Interesting article-selling personal trophies

Read this article the other day. Good read. 10 years ago I would have said no effing way would I sell/give away any trophies, but as seasons pass and wall space shrinks I can see where a person would come to this decision. Last year I gave away all my horns from deer that I had killed and didn’t shoulder mount, can’t remember how many racks it was but they were just gathering dust in my garage after moving homes and they not being a decorative part of the house anymore. You hunt long enough and are successful you are gonna accumulate a pile of horns, hides, etc.

https://www.outdoorlife.com/hunting/why-im-selling-antlers/

I remember reading his stuff years ago.

My approach was a little different in that my goal was to only take one trophy of whatever species I was hunting - the only multiple trophies of the same species I have taken have been whitetail. So even though I have walls with mounts I do not have them everywhere - neither way is right or wrong - just preference.

I am more worried about what happens to them when I am gone. My son and SIL would probably keep a couple of the better ones but after that not sure how the family will get rid of them.

Thanks for the article - interesting for sure

Anytime I see an ad for buying trophies in a paper or magazine, I clip it and file it without wills. I'd be happy if they don't wind up in a dumpster. A lot of folks have a grossly exaggerated opinion on what their trophies are worth. One son-in-law took my impala for "the Hemingway look" in his office. This kid is about as far from Hemingway as you can get...and still be straight.

I'll continue to kill and eat deer, but I'm adding a good camera to my arsenal very soon. I won't hardly mount a deer going forward but I will darn sure hang a good (live) picture or two of them. I can be proud of the animal without loading him in the truck.

You think he took a picture of it and put it on social media and tried to pass it off as his own ?

Just the other day I was looking at my pile of antlers and caught myself thinking. "What am I going to do with these?"

On a more reflective note, inferring from the article that a guy like Jim Zumbo is no longer in the woods anymore is a bit of a surreal moment; I grew up hanging on to every word he published and articles he contributed to. Everyone has their final season. The tone of that article makes it sound like his is upon him if not past him.

I will never forget hunting with a friend that was a WWII veteran; I felt like he was a surrogate grandpa as my grandfather passed before I was old enough to hunt. I came back from college and visited with him after church one Sunday in the Fall. He still seemed somewhat spry, but definitely moved slower than when we last hunted together. I invited him to come hunt and he looked me in the face and said "I'm 84 years old. My hunting days are over." He died the next spring; I still hear him saying that in his voice in my head. Miss him. I have some of his antlers plus a shoulder mount of my grandfather's that hangs in his great-grandson's room right now. I suppose a select few antlers or mounts will be kept from my collection and the rest will be sold in a garage sale or given away; and the memories behind them lost to the ages. Maybe, just maybe, my grandson will have one of my mounts on his wall next to my grandfather's shoulder mount. How cool would that be?

Didn't think you could sell antlers in the State of Texas?

Well, native species anyway.


A good thing to do would be to take a bunch and spread them around the lease so animals can chew the calcium.

Yes you can. Can’t sell meat or organs.

I get it, I doubt I mount another animal. I have a few special shoulder ones still and had almost 30 euro’s. My euros are down 6 and 4 caps…and a real big pile of saw offs.

Sheds are bringing $21 a pound on brown elk so I’m sure he has 10k plus just in elk.

I sat one table over from him at a dinner a few years back. He was still getting around good but I don't think he is climbing up the mountains anymore.

When my father died we had a really hard time getting rid of his trophies. He and I hunted together for years including trips to Africa so I pretty much had the same stuff he did and wasn't overly interested in anything except a big chocolate colored black bear I backed him up on. His grand kids took some stuff but not everything. Tried selling them with no luck so I ended up donating a bunch to a school program for nature and biology. Mom at least got a tax break on them that way.

The thing about trophies is, unless they are something really exotic and no longer hunted, they have very little value to anyone except the hunter that took them. People my like to look at them and talk about them but that doesn't mean they want them. This is one of the reasons I only hunt for meat know. I have over $50K worth of taxidermy and I don't have any kids. At some point I will donate most of what I have to a school just like I did Dad's. My nephews will want some stuff (I have a tiger skin that my grandfather got in China before WWII when he was a missionary) but most will probably end up being donated.

Good read. My dad passed away 14 years ago and I still have close to 20 large boxes of his mounts that I have no place for and no idea what to do with them.

I used to read his stuff along with everything I could put my hands on. I was a sponge for info. I’m still learning but I spend more time hunting than reading about hunting.
I only want to kill special, to me, deer so I go a long time without pulling the trigger. I don’t have a tremendous number of mounts but I keep mounting what I kill. I don’t really think about dying or what will happen to my heads when I’m gone. I’m sure when I’m Zumbos age I will.

My grandfather and my father left me a whole lotta material (and some financial) crap to deal with. I did love them both very much, but I've spent a large amount of time out of my life trying to make sure I don't do the same to my kids. I'll be dammed if I'm gonna be some goober, trying to be remembered down the generations, beating my chest over something I shot or...some piece of dirt I bought.

My personal trophies are just that - a selfish homage to my past. I can look at one and clearly remember every aspect of the hunt. There is no way (zero) anyone else would hold the value I perceive. What happens with them is none of my business.

Never been big on shoulder mounts, but I do love euros. I’m still at a point that I can’t bear to part with any bone, horn, or antler involving a hunt I was on.

I will never part with any mounts I have.......and...I have a lot of life size, shoulder and euro mounts. What is done with them when I am gone is up to gets to deal with what I have left in my estate. Matter of fact I am going to keep adding mounts to my collection.

Met Zumbo several times over the years. The funniest was in Elk, WY where he lives. We stopped to get gas at the only station in Elk and when I stepped out of the truck there he was on the other side filling up his truck too.
Some small talk and see you later.

Jim and I have hunted together many times over the years. He is a really good man and lots of fun to hunt with. He is slowing down a little on his hunting but will still fish all day and eat everything he kills or catches. He and his wife, Madonna live almost exclusively on wild game.
Adios,
Gary

My dogs love to chew on sheds and cull buck horns. Don't think I will ever have another mount done. Don't have any more space.

While I do not have the same numbers, I share the sentiment. I enjoy looking at them and reliving the moment.

I'm starting to downsize in my golden years. I'll keep the mounts in my house. Going to start getting rid of the smaller horn mounts, Europeans, and sawed off racks. Don't want my kids to have to deal with them.

I think if I ever had to many nice mounts or antlers and did not need the money and was going to get rid of them one way or another, I would probably give them away to a local saloon, bar or restaurant/cafe where other people could enjoy seeing them.
I know that when I go into one of those places that has nice mounts or euro's I enjoy checking them out.

Selling them always makes me think of bad times. My family
Lost everything in 1990 and my dad had to sell 2 160 plus euro mounts out of Mexico. I know it may seem petty but both of those deer had great stories to go along with them and it tore him and us up to part with them.

Sorry to hear that and that is a sad story. That would tear me up as well.

I’m referencing more about a twilight of your life scenario where your deciding what to do with the trophy’s remaining after a career of successful hunting

I took several sets of horns and sawed them into pieces and replaced all the knobs in our kitchen with them. Some of the others I traded to knife makers in return for dollars knocked off the price of some of their products. They prefer axis horn over anything else, btw.