Anybody else keep odd mementos / trophies?

Longwalker

Longwalker

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I was just writing on a few empty cartridge cases, recording the game I took with them this fall, like I have done in the past. When some special animal was taken, I often keep the empty cartridge case and write on it as a keepsake and memory of a particular hunt. Regardless if I keep anything of the animal itself as a "trophy" or not. Perhaps a unique location, first time with a new rifle, or first of a new species. So this year it was a first whitetail buck shot with a new 7.62x39mm CZ 527 near home, a wild boar taken during a midnight stalk in a city park in Cologne with my German buddy's Blaser R93 30-06, and a Cape Buffalo from the Caprivi strip in Namibia with my Merkel 140AE .450-400 N.E. 3" double rifle. Maybe it's an odd habit. What's yours?
 

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Fawk that's cool

I dont hunt... animals. Steel targets on the other hand oh boy.

Got a 100 round clear .22 box full of recovered projectiles.

Steel core of a surplus 7.62x39 mushroomed by ar500 recovered from a piece of wood supporting the target.

1 oz slugs I chopped out of wood

Mushroomed copper from I'm assuming .22 rounds

Hevishot hog wild 3" round ball recovered in the snow after smacking and old soft steel target.

I like your idea. If and when I get into hunting I think I'd enjoy that.
 
I keep all recovered bullets from game I’ve shot, some I remember where and what, but most are just there in the pile. Also have a surprising number of unfired rounds picked up in the wilds of Manitoba, not sure how they find me but have around 10. If they could only talk :)
 
Traveling in Africa in 1972 I picked up a spent cartridge case in the street in Kisingani from the Congolese war in the early 1960s.
 
My son's Mule Deer antlers hang in my office. Hanging off the brow tine is the last loaded round from that reloading.
A 30-06 with a 180 grain Nosler Ballistic tip.

I ave kept a couple of recovered bullets; A 338 250 grain Nosler Partition recovered from a moose, and a 270 Barnes 130 grain recovered from the neck of a mule Deer.
 
I have a buddy that keep every spent casing he gets an animal with, glues the cut out date from notching his tag on the spent case. Pretty good idea as he knows what every animal he shot with, and what date
 
I don't keep spent casings or bullets, but on my very first day ever hunting deer I shot my arrow at a deer 17 yds away within 15 minutes of being there. There was a small tree with a 3" dia, trunk right in front of the deer, she was standing broadside, and I managed to hit the tree smack in the centre, two inches either way and I would have had it! Between the buck fever, and being a newby at the time I learned a lot from that day. I cut the small tree down with my broadhead deeply embedded and mounted a 16" section of the trunk on a nice oak base that I had made.
 
I used to keep spent bullets that I recovered from animals when I was butchering them but now they're just a tin can full of spent bullets and I couldn't tell you which one came from what animal.... so much for that! Your idea with the cases is much more sensible.
 
A spent casing is a spent casing.
If I find the bullet, I keep it.
More so for bullet performance, weigh it, see how it held together, expanded or fragmented, also check and document entry, exit & wound channel on animal.
 
I don't really collect my casings per say..... but there is a big moss covered rock in pemberton that has a hole in it under the moss..... there are shell casings in there. One for each animal I've taken from the rock. I haven't counted them but I know that hole must have a box of empty .303 brit in it ….. if not more hehehe
 
Magellann said:
I don't keep spent casings or bullets, but on my very first day ever hunting deer I shot my arrow at a deer 17 yds away within 15 minutes of being there. There was a small tree with a 3" dia, trunk right in front of the deer, she was standing broadside, and I managed to hit the tree smack in the centre, two inches either way and I would have had it! Between the buck fever, and being a newby at the time I learned a lot from that day. I cut the small tree down with my broadhead deeply embedded and mounted a 16" section of the trunk on a nice oak base that I had made.
Click to expand...

I will keep rifle casings, slug shells, or shotgun shells from harvested turkeys. They all get a slip with date/time/measurements.
By far though, my most important one of them all is from my first shot ever taken during shotgun deer.

It is a reminder of a whole lot of what not to do.

Last morning of the controlled week. My now wife’s family had been in town visiting and my parents were coming for dinner. It was supposed to be a short morning of hunting, 10am and I am done and home by noon.
Shortly after 9, I hear noise coming up behind me. I look back over my shoulder and two does are cruising along towards me. I hunker down behind my “up n down”, as I know exactly where they plan on crossing the river.
I let the first one cross, and she stops to shake off and wait for the other to get out of the river. Perfect broadside shot, max 15 yards away. I let it fly, and she hits the ground.
I wait for what feels like an eternity and she isn’t moving. I go to get up out of my turkey chair, and she jumps up. At the same time, my chair sinks into the mud and I fall back into it. Both leap back into the river and take off into the thick crap.

First mistake... I wasn’t familiar with my shotgun at such short range, had “the fever”, and I aimed high.
Second mistake... it felt like an eternity, but it wasn’t even close to long enough.
Third mistake... I didn’t chamber another round before doing anything else.
Fourth mistake... I had said earlier in the week that I needed something for the chair legs in the soft mud, as they were sinking.

I then spent the next six hours combing the woods with buddies, looking for a body. Zero blood trail, and her tracks disappeared once she got up to the hard leaf layered high ground.

It was a whole lot of fail, all rolled into one.
 
I like the OP idea, I myself do not keep any momento's, but I do have a nice collection of memories from past hunts, outings, etc.
 
Magellann said:
I don't keep spent casings or bullets, but on my very first day ever hunting deer I shot my arrow at a deer 17 yds away within 15 minutes of being there. There was a small tree with a 3" dia, trunk right in front of the deer, she was standing broadside, and I managed to hit the tree smack in the centre, two inches either way and I would have had it! Between the buck fever, and being a newby at the time I learned a lot from that day. I cut the small tree down with my broadhead deeply embedded and mounted a 16" section of the trunk on a nice oak base that I had made.
Click to expand...

This is something I would do! Bravo!!
 
verminaard said:
I will keep rifle casings, slug shells, or shotgun shells from harvested turkeys. They all get a slip with date/time/measurements.
By far though, my most important one of them all is from my first shot ever taken during shotgun deer.
It is a reminder of a whole lot of what not to do.
It was a whole lot of fail, all rolled into one.
Click to expand...

That took some courage. Thanks for sharing.
 
Thing 2 has a set of earings done up by Shoot'in Pretty.
I kept the .308win case that she shot her first deer with.
I mail this and another to make a matched set and the gal that
owns Shoot'in Pretty made up a nice set of earings with the case head
and birthday gemstone in the primer pocket.
Kid was wondering what it was all about until I let her know the story.

Felt wear off, so maybe etching the details in the brass might last a tad longer.
 
I started doing the same thing last year, what, when, where with what and distance. I wish I’d started sooner, used to just keep the tags with a few notes scribbled on them
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