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What is your shoulder mount criteria?

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Feathernfurr:
With so many different factors at play between species, location, weapon, sentimental value, I’d love to see some people’s arguments and criteria for what gets shoulder mounted. This topic came up recently with a close friend, as we considered the big bucks that adorn our father’s walls, and the ones that now reside in the attic or garage from their earlier days of hunting.

Personally I’ve only shoulder mounted two animals:
158” 5pt whitetail that is my personal best, and the last deer killed on a property my family has hunted since my father was a teen. The property was sold by the family we leased it from.
125” 2pt with eye guards whitetail that I obsessed over for a season.
The scores have some play for me, but it is really more the sentiment. I chased both bucks for an entire season holding out to harvest them specifically

I’ve euro mounted all of my elk, including a 305” with recurve. I think my hesitation with shoulder mounting elk is the need for space to adequately display one. I only have 9ft ceilings in the house lol.

I think if I was to have a strict criteria it would have to be:
-high degree of sentiment

If sentiment is lacking it would fall to score
-Rocky Mountain elk 345” p&y
-Whitetail 130” p&y
-Colombian Blacktail 125”p&y
-Mule Deer 160”p&y

After that I think it falls to uniqueness/funk
-albino/melanistic/leucistic
-insane mass
-double beams, drop times, palmation

Thoughts or opinions?

Sundance:
I'll never impose my standards on another person's mount, they are a personal totem and the significance can only be measured by that hunter. I've seen a lot of "smaller" animals at my taxidermist, I know each one holds a special valve to that hunter.

Deer for me is making book or the new personal benchmark for that sub species. Anything unique will be factored in as well, at this point I'm really looking for a mule deer and a whitetail to round out my wall. Elk has to be a solid 6x6, which I've never taken. Anything OIL will go on the wall, bears are a case-by-case basis and usually depends on if we need another rug or mount for a cabin. I try to mount 2-4 birds a year, but finding a taxidermist is getting tough.

Feathernfurr:
You’re not kidding, it seems like it’s harder and harder to find quality bird taxidermists. As far as deer goes it feels like all of them have crank their prices way up, and the quality doesn’t match. It feels like you have to be willing to fork over $1000 to get high quality these days.

Sundance:
I've seen too many taxidermist threads go sideways to call out names. My taxidermist has increased their price and my last mount was a longer than normal lead time. I knew the lead time was going to be long going in, but I trust their quality of work and it was possibly the best buck I'll ever get. Worth every penny and the wait once I got it back, which is what I care about in the long run.

Feathernfurr:
Same train of thought. My best whitetail is nearing the end of a 24 month wait for completion, but absolutely worth it for the quality of the product the taxidermist provides.

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