from African and New Zealand, plus a life-size BC black bear.

Without further delay..... enjoy. -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.

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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 is a pair of Mearns quail, chukar and flying ringneck.

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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.

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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. A Catalina goat hangs above the BC 'bou.

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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.

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Here are a few close-ups of various trophies.

Two AZ 'lopes and a TX whitetail.

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

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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 Kaibab mulie.

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

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This is the NEW 14'x35' trophy room -- an addition to the old family room and kitchen. I did all the work except pour the concrete slab.

An overall look. The bear really enjoys watching fishing shows, so I have a hard time wresting the remote away from him.

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Looking back toward the kitchen. The archway in the lower left leads to a 7'x10' alcove where the door to the backyard is. There's another archway at the opposite end that goes into the other trophy room, and the archway at the right side of the alcove goes into the kitchen area. The big archway is where the old house wall was.

familyroom2.jpg

This is the old family room that was remodeled when I did the addition. I had already remodeled the kitchen 4 years ago. I built the table using using wood from a couple old waterbeds. The thingie on the wall is made from the backskins of 10 sprinbok hides. There are also sprinbok hides on all the tables and the pillows have sprinbok hides as covers.

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These are newer photos after I hung more mounts. L. to R.: springbok, bushbuck, chamois and tahr.

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Next bunch are close-ups of all the mounts.

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After a bit of rearranging. I put the zebra rug on the wall rather than on the floor. I also moved the bear into a corner and added a faux tree behind it. The wallaby is the latest addition.

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uuuhhhhhhhhhhhhh, holy crap.

That's awesome. Truly awesome, OW. I think I would be the luckiest man ever if I even SAW half of those animals, much less have them on my wall...
 
WOW! That's pretty impressive. My parents live next to a guy who has 3 rooms full of mounts like you do. What do you figure you have in all of those mounts ($$ wise)?
 
Thanks very much for sharing!!

The Tahr and Chamois are awesome. The Kudu looks like a good one!

Great Collection and something to be VERY VERY proud of!
 
Tony -

These are all superb mounts!! Thank you for allowing us into your home and allowing us to see something that most of us will never have the pleasure of living in or hunting.

Scott
 
Thanks folks.

There are lots of memories -- and $$$$ -- in those two rooms. In fact, nearly 50 years worth from the first mount to the latest.

Now, to answer a few questions.

I didn't sit down and do any real accounting, but at today's rates, I'm guessing there is between $50K and $75K in taxidermist's costs alone. I can't even speculate as to the amount of cumulative costs for everything.

The bear mount is one of my favs, as well. I made the base, which is on wheels, and Marc Plunkett of Wildlife Creations did the mount and landscaping.


As for being single, it's a no go. As for having a cool wife, that is true, and I knew that when I married her.

Why?

When we got married, we had only a 2-day honeymoon because she had to work the following week. In contrast, I headed off deer hunting in the Adirondacks (those are in NY state) for a few days. So...as a result I have kept her around to cook for me for the last 47 years or so. ;-)

Lastly...although the tahr mount is well done, it really doesn't do justice to what it looked like on the hoof. I now regret not doing it lifesize. Here are a couple in-the-field pix. The bottom one is my NZ guide, Tim Buma. -TONY

TonyMtahr3.jpg

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I don't know if you remember but about two years ago you gave me many of the ideas I patterned my trophy room after. All great advice that I used my turned out great like yours, but not the variety as yet. Thanks the first time and the second time for the ideas I've even picked up some ideas the second time that I think I'll make some changes with.
 
Geez, Cornhusker, I can't remember what happened this morning much less that long ago. :D

That said, if what I told you helped, good deal. I'm always willing to help fellow hunters in any way I can. -TONY
 

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