Memories of Hunts Past

[JimP]

I have often been asked about all the taxidermy that I have in my home and what I want to do with it after I am gone. I just tell them that for me it is the memories of the hunts and the fun that I had and that while they are important to me that I doubt that anyone else would feel the same way about them as I do.

I then saw this meme today with this caption:

 

[Colorado Cowboy]

I was thinking about the same thing before your post. This fall will be my 70th year big game hunting and I definitely have some memories. I don't have a lot of mounts, but a few that are special to me. I have saved almost all the better horns from my deer and antelope, I keep them in the garage.

I remember the first big buck I killed when I was 18. My Dad and I were hiking to our favorite area from camp in the High Sierras in California. We left a couple of hours before light as it was about 4 miles and 2000' feet above our camp. As we topped out, it was light enough to shoot and a real nice buck was standing looking at use about 75 yards away. Dad saw him first, but whispered to me "take him". I popped him and he dropped. He was a big bodied non typical that was a 6 x 8 and later scored 182. I know Dad could have shot him, but he wanted me to get a good buck. That was my Dad!
Here is my "trophy room".....

 

[JimP]

I wished that I would of kept all the antlers from the deer and elk that I have shot. But I found that custom knife builders and others would pay a good price for them so most were either given away or sold.

 

[Timber Stalker]

Just the other day I went to my brothers to pick up one of my dads blacktail mounts. I was right beside him when he shot it and I never did se it till we got to it. For decades he said when I die this is your buck, he passed away last year. I was 11 when he shot it now I’m 52
The next year when I was 12 I shot my first buck from the same spot, I sure miss my Ol man.

 

[Mr Drysdale]

I’ve only shoulder mounted one Whitetail but have a garage full of horns and Euro mounts. My son said I should write on the bases of the Euro mounts where and when I killed them. I told him I didn’t need to and could tell him everything about each one just by looking at it. Love to relive those memories!

 

[Colorado Cowboy]

I wished that I would of kept all the antlers from the deer and elk that I have shot. But I found that custom knife builders and others would pay a good price for them so most were either given away or sold.

I used to make knives and pistol grips and I used almost all my elk horns for handles, scales and grips.

 

[dan maule]

About 2 years after my dad passed, we lost all of his mounts and antlers in a fire. That really sucked, it was hard to look at them without remembering when they were shot and the stories that went along with it.

 

[Maxhunter]

I have some mounts but I didn’t go bonkers and mount everything. Being in the military for 25 years I gave a lot my horns away since it’s a pain to move with them. Haven’t asked my kids but I’m sure they don’t want the mounts. Still like looking at them and remembering those hunts.

 

[HuskyMusky]

I was gonna post/ask this...
not saying I'm going to get all of the NA29... but one could pretty easily have 29 mounts etc...

with 0-2 kids.... maybe they'd want some of them? not to mention, inheriting many of my father's mounts....

I'm picturing a basement/barn full of mounts one day.... lol.

 

[JimP]

I was doing some work in a home that a old rancher owned near the Vail Valley. He had a ranch in the area along with one down in New Mexico. I was looking for the problem and opened up a door in the basement. You couldn't even walk into that room. It was full of deer, elk, bears, and cat mounts. It looked closer to a museum than a museum does.

I have zero idea of what happened to all of those mounts when he passed away a few years later.

 

[mallardsx2]

I'm picturing a basement/barn full of mounts one day.... lol.

My wife and I are actually considering building a 30X30 tall ceiling metal building to put mounts in when my dad passes on and I end up with all of his.

It's going to be that or its going to be donating them and anymore places just don't want to take them, even for free.

 

[tim]

Last hunt I did with my dad. He is on the far left. I am wearing the orange felt hat.
Lots of stuff happened on that hunt. Nothing with my dad, but I choose to go off on my own after this hunt. Selway Bitterroot wilderness. My dad passed about 10 years after this picture. I don't regret walking away from this group, sometimes a man has to do what he has to do. This Pic was from 1997.
In 2007 he got brain cancer. It was a struggle but I got him to the place, I shot my first herd bull. I had to go back for something I left behind. He passed the following fall.

 

[Rich M]

View attachment 43617
Last hunt I did with my dad. He is on the far left. I am wearing the orange felt hat.
Lots of stuff happened on that hunt. Nothing with my dad, but I choose to go off on my own after this hunt. Selway Bitterroot wilderness. My dad passed about 10 years after this picture. I don't regret walking away from this group, sometimes a man has to do what he has to do. This Pic was from 1997.
In 2007 he got brain cancer. It was a struggle but I got him to the place, I shot my first herd bull. I had to go back for something I left behind. He passed the following fall.

Glad you got what you left behind. Sorry about your pops.

when i hit 15 uncle said no to having me in his deer camp. Spent many years taking same uncle duck hunting when theyd come down for a few weeks. His kids told him he was holding them up, left him home during deer season for some years.

bad on them. Never did that to my dad, or uncle. Was raised hunting and shooting together, just wont be the same when they are gone. Enough to put up w some bs or going slower. Wouldnt have it any other way.

trying to get dad to go to tropics next year at 84. We’ll see. He’d like a marlin, see the rain forest. We’ll see how he feels when the time comes. First thing he hasnt just outright said no to.

it is all about family and friends, sometimes takes a while to figure it out. Pretty lonely without family and friends.

 

[mallardsx2]

Time flies.

20 years ago, my dad and I killed these two bucks with our bows in PA. He killed his on the first day of Archery season and I killed mine about 4 weeks into the season.

They arnt monster bucks that's for sure, but they were the two biggest bucks in the area and everybody and their brother was after them. 20 years ago, these were big bucks in everyone's eyes. He begged me to take this photo, so I did. Kinda glad I did because it was the last time we ever killed 2 good ones in a season together in PA.

Talk about some jealousy from the local neighbors in the area. Rumors swirled that we had poached them and all kinds of fun stuff. Due to those rumors and the jealousy, we both actually lost permissions to hunt the spots we killed the bucks. It was the start of the era of hunting going downhill in PA my opinion.

To that end, I assure you all with my hand on a stack of bibles and in front of god himself that those were the 2 most legitimately legally killed deer in Mercer County Pennsylvania that year.... We spent a lot of time in the woods that year and just simply outhunted everyone else.

Dad's missed P&Y by an 2/8 of an inch (he was bummed) and like most of the deer I have killed I never even put a tape on mine. But I guess it to be around 115".