Moving out of state and deer mounts
General Topic
Wife is hopefully starting a new job in Montana this summer, and we are in the process of selling our house. So for those who have moved long distances, how did you move your deer mounts without busting them up? Thanks!
Simple wood crate and screwed into it and never give it another thought is what I would do.
Are you driving a rental truck? We moved 6 months ago. We had a moving company move all the furniture and then my taxidermist friend helped me move the animals. For shoulder mounts we screwed a strip of plywood 6-8 inches wide to the back and then screwed the plywood which was wider than the width of the chest into the wooden rails. We hung them upside down so the weight was to the bottom. Move was only about 40 miles but it was over terrible bumpy secondary roads. No problems whatsoever!
I screwed all my shoulder mounts to a 4x8 sheet of plywood through the back of the plywood then put it in the back of my truck with a truck cap....it took a few trips though but I wasn't moving far....maybe you could do the same in a moving truck
Will be sending goat, sheep, sitka mounts and caribou and moose racks fm AK to MT in a horse trailer. Have brought them the other way and the wood box with mounts screwed to walls is the safest.
I learn something every day. I love this place.
This is the inside of the box pictured above. Shipped from a friend (taxidermist) in southern CA to Hawaii.
JiminPA- Out of curiosity, what is the reasoning for hanging shoulder mounts upside down? Thanks!
They are top heavy and I ship all my customers' mounts upside down. Less likely to pull away. If for some reason they do, they are balanced by antler tips with little chance of chipping the antlers in a crate. Basically, the head wants to pull forward and away from the wall, upside down there is less torqueing and more of a straight down pull. Simple rope handles are a plus too.
When I moved to Colorado from MN I had movers take most everything except my deer heads. I put those in the cab of my Dodge Dakota with me and drove out. Of course, I only had 2-3 at the time.
Sheep horns are quite heavy and I will be putting the head upside down with the horns touching a piece of military sleeping pad tacked to the bottom. Then opposite I will put a sitka head right side up. Maximizes utility with less space and material. If possible I will put a hen and rooster pheasant on the side walls.
Thanks Bear Track. Makes sense.
Millie and I moved from TX to TN in September and faced a similar problem. We had to figure out how to move the 40 or so specimens in 'her' trophy room and without damaging the mounts or breaking the bank.
I talked with our taxidermist and he mentioned the process of screwing the mounts into plywood and screwing the plywood into the trailer walls. It would have worked, but our trailer didn't have plywood walls to anchor too.
Next we decided to explore have everything crated and moved by the mover. One look at the quote changed that idea (scary) and we moved to Plan B.
Plan B was that the movers would move the life size gator, a fox grabbing an airborne quail, and her bear in crates; we'd let the packer crew pack the exotic deer, javelinas and blackbuck and such in dish pack and wardrobe boxes. The mover's 'customized" several wardrobes to accommodate the larger antlered exotics and her oryx.
They did it quickly, used a bit more packing paper and it didn't hurt the wallet too badly. The bottom line is that everything made the trip in tact and without the first, scale, feather or whisker damaged.
I moved the cave mount bears, red stag pedestal and bigger whitetail mounts myself. Rather than use the plywood method, I went bought a heavy weight sofa box and a 'pallet box' and simply stacked the mounts like cord wood. Once they were full, I put the cardboard cover over them to help keep them in place.
I wrapped the each head with moving pads ($8/pr at Tractor Supply). We found that wrapping the heads and ears and antlers in a moving pad and laying/stacking them carefully worked fine. We didn't break a tine or bend an ear.
Hopefully this helps.
Thanks for all the ideas so far...I'm thinking the box idea would be best, and then I could use our sleeping bags as a cushion too. Then I'll haul them in my enclosed trailer and not have to worry about the movers touching them...now just to find time to build them.
Do not let those bags or anything touch the hair of your mounts! Deer hair especially is hollow and gets brittle over time. It will kink like wire and you will not straighten it out or brush it straight. Over 40 years experience talking guys.
Do not put anything against the hair in the box (sleeping bags included). They will push against the hair and can cause dents in the hair which can be hard to comb out.
Cut up a garden hose and put on every point then wrap with bubble wrap
According to me ask
movers to give you the box , it will be of convenient shape and size.
We moved a lot of mounts including elk, moose, bison, life size cougar, lots of deer, some sheep, antelope, kudu etc all in the pickup canopy or enclosed cargo trailer 1500 miles from CO to BC. It took two primary trips. All mounts were typically placed on top of furniture and moved upside down resting on antlers, horn or the back of the mount. We tied them off with cord to stabilize the location in the trailer as required, always to horn or antler, never hair. We never screwed any down as the sides of the trailer and canopy weren’t suitable to screw to. We did insert cardboard as protective barriers between mounts, furniture etc and used a lot of packing blankets over furniture.
All in all it was a big job, especially with paperwork (all hunting licences, original import docs for African stuff, etc.) for the border crossing. We got it here with out any significant damage.
We sold a fair bit of the Taxidermy and eliminated duplicates, lesser specimens of the same species, older mounts, very early ones where we had not kept licenses etc. It helped to thin the herd or we would have made additional trips. Good luck!
JiminPa thanks for the great idea for moving my mounts!
Looks very safe and secure
#LovinLife
Robb
I agree, by now I'm sure the OP's deer mounts have either been moved, or, it became a non-issue from not moving.
Yeah, mine got moved down, 2600 miles, in the back of a U-Haul truck. Did the plywood box thing. I did a bunch of measuring before I made the 2 boxes. It allowed me to put grouse, eider, oldsquaw, pintail, harlequin, pheasants all in amongst the heads.
Use Torx screws which allow you to reach in where a phillips would be tough if even possible. Have a 6" bit too.
A 3 y-o thread re-opened by a spammer.....
