http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c146/rushmoreman/westerntrophies.jpg

Here are two trophies that will always be great memories for me. Both animals taken with rifle.

Antelope taken in Harding County, South Dakota
Muley taken in White River Nat'l Forest, Colorado


Please post photos of your taxidermy trophies, too. State whether taken with bow, rifle, shotgun, etc. Small game, upland game, waterfowl, fish, varmint photos welcomed!

TR

I'm going to move this over to the Game pole.

thanks for posting your trophies!

TR, great looking 'lope and muley. I can't think of a better way to fill empty wall space. I have a few spaces to fill up, but I haven't been performing as I'd hoped!

This may be my trophy of all time. I don't hunt much anymore with the recurve bow. I always plan to but the hunting just is not there right now. I am hopeful though. That Jeffery's takedown with a Bear Razorhead did the trick on this little buck.

That hunt made my all time list to date. Lancaster County SC on a little lease near Heath Springs. I had help with the tracking on the liver hit but the man doing it was an expert and I learned a lot. As I remember the deer was probably not 50 yds from the point of shot but after a three hour period was still able to lift it's head when we finally got to him. I had actually jumped the deer on the way out to give it some time before starting to track it.

It was one of those great days in the outdoors that will be with me forever.

Hope you don't mind some upland hunting "trophies." My brother and father and myself have been lucky enough to take trips to South Dakota to go pheasant hunting on a guy's land that we know very well, so we get to do some real good hunting (wore out the tip of my trigger finger from reloading shells on this 2005 trip... they were cheap gloves anyways). Fast loads of #4's were doing the trick... the late season birds are tough and amazingly feisty.

Here's a few of the birds we got. For clarification, we were hunting with a larger group, so we were being legal with the bag limits.

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o170/koch424/SD2005001.jpg

Here's a few of my past bucks that at present are in the basement. For one reason or another, a few that were worthy of mounting didn't get there, but if I get a spare cape or two from some "meat" bucks, I might give them the respect they deserve.

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z210/shwncrea/000_0060.jpg

The oldest (not most mature, the first of the bunch I got) I think is the little 4-point whitetail, lower left. The rut was on and he was on-the-move and not holding still for nothing. A post-'64 Mod 70 XTR in 25-06 dumped him; can't recall the bullet.

The next in line was the non-typical muley, upper middle. The same mod 70 25-06, with Speer hot-cor. This one needed a couple as the bullets didn't perform very well, fragmenting at the relatively high velocity of the 25, and close range (< 100 yards).

Next was the 4x4 muley, lower right. A nice 27-incher (out-to-out), and the 338 WM A-bolt w/Sierra 250 actually punched through a 4" diameter stunted spruce (before hitting the buck in the neck) that "got in the way" in the bucks travel when I pulled the trigger.

The lower middle 4x4 muley was taken at about 50 yards in his bed with a pre-'64 mod 70 featherweight in 30-06; can't remember the bullet, but likely a 165 partition.

The upper left 5x5 muley got the 25-06 treatment, with a 120 partition. This was a controlled hunt desert buck tag. I was in the last three days of the season, and weather was on it's way. For those that are unfamiliar with S Idaho desert, the roads become greased snot with any moisture (can't turn, can't really do anything but go the direction of your last vector), and I decided to take the buck. In hindsight, I wish I would have let him grow up - great genetics.

The upper right 5-point whitetail fell to the 338 WM A-bolt w/Sierra 250, or 225 NP, I can't remember. He took a step as a pulled the trigger and it was a liver shot, but gave me another opportunity 2 seconds later and another one through the shoulders ended that. Hardly any meat damage at around 250 yards.

Great looking bunch of deer, Shawn. Didn't know you did that kind of hunting.
I have a hunt scheduled for my son and I on a New Mexico Mule deer hunt that starts on Nov 10th.
Its on a ranch near Davila NM. I've heard nothing but good things about it so we'll see. This is my first time to do this.
I can't wait.
Good Luck

tpv, that sounds like a great hunt you have coming up. I don't know my NM towns, but the state sure has a good reputation for some big heavy horned muleys. Not sure when the rut is down there, but here, it would be the tail end for our muleys, and they have glazed over eyes and aren't known for their smarts then (think hormone-crazed teenager!). Most of our late trophy hunts in the rut here have less than 20 tags per unit. Good luck!

This is by far my heaviest racked deer.
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k191/KGKILBY/Antlers004.jpg

This is by far my heaviest racked deer.
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k191/KGKILBY/Antlers004.jpg
That's about a 20" spread, isn't it?
Real nice deer.

That's a fine buck Ken; great mass!

Is that an A-bolt?

It's about 20", I did a poor job cutting them off and they broke after a few years, you can see where I wired them back together.

Shawn, it's a 700 Classic in .257 Roberts.