Could you throw away all of your racks/mounts/hunting pictures and be ok with it?

"I could get rid of the mounts/skulls/antlers but couldn't do without at least the photos. "

I agree, photos are becomming bigger for me. As my kids enter into the hunting world I sense that I will be a photo taking monster.

Michael, I understand what you are saying. Thank you for the examples. I do not have anyone else in my family that hunts so I am kind of like the trailblazer. Good thread guys, makes me think.

 

Great point Justin/Brett....now that I have little ones, pictures mean everything to me, and mounts, horns, beards etc mean less and less.

 

Personally, I'm trying to collect as many mounts, skulls, antlers, pictures and whatever else is hunting related, so that when I go and my son inheirits them, he better have an understanding women.

Really, when I'm gone, it won't affect me at all!

 

I'd liken my attachment to all of my deer antlers, turkey spurs and turkey beards to an episode of Hoarders. I'd survive just fine without all of them, but I'd never let them go, willingly.

The biggest emotional attachment to anything from my current junkpile are my shed antlers that I consider to be still "in play." That is, they're deer that I have never confirmed to be dead. They're the deer that I'm currently hunting, so when I retreat to the cave and start daydreaming about my next hunt, those are my focal points.

My favorite trophy has always been and will always be my next one.

I'm 50x more attached to my sheds, heads, beards and spurs than I'll ever be attached to my hunting gear. They make more bows, guns and camo everyday. Each of those antlers is a one-of-a-kind. They'll never be reproduced. I can buy a bow from Walmart tomorrow and take it out hunting the next day. Each of my trophy class animals are uniquely special to me.

 

Interesting question.
I'd be really ticked if I lost my shoulder mounts & nicer skull mounts. I have a picture album, but I never really take it out to look at, and it needs some big time updating over the last several years. I want be more attached to and display some of my smaller racks from the good old days, but as for now most of them are scattered around my man case with no real ryhme or reason.
I guess the idea of having them is more comforting than actually having them. But I would still be ticked if i had to give them up. I'm not sure I willingly could.

 

I wish I had someone around who could have taken some better field pics of some of my harvest, but as far as the mounts and stuff, I want to be able to pass them onto my kids hopefully and now that I'm doing my own taxidermy on my deer heads, they will mean that much more too me!

 

They really only mean something to me, so for now I'll just keep them. I guess my kids will have to figure out what to do with them when I bite the dust. Can you think of anyone that would want to take several hundred whitetail racks and mounts? I've already discarded ( given away or were stolen) a couple large boxes full but still have perhaps 150 to 200 remaining?

 

It's something I had never considered.The fiance isn't too fond of the pig head but it isn't going anywhere other than the "manroom". The rest of the mounts have approval for the living areas of the house. I guess if the house burned down I'd live without them but no way would I ever get rid of them!

 

Well I have never had any family that hunt. I have kind of pioneered that on my own. Thanks to a divorce I did loose all my first few years when my neighbor was showing me the ropes.
However, since then, I have made it a point to take all the pictures I could. Therefore no, I could not just throw them out.

Your second question though is where the philosphical point is. Could I throw all of that away still be just as excited to hunt. Yes. You can take away all my gear, my new bow and all the other things I've gotten in the last 2 years. I can use my old wal mart special open sight muzzle loader and carharts, and I'm ready to go hunt; and just the thought of going old school, well I might just do that this year anyways.

 

OOPS sorry I didnt answer in the previous post. I could never get rid of mine especially the ones from my younger years hunting with my father. Since he had passed in 2007 I have his racks in my garage and they are so precious. I have 2 that have a special meaning from 1984 my first year hunting with him. I got a spike on opening day and 4 hours later he killed a 8 pointer and I have both racks from that year.

 

Absolutely.. I have no use for most this stuff anymore. I'm about to dump half my shed collection or more to some people who will actually utilize them.

It's the people I've met and the friends I have kept that have continued my love with hunting.

If it was not for them... I wouldn't even do it anymore.

In my eyes.. the rest doesn't really mean anything.

 

If anybody was interested in parting with a shed, I was looking into making a knife with an antler handle.

 

I have made two deer antler knives in the past. I am not very good at it but it sure is a lot of fun. One resides in Kentucky and the other in Wisconsin. Gave em to guys from bh.com as signs of respect and good luck.

 

Mounts- If I lost them In a fire, oh well. Pictures- It would tear me up If the same happened!!

 

Aaahh, no........................

 

ILL GIVE YOU MY ADRESS SEND ME YOUR SHEDS..

 

I agree with what Justin said. My mounts will NOT be focal points of my house in the future, so I have lost such a passion for the quantity of mounts most people want. I want select mounts, of great quality. I won't part with them by any means, but they aren't a third as important to me as the pictures. I have a half shoe box full of turkey beards and spurs, and they all look identical. The pictures set them apart, and remind me of where the hunt was, and what stage of my life I was in at that point. I LOVE a good picture, and it means more to me than the mount itself. I hope I can continue to improve on my photo skills in the woods to take high quality, high class pictures. Ones I'd be proud to show.

My mounts all reside in the same corner of my bedroom back at my parents place. My pictures are on both of my computers, my photobucket account online, my back up hard drive which is in the gun safe at my parents, and a flash drive at my apartment. I do NOT want to lose copies of my pictures!

 

NEGATIVE, everytime I look at anything I have kept in regards to my hunting, it brings back great memories.

 

I would hate to lose any of it, cuase everything really brings back great memories for me, and I'm sure they will til the day I die. What I'd hate to lose the most is the pictures though.

 

There's no way I could willingly part with them.