Collecting Dust: How To Give an Old Trophy New Life

"Whether you prefer a shoulder mount, or a simple plaque mount with antlers, they all have a similar story to tell."

 

Recently, my parents had went through an extensive remodel. The pictures that had been parked in the same spot for years, along with trophy mounts that had accumulated over time, were taken down and stowed away during the renovation. Upon completion, most of them were dug up and re-used, but so much had changed. The wall space had disappeared due to the new 'open concept' and many of my dad's old european skulls hadn't made the cut.

This buck meant a great deal to my dad and the family. He had shot this buck on some ground he had purchased and it was his first buck on this new piece of property. From the looks of it, you'd assume he's a youngster with some potential, but we had a few years of history with this buck and we knew he was at least a 4 year old. This management buck meant just as much to him as any buck would, especially with the slide deck of trail camera pictures to go along with him.

Now, my dad's skull had been bleached and looked sharp for many years as such. As time went by, the skull began to yellow a bit so cutting the antlers off wasn't hard to do - both physically and mentally, knowing he had spent $50 for the bleaching years ago. After removing the antlers, we went through the short process of installing the antler inserts. We simply treated them as shed antlers.

I didn't pull any dimensions of the antler width or anything prior to cutting them off of the skull, but one could easily do so to maintain the exact look. After mounting the RH2 to our new Plaque, I just eye-balled the correct orientation. I've had many years of staring at this buck and the image of him will never leave me. 

We blew the dust off of my dad's eight point, and I must say, it was worth giving him that new spot on the wall.