Before Installing Hunting Mounts
If you’re a hunter, I’ve got something you need to consider when building a house: hunting mounts. Before hanging your elk mount or deer mount on the wall, you want to install wood backing first, especially if you have a nice gable.
Behind me is a 12-12 pitch roof, got an elk mount back here and plenty of backing for it. We did the same thing to another gable on this side. There are a couple of ways to do it.
I’d recommend installing as much backing as possible so you have flexibility. So you can put a bigger hunting mount in the middle and something else on the sides. Then you don’t have to worry about hitting that stud because these hunting mounts are all laid out differently. You may want flexibility in turning them one way or the other, and putting an elk mount on one side and a deer mount on the other.
Using CDX Plywood for Wood Backing
So this elk mount has 3 ¾-inch CDX plywood behind it. We didn’t go to the gable end because the elk antlers would hit up high, all the way to the peak. We cut an angle on it and set that elk in the middle, as it has the tallest set of antlers. You can put a couple of deer mounts on the sides, but see how that comes down?
There are a couple of them where we had 2-by-6 extra walls and notched them 3 ¾ of an inch, and then we inlaid that CDX into that. For the other ones, we just put a small cleat on the back, say 3 ¾-inch material, or even an inch and a half. Then we would go ahead, cut the plywood, and fit it inside there.
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Installing Wood Backing Before Insulating Walls
Now, you gotta make sure you’re applying insulation back there. This house is getting an Owens Corning mineral wool in it. We made sure to have some hunting mounts on site before the insulators show up, and then this has to get put in the wall behind that backing, so you don’t miss that space.
Pro tip: Make sure you’re not compressing behind the plywood. Instead, you should be notching and cutting it where it needs to go. But remember this insulation’s getting put in, no matter what, before that happens.
Behind me, you can also see that this one got done. It’s a 9-12 pitch in here because you’ve got a scissor truss, but we’ve got backing on this whole thing for flexibility metal. You can use this for something other than hunting mounts, and it works well on these big, tall ceilings like this.
We have another hunting mount in this room; you can see it here. It’s all set up, ready to go — you can put anything up there.
Final Thoughts
If you’re a hunter or have something else you wanna put up on the wall, install your backing while you’re building the house.
Should you need help building a custom home, ADU, or doing whole-house remodeling, request a project consultation with us. Otherwise, contact Freeman’s Realty if you’d like to buy a home or land first.
