First European Mount Attempt

[makeithappen]

Thanks guys. I didn't get a chance to mess with it last night as I was cutting up jerky strips. Tonight I'll be doing the second boil and finishing the meat packaging while getting the dehydrator going.

Several people have mentioned borax. Are you talking about adding it to the boiling water, and if so, how much?

 

[r00s7a]

I use Borax, a little bleach, and Dawn and boil it. As long as he isn't rotten, I find the smell somewhat pleasant. I mean in reality it is just a soup that you are making! I made the mistake of letting one get rank before I boiled it out, never again. I don't spend any time trying to get the eyeballs or brain out or meat off. They all come off when you boil it, easily. Just peel the hide off and throw it in the water. I'm not a fan of white skulls, so I'm not too particular on how white they come out of the pot, but I still change the water a time or two during boiling. I use two burners and two pots, so that makes it easy to have another clean pot boiling that I can throw it in. Those that I have done for other people, I throw on a few coats of peroxide and the end up looking nice. Best advice I can give you is don't ever ever let one get rank with the hide on it! Throw it in the freezer whole if you have to until you are going to have time to jerk the skin off. The wife will love opening the freezer and seeing a big hairy deer head staring back at her.

 

[makeithappen]

Ha ha my wife has been extremely understanding about the process. I'm not sure I want to get the phone call after she finds a deer head staring at her from the deep-freeze.

 

[makeithappen]

Update:
Last night I boiled the skull for another 4 hours, again with some dish soap. I picked away quite a bit after the two hour mark. Here are some pictures after the second boil.

I picked away for about 10 minutes with needle-nose pliers and those mini-screwdrivers you need all of once a year if you don't wear glasses. I hooked up the garden hose and use the "jet" setting on the nozzle. I proceeded to bathe myself and the skull as the contours would redirect water right at me, but it was warm last night, so no big deal. While spraying, focus on the brain cavity and hold the nose up. This will allow you to pull out the remaining parts of the brain with the needle-nose pliers. I probably sprayed the skull down for 15 minutes making sure I caught every part. The most difficult area to clean out was the nasal cavity like I expected. The cartilage and meat go so far back that it's impossible to get out with tools. This is why I started spraying the skull within 15 minutes of pulling it out of the boiling water, the cartilage and meat were still very pliable. Spraying into the nasal cavity from below the skull (the opening in the roof of the mouth) while loosening what I could through the entrance of the nasal cavity where the nose was with pliers. Eventually the bits should slide out of the nose intact.

After spraying, I spent another 20 or so minutes picking at the skull to remove any remnants that could eventually rot/smell/etc.

Ready for the peroxide bath which I hope to complete this weekend.

 

[orangeRcode]

Looking good Make.

 

[makeithappen]

Thanks! I'm really happy with how it's turning out!

 

[DEER 24/7]

looking good

 

[Kingmarine]

Yes, looking really good. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

 

[kroberts2131]

Man that looks good! Keep us updated

 

[makeithappen]

Finally got the skull in hydrogen peroxide yesterday afternoon. Here's a tip, make sure the container you are going to use doesn't leak before dumping in the peroxide. I think I'm only going to soak it for 24 hours as the skull was pretty white to start with.