My Taxidermist Bill was High!!!

Most everyone on here knows I'm not a "Trophy" outdoorsman. I meat hunt for deer and don't cull bucks to grow big ones. And I enjoy catching slab crappie, but I'm satisfied to bring home a mess of pounders! With that being said, the good lord blessed me with a spectacular 2015! If having a baby and moving in our new house wasn't enough, he also gave me a couple nice fish and a beautiful deer!

I normally post my successful deer hunts here, but I don't believe I ever posted this deer. As usual, we had several nice deer on camera this past year. Normally they are creatures of the night and they are rarely seen. I had my eye set on a nice 5x5 with a split brow tine that we dubbed "Ol' Split Tine." It was towards the end of September and I had killed a buck a week earlier that had ran a doe off so I was confident the rut was in its early stages. I took my grunt call with me to the stand and I blew it about 6:45 PM. Immediately I heard what sounded like a deer walk right towards my stand. It sounded like he walked about ten yards from me and looped back around. At about 7:00 PM I saw a bird fly out the cutover I was sitting against and I leaned forward to see "Split Tine" standing on the edge. He took a couple steps into the open and I was already on him with the cross hairs. A squeeze of the trigger and I had bagged my PB deer rack wise. He weighed 162 lb and sported a beautiful 11 pt rack! I just got him back the other week and he looks purdy on the wall.

Last spring I posted about catching two personal best fish on back to back days at Clarks Hill. Both were around 2.75 lb. I took those fish to the same taxidermist, Mr. Charlie Summer in Newberry, SC. He did an amazing job on all three mounts. The fish look like they just came out the water and the pictures really don't do them justice.

I couldn't be more happy of my trophies from last year! My house is finally starting to look decorated LOL



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

A beautiful buck he is Derek. Another congrats on the two fine crappie specimens as well.

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...9e0027bcdc.jpg

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...74bec0fb6d.jpg

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...35fcd39466.jpg

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...61ccd1a374.jpg

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...2e5794ee88.jpg

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...ce2a9ec1c6.jpg

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Very nice deer Derek!! Fish look great as well! Congratulations! I like when they have split brow tines. How wide? Thanks for sharing your trophies.

He wasn't very wide...right at 15" inside spread. The split brow tine makes him and he is virtually perfectly symmetrical. I meant to have the taxidermist age him and forgot all about it. I'd guess he was probably a 3.5 year old deer.

He was the talk of the area. I know of atleast 3 other folks within a mile of the stand I killed him that had him pictured on their trail cameras as well. I was glad to get him.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah I like it when they have the split brow tines. How tall were his G3's? I haven't deer hunted in the last few years but hoping on 1 in St. Mathews a guy is trying to get me in. Last club I was in just not happy.

Nice mounts. Looks good on the wall.Sorry to see your Tigers fall today. I watched it and USC on my 8" tablet. Like watching TV in the 50s with the tiny screen.

Wow what great trophy's to have on the wall.

Three great looking mounts, congrats on all of them.

He's a very fine trophy along with the fish. My mom threatened my life one time if I brought another deer home and put the head in the taxidermist to be mounted.:biggrin

Nice trophies Derek. Thanks for sharing

Just beautiful!

You have a good taxidermist. Everything looks good. Congrats.:)

Beautiful mounts. I am not a hunter, but would love to have a fish like the top one.

nice thanks for sharing

Those are beautiful mounts, congratulations!

Sharp looking mounts Derek. There's a taxidermist close to me that is good but like any others,seems high. I'm sure it like anything else,you get what you pay for. It's good to be able to use the same taxidermist for all your mounts,that way each animal looks the same. IVe had several Dee mounted over the years and each have a different look to them.My first deer that I got mounted cost a whopping $85.00......1980