Shoulder vs Euro Mount

Ontario Hunter said:

I would choose kudu over eland. An eland shoulder mount is huge! And they are almost hairless which can be a challenge for taxidermist if cape is even slightly damaged. Not particularly pretty either. Go with a euro for them. Hands down. Black wildebeest make an "interesting" shoulder mount for sure. They are difficult to prepare for euro due to shape of horns. Consequently, African taxidermists frequently overcook the horns.

Edit: I see from your avatar you already have a kudu. I have three kudu skulls on the walls of my little <800 sq ft home.

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buffybr said:

Although I do have 2 Euro mounts, I'm not a fan of them. One is a pronghorn antelope that I wasn't going to have mounted so I gave the cape to my taxidermist and he gave me back a euro. The other is my American Buffalo that I had a shoulder mount done of him, and had my taxidermist clean the skul and put fake horn sheaths on him. That's kind of an icon of the American west. Both of those euros are in my basement.

Not counting those 2 euros, I have 80 taxidermied mounts in my house. Two of them are fish, my best northern pike chasing a yellow perch (one mount), and my best male grayling, and two are birds, a ringneck pheasant (under glass) in the corner of my bar, and a male wood duck.

I have 7 full body mounts varing from a Cape Grysbok to my Musk ox, one rug, my first black bear, and the rest are shoulder mounts on the walls and on pedestals.

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Reed Thoma Outdoors said:

Everyone always suggests a euro on eland but to me that discounts the trophy significantly. I understand space is always an issue but if you are hunting an old bull the trophy really isn't the horns, it's the face mop, dewlap and dark color.

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Troubleshooter said:

Agree 100%.
I was intrigued by the shoulder mount of a Lord Derby Eland that I saw in a sporting goods store, and a Euro would not have done justice to that magnificent old bull. But it did take up a huge amount of space which I just do not have here in my humble abode. If I am ever so fortunate as to harvest one someday, it will likely be confined to photographs.

For the other animals, I think that a mix of shoulder, pedestal, and Euro mounts can be a good choice. It depends on the animal, available space, and your budget.

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Hunt anything said:

@Bigry , what are the dimensions on that piece of art? I’m hopefully going to take blue wildebeest next year and am weighing my options.

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Bigry said:

I used our outfitters taxidermy. Dinkwe safaris and taxidermy. I got the idea from Nabers taxidermy here in the states.

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BJH65 said:

Red leg has some excellent interior decorator skills. Very tasteful. Well, after moving 4 times ourselves without a moving company during the last 8 years and balancing that damn 80 lb Eland mount on my shoulder as I climbed up the ladder to hang on the wall, I kept telling myself this is it, this is the last time I’m getting too damn old for this! I wished that every shoulder mount I had was a euro mount, such a pain to move and hang and during the move, shoulder mounts always susceptible to damage. From here on out, only euro mounts and/or pictures! Also, this is it, no more moving!

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Firebird said:

Eland is a boring euro. It shows neither the size nor the regal nature of the animal. A well mounted bull will stop onlookers in their tracks to admire.
Same with a kudu. Mount one or two and then euros thereafter.
Black wildebeest and red hartebeest look great as euros but you lose the colors and character of the real animal.
Small animals like duikers and steenboks are cool skulls and their size makes them an interesting piece. They are also a fun mount-be creative and mount the first one, skulls after that.
A Vaal rhebok should at minimum be a shoulder mount done with some rocks and grass for habitat-it is far too unique for a euro!
If you are filling a castle with common game then euros are great preservation. But for unique trophies which you will have limited opportunities to obtain, do a shoulder and touch them every day and tell the stories while people marvel that your mounted Cape buffalo isn’t just another “cow skull”
No one ever looked at a buffalo skull and said-“he is looking at Me like I owe him money” good taxidermy will evoke such comments.
That said I have thousands of photographs in books and on walls that try to capture what I want to remember and share with people, it’s not the same but it is affordable and takes up almost no space, and no one is going to insist your picture books be hung in the garage!

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