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Mark Freeman Commentary Photo from Mail Tribune files David Morris poses with some of his prized trophy mounts from his 1997 tour. Big-game junkie takes his trophy mounts on the road By MARK FREEMAN David Morris turns Oregon's highways into game trails. Six months a year, the Eastern Oregon man migrates around the state in a pickup truck towing a trailer loaded with taxidermy mounts of some of the most impressive wild animals ever to fall to hunters in the Northwest. World record mule deer and Columbia whitetail deer, the biggest whitetails from Oregon and Washington, even the fattest wild turkey ever shot in Oregon. They are all part of Morris' Tour of the Northwest Big Game Animals, which sports enough top trophy animals to make hunters drool. The salivating in Medford begins April 2, when Morris' show stops for a three-day stint at the G.I. Joe's store in Medford. Twenty top trophy mounts -- 18 of which are the original animals and/or antlers, with only two reproductions -- will be displayed during store hours. Since New Year's Day, Morris has logged almost 20,000 miles in his pickup and trailer. His shows have been all over Oregon, Washington and even Reno, Nev., displaying the trophies and signing up new entries in his Record Book for Oregon Big Game -- a state version of the Boone and Crockett Club and Pope and Young Club hunting records books where trophy animals are ranked, usually by the size of their antlers or horns. The traveling show is a journey of devotion for Morris, a big-game junkie who relishes presenting some of the region's best hunting stories in all corners of the Northwest. "It takes a lot of energy to put together something like this," says Morris, 39. "And with the travel schedule, I've been burning the candle on three ends. "But this is the fun part, especially helping get kids interested in hunting," he says. "It's all I've wanted to do for years.'' The show is free, but Morris gets the cash register jingling two other ways. He sells his record book's Second Edition, which came off the presses in January. Second, he recruits new entrants by hunters whose animals meet minimum scores. Hunters pay $10 to have their trophy listed, along with their names and the dates and locations of where the animal was killed. Hunters have flocked to Morris since he quit his concrete business in Irrigon and began peddling the trophy show and record book. He now lives in Long Creek, Ore., but spends most of his time on the road. This year's trophies from the show are all on loan from their owners, most of whom are more than happy to have Morris tour their deer or elk heads. The record books have been a mild success, both in entrants and sales. The first book contained 1,620 entries, and sold about 4,200 copies. The second edition doubled in size, contains more full-color pictures and sports about 70 first-hand hunting stories written by the people who shot their trophy animals. The second edition sells for $40. Morris is publishing similar first-edition record books for Washington and Idaho. The Washington book is due out this fall, and the Idaho book is set for next year. Morris plans on a new edition every three years. But for now, the tour is taking precedence. Unprecedented in Morris' tour is the Oregon mule deer with the widest antler span ever seen by such an animal in this state. The antlers of the buck, shot in Baker County in 1943, measure 46 inches apart. They were discovered last year in Baker City, when their owner walked into Morris' show with the antlers to be measured and scored. "I about fell over when the guy walked in the door," Morris says. "To me, of all the deer I've had hanging on the wall, he's be the one I'd shoot at." Also in this year's tour is the world--record non-typical mule deer, an Alberta buck whose non-symmetrical set of antlers contain an incredible 43 points. The antlers various measurement tally 355 points. Also on display is the biggest wild turkey ever shot in Oregon. It weighed 26 pounds, 12 ounces and had a beard measuring 11th inches. Morris hangs his trophies, and his shingle, in everything from G.I. Joe's stores to tire stores to massive outdoor and sportsmen shows. The best response to date has come from Medford, where tour stops each of the past three years have generated more interest and sold more books -- about 250 a year -- than any other stop. "That population is built around a lot of hunters," Morris says of Jackson County. The hardest sell? "Spokane," he says. "Those people will walk through (sport shows) with money and not buy anything." (Mark Freeman covers the outdoors for the Mail Tribune. Call him at 776-4470.) Outdoor Journal main page Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA