Now that the hunting season is under way in most states and all of you have listened to me and visited, researched and found a good quality taxidermist (wildlife artist), you think your job is done. . .NOPE, read on!!! 

 It is time you thought of how you are going to have that trophy mounted, where you will hang or stand it. All of this is very important and is better decided now, than in haste. You have spent a lot of time scouting for that special hunting spot, spent hour after hour practicing for that one shot. And I hope looked long and hard for a Taxidermist who will produce a quality mount, it is no time to cut your self short on the pose. 

 The first thing you will need to decide is where in the room you will place this trophy. There may be some factor that will change this after the shot that I will discuss in the next article. Now that you know where you want it you can now think of how you want it to look in that area. Do you want it to be: looking straight ahead, or maybe have its head turned to the left or right. Do you want your trophy in a upright alert position or will it be in a sneaking position. 

Below are some of the most common positions, all of these can be straight, left or right. 
 

• Upright = This is the first and only way deer were mounted in the good ole days and still for some reason popular. It makes a nice mount with the ears in the forward position as if alert.
• Semi-Upright = This pose is similar to the upright position and a more natural pose than the upright position. The difference is that the head is lower and further away from the wall and the lower jaw is parallel to the floor.

• Semi-Sneak =  This position the head is a little lower and further from the wall than the semi-upright position.
• Full Sneak = In this position the top of the head is at or below the back, sort of straight out from the wall. In this position the ears are best in the laid back position, just makes the mount more natural.
• Pedestal =  This is the new hot lick if you want to be the first on your block for something new this is it. This is a free standing mount on a base of some sort. I just mounted one a while back for my shop of a deer in a semi upright position with a head turn looking upward licking an ice cycle off a tree branch. The base was a winter snow scene and the deer was positioned on a old fence post with barbed wire. These really make nice mounts they will cost more cause you now have the cost of the base.