Sure, you can hear that phrase squealed for all the world to hear outside hospitals and outpatient surgery centers throughout the San Fernando Valley on any given business day. But in this case, I’m talking about the product of my hunting expedition, part of our (somewhat delayed) TV shoot at Rancho De Los Kees back in November. While we donated the product of the hunt to a local food bank, RF was generous enough to have the best-of-the-buck mounted for me as a memento. Muchas gracias. Anyway, it just recently arrived after the artisans at Woodbury Taxidermy created what I’m told is a European mount. Looking at the catalogue, I figured that would be less objectionable to the Mrs. than having the front part of a deer staring back at her, all glassy-eyed, for the next few decades. But what do I know?
Handsome!
Just read and loved you November article also!
Very nice. I am half disappointed there is no model linked to this post. But a nice rack indeed.
You can use it as a coat rack.
the ” best-of-the-buck” is the backstraps and tenderloins, grilled to a nice medium rare (145F). Having a rack in my house is like my wife lighting a cherry-scented candle, it only makes me hungry.
That you donated the meat makes me wonder – is it kosher to eat hunted animals?
I wondered the same thing as Nick, Tyler, RF and I tore into a pile of babybacks that very evening.
ha!
hunted meat is not Kosher or Halal. that said, very few of my jewish friends actually keep strict kosher, and not one of them turns down venison when i have it.
warning: not for the squeamish.
to be kosher, the animal needs to be killed in a certain way:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shechita
That is a nice rack, but the term “European mount” normally refers to a skull mount, rather than an antler mount, which is what you have.
+1, I prefer shoulder mounts but a little variety never hurt…
Women tend to lump deer heads in with stuff like pictures of dogs playing poker and cable spool tables. That’s man cave stuff and most women would like for it to be in a real cave, some where far from the family home.
You put some bone spikes on your wall and gave away 100 lbs of fresh venison. Man, everyone’s got priorities.
Sure, you can hear that phrase squealed for all the world to hear outside hospitals and outpatient surgery centers throughout the San Fernando Valley on any given business day.
Heh. I see what you did there.
FWIW, the result “feels all wrong.” Don’t ask me how I know in polite company.
But, as with guns, some guys cherish classic walnut stocks, and some get all priapistic over synthetic stocks. To each their own, but make mine walnut.
As for type of mounts and where to mount:
For nice, but not high-ranking racks, what you have there is very nice. Shoulder mounts with the cape on are going up, up, up in price and taxidermists are about the only people more backlogged than gunsmiths these days. It took me two years to get a pronghorn shoulder mount back from a very good taxidermist in Elko. For a high-scored (B&C or P&Y) rack, you’ll probably want a shoulder mount.
For some larger mounts (eg, elk), you need vaulted ceilings to do justice to either kind of mount, and for this reason, if you’re going to become a serious hunter, you might need to re-examine your choice of residential real estate. When shopping, go retro and look for houses where there was a “den” – a real “den,” where the gentleman of the house retired after dinner with his books, cigars and single malt to enjoy some solitude to recharge his mental facilities for the coming workday. In this room (ie, a den or study), one can hang one’s mounts without annoying the lady of the house with the visual decor of one’s hunts. Think “victorian” era of housing.
In today’s increasingly cracker-box architecture, there’s little room for real men in today’s homes, and it seriously annoys me to see home after home in new developments here in Wyoming of this coastal (ie, Californian) type of homogenous, knock-together crap housing that is intended for occupation by people living lives of small and trivial pursuits.
Worthless horn hunter…..killed it for a TV show. I hope your proud of your “trophy”. The kill is not what hunting is about Dan, if you are killing the animal for the horns…then leave hunting for the men and women who respect the animals.
Jared. I call you out as a sock puppet. Go back to Huffpo. Hunters go thru stages as CA DFG points out out in their excellent booklet for hunter safety class. Me I am in the burger stage but give props to Dan for his trophy and his journey. Nice mount brother.
Dear Jared, go cry to your puppies and rainbows in la-la land. This is the real world where the food chain applies.