Inherited Mounts ...Whats the consensus

[oldschool.06]

A friend of our family inherited some mounts and want to display them in his home . His wife told him he cant display then because he doesnt hunt and didn't kill them. I am of the impression that its ok if it was inherited from a family member. I feel like if its ok for places like Sportsmens Wharehouse or Cabelas to display other peoples mounts then why not a family members . What say you fine folks ??

 

[rwc101]

I couldn't imagine caring about what other people think of my home decor. I'd cherish mounts handed down from a family member. Maybe the wife just doesn't like taxidermy.

 

[rtraverdavis]

My Dad has a mule deer mount of a buck he killed years back that you can bet will go on my wall when he's gone. I don't see what the problem is--other than his wife just doesn't want dead animals hanging in the house...

 

[AvidIndoorsman]

When I die I want to go out Viking style with all my mounts.

Kids and family members can create their own memories.

That said decorate your house the way you want, if you don’t like taxidermy that’s fine, if you think critters are cool buy some mounts if you want.

 

[Gellar]

I was talking to a taxidermist and he was telling me how every year he gets people that won’t pay for their mount and never pick it up. He sells the unpaid for mounts to a local person who in turn sells them to a home decorating store in NYC. The home decorator apparently can’t get enough of them to keep up with demand.

 

[QuazyQuinton]

Is this a legal question regarding whether it's legal to possess a mount killed by another person, or is this a question about resolving a husband-wife dispute because he wants mounts and she doesn't?

QQ

 

[AvidIndoorsman]

I was talking to a taxidermist and he was telling me how every year he gets people that won’t pay for their mount and never pick it up. He sells the unpaid for mounts to a local person who in turn sells them to a home decorating store in NYC. The home decorator apparently can’t get enough of them to keep up with demand.

My cousin has a house in the Adaks, his HOA building is filled with mounts, caribou, bison, elk, muleys etc I kinda suspected they had just bought them.

 

[Wildabeest]

Timely topic... I’m jumping in my car in the morning to do a 4,000+ mile roundtrip drive down memory lane over the next week to collect my dad’s whitetail mount and some guns that I grew up hunting with. That deer meant a lot to him and influenced a big chunk of his life. It will definitely be going on my wall as a remembrance of him. I’ll post a full story and pics once I get back from the trip. But bottom line is I vote emphatic YES on displaying a close relative’s mount.

 

[SD_Prairie_Goat]

Me personally, I wouldn't hang a random mount in my house. But if it was passed down from a family member, zero problem. Even better if there is a photo to go with it

For example, I hope I get the old mans black bear wall rug at some point. Beautiful bear that got demoted to the entryway a couple years back haha (his brown bear took the stage in the living room)

 

[2rocky]

There is a difference between one deer mount of your dad or grandfather's B&C buck from 1950, and Having a whole collection of heads horns and antlers.

I think if you do have mounts, you should have a plan for what to do with them after your passing so the surviving generation doesn't feel conflicted. One prolific Hunter gave all his to the Highschool and they made a Natural History and wildlife museum.

About

In 1989, Hugh Codding donated the entire Codding Museum inventory to Petaluma High School instructor Ron Head to create an innovative educational program. Ron's dream was to give high school students...

www.petalumawildlifemuseum.org

 

[MTelkHuntress]

My college professor displayed a bunch of mounts in his office....he doesnt even hunt. I think some were from friends and a couple from his father. You can imagine the horror on some of the liberal arts students faces that had never seen a mount before. He liked to joke about it sometimes.

 

[corndog1]

My dad has a few duck mounts I would love to have someday.

 

[2rocky]

I do think if you hang a mount you should know the story behind it. It is a tragedy that there are mounts that no one knows anything about in bars and restaurants around the country....

I guess that is why I like the books Ryan Hatfield wrote... It gives the story behind the greatest bucks and bulls from Idaho, and future generations can pass that mount down, and have the written history of it.

https://www.idahobiggame.com/

 

[Carl 9.3x62]

If you like the mount who cares where it came from. I've thought about buying skulls of critters I most likely will never get to hunt, to hang in my house just because I think they are cool. No they don't mean the same to me as something I have killed myself, but they aren't suppose to either.

 

[WyoDoug]

Absolutely YES! I would display my dad's mounts if my brother didn't already trash them which pissed me off. I also would display them as decor even if I did not have any particular attachment to them.

 

[Wildabeest]

I do think if you hang a mount you should know the story behind it. It is a tragedy that there are mounts that no one knows anything about in bars and restaurants around the country....

I guess that is why I like the books Ryan Hatfield wrote... It gives the story behind the greatest bucks and bulls from Idaho, and future generations can pass that mount down, and have the written history of it.

https://www.idahobiggame.com/

The biggest moose mount I’ve ever seen hangs in the bar of the Boulderado hotel in Boulder, CO. Would love to know the story behind that one!

 

[AvidIndoorsman]

My college professor displayed a bunch of mounts in his office....he doesnt even hunt. I think some were from friends and a couple from his father. You can imagine the horror on some of the liberal arts students faces that had never seen a mount before. He liked to joke about it sometimes.

Taxidermy is very common in academia, we had a huge collection of birds and various animals.

Taxidermy as well as German, incidentally, used to integral for PhDs in Natural science. The Harvard Museum of Natural history still offers public courses.

I suspect through various museums your average urbanite has had just as much exposure to taxidermy as your average person from some rural area, probably more full mounts and less shoulder mounts.

I've dragged my wife to Natural History Museums all over the place...London, Vienna, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Dallas, etc.

This one has piqued my interest

The Colby Room | Museum of Science, Boston

Explore Col. Francis T. Colby's collection of artifacts and preserved animals, and begin to consider the untold stories they represent.

www.mos.org

 

[AvidIndoorsman]

The biggest moose mount I’ve ever seen hangs in the bar of the Boulderado hotel in Boulder, CO. Would love to know the story behind that one!

If you ever make it up to BC, check out the local rec center in Revelstoke. 465-2/8

 

[glass eye]

Do your giving while you're living so that you'll be knowing where it's going.

A few months ago I got a call from the daughter of one of my customers that recently died (I'm a taxidermist) and she was wanting to sell the mounts. I explained to her that in CA a lot of mounts can't be sold legally and also the waterfowl mounts are federal so they can't be sold anywhere.
I told her that unless she knows the laws for each animal she'd be better off just donating them or giving them away.
Found out that she pulled everything down and literally tossed them in a pile for the dump. A friend went over there and rescued some mounts. Many of them were broken up because they were TOSSED into a heap.
It saddened us both to see what was so precious to someone became junk to those who inherited it.

Unless I die unexpectedly, I plan to donate most of my mounts. Maybe in about 4-5 years from now. I'll keep mounting and just take pictures and give them away. Yeah, stupid I know, but I like mounting them but just don't have room for them.

 

[npaden]

My 13 year old son has already spoken for a couple of my mounts when I die. Kind of morbid but I'm hopeful it would actually work out that way, just hoping that it will be a long time down the road.