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Have a bear tag in addition to caribou for Alaska this fall. Should I kill one what are some mount or rug options other than full body? I was thinking a skull mount and have the rest of the hide tanned. Thoughts? Would love to see some pics. Thanks!
I have shot four black bears........one full body mount, two rugs, and one tanned hide, along with their skulls.
Black Bear or Brown/Grizzly Bear?
Rugs are an easy option to have done. Skull work with beetles is always a better result than boiling.
Be sure you keep the Penis Bone if you harvest a boar. I have rugged and half-life sized black bears.
Honestly trophy Brown Bears are way too much animal to do much with unless you have a huge game room (life sized decent Mount is at least $6k), rugs on anything over 8’ take up a vast amount of floor or wallspace.
My taxi just sent me pix of my Wisconsin bear. I wavered on the full body mount, but when you get a booner you kinda have to right?
I think shoulder mounts are underrated...
Pretty standard but a cool mount.
Pretty standard but a cool mount.
This is my favorite in my house have about 10 different ones but like this one alot
Heck of some nice animals there pappy
If you want to display the skull. I had this Honey Badger skull bronzed.
Beautiful mounts guys, thanks! Definitely getting a skull mount but not sure what else. Wonder how a skull and the feet with claws mounted on a board would look?
Bou bound! That shoulder/half mount of yours looks awesome.
Rug mounts are nice but tend to be quite a bit more expensive than a shoulder mount. Half mounts look nice if you have the room and the money to have it done.
I am going to case skin the next one. I just skinned these, had them tanned and hung them with the skulls on a shelf.
“ rugs on anything over 8’ take up a vast amount of floor or wallspace.”
Pshoot... I have that problem with my Elk hide....
I always figured that if I were to get a medium-sized bear, I’d case it.... and wear it as a coat... Bear-claw toggles would be a good alternative to buttons.
Pretty sure it’d need some alterations, though. A bear as scrawny as I am wouldn’t hardly be worth shooting
;)
I only have a couple of rugs. If I was going to do a mount it would be life size. For some reason I am not a fan of half or shoulder mounts on bears.
And FWIW, I like Shug’s shoulder mount....
But I sure would love to see the surveillance video on the burglar who stumbles into Pappy’s trophy room just as a passing car’s headlights come through that window...
I really like your skins hanging idea Matt!
I’m doing a wall pedestal with my Brownie I shot last spring. Closed mouth. Waiting on the tannery for the cape.
They do not make a commercial form yet so it has to be custom made.
I’m excited because my bear is a lot lighter and I think it is going to be pretty nice.
That looks awesome Scott. If I ever decide to shoot another bear I'd definitely like something like that.
Whatever you do, don’t do an open mouth snarling type on a black bear. It’s not a natural pose for a black bear. Only open mouth I would do is a partial open like it’s panting. If not a rug then a shoulder mount or 1/2 life size. I like the wall pedestal idea. You could get a 1/2 life size manikin and alter it to a wall pedestal pretty easily or add more foam onto a shoulder manikin and shape it.
O man ! Jmail! Sweet mount.
^Agreed. Jmail, that is a beautiful bear and an awesome mount. I really like the closed mouth look on black bears as well.
The coolest one I've ever seen was about 10 years ago at the Utah hunting expo. It was a full body mount black bear that was seated next to a pond and I believe it was reaching up toward a bee hive that was hanging from a limb above the pond. I'm sure it was prohibitively expensive to create, but definitely captured the nature of a black bear.
Thanks guys! The mount was done by Brad Minshull at Prairieland Taxidermy in Manitoba, The man is a true artist and does incredible work.
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