Mounted Sheds

[Jimmer Negamanee]

Shed hunting is one of my favorite pastimes. Although generally my enthusiasm eclipses my skill, even a blind squirrel finds a nut on occasion. That’s what happened on April 12, 2008. The boy and I were out and found this matching set of freshly dropped sheds.

(sorry, no field pics but the Grong-orange shirt was the shirt that was worn during the outing.)

 

Anyway, my goal was to mount them for display on my wall as they were VERY fresh drops and were in perfect condition. For father’s day I received a mounting kit complete with plaque and velvety skull plate cover.

 

I took it down the street to my neighbor who is a woodworker (and an engineer.) He took one look at the particleboard plaque and said “We can do better than that.” And he promptly handcrafted a plaque of African Purpleheart.

 

Here are a few pics of what we (he, actually, my job was to keep the sawdust out of the beer) did and the final product.

 

 

In the spirit of “To each, his own” I understand the final mount could be seen as me trying to mislead people into thinking that I actually killed this buck. This is wrong for many reasons. First of all, it’s not that big. I know hunters (not me, of course) who would have passed on a buck this size on the last day of the hunt. Second, anyone who knows me knows that I’m the Pat McManus of hunting (that is, I have one coues spike to my credit and I’m quite proud of it.) Finally, every time I show this to anyone I always preface the conversation with “No deer were injured in the making of this mount.”

 

I hope you enjoy this.

[Jimmer Negamanee]

for some reason, this pic (with the maker's mark) did not post. i"ll try again here.

 

[SilentButDeadly]

sweet!

[WFGinNM]

Very nice, and that you found the matching set with your son makes it better.

 

--Bill

[AZantlerhead]

Nicely done . Cool way to remember the outing, that's for sure. Nice buck 2 boot.

[josh]

Man that's some nice work! I wouldn't think anyone related to Gus could come up with something that nice.

[Jimmer Negamanee]

Man that's some nice work! I wouldn't think anyone related to Gus could come up with something that nice.

I'll tell him you said so. You're right though, I was just the tool wrangler. The only thing I did was help with the positioning of the antlers. But after it was all done (and the antlers secured in an unmoveable position) a friend who's taken some huge coues bucks said I might have "cheated on the spread a little." Oops. I'll chalk that up to inexperience. But like the folks on here were kind enough to say, it's a great reminder of time spent with in the outdoors with a kid who's growing up fast.

[Michigan Jack]

A beautiful and matched set, that's for sure.

 

Reading between the lines, my guess is the boy and his dog were hiking about looking for antlers, while the ol' man was taking a nap in the truck.

[Jimmer Negamanee]

A beautiful and matched set, that's for sure.

 

Reading between the lines, my guess is the boy and his dog were hiking about looking for antlers, while the ol' man was taking a nap in the truck.

 

I'm takin' the 5th!

 

Come on shed season! In the meantime, can someone dig something out of their closet to post to hold us over? At this point, I'll take something turning to chalk in your back yard.

[swede]

That is one of the best looking wall plaques I have ever seen. That purple wood sets off those antlers nicely, Good job!

[CouesWhitetail]

Very nice!! Congrats on a great trophy!

 

Amanda