okay i have a deer head in the freezer. whole head skin and all. I was planning on putting out back to let the bugs have at it. I was thinking of wrapping the antlers in foil. maybe putting it in a cage to keep from from being dragged off. What do you guys think?
skin it yourself, then bury it (i leave antlers exposed) and cover with bucket or something wgt down with rocks to keep the varmints at bay.
Dave, can i do it frozen or do I thaw it? Will the bugs not eat the Skin?
If you have a few hours just skin it and boil it comes out much better and you wont have to wait 3 months.
If you plan on putting it outside skin it and cover it...or if you want thaw it and put some water in a black garbage back with the skull and place it in the direct sunlight for a few days to remove antler...then burry skull once complete dig up re attach antlers.
DO NOT BOIL!! (Sorry Deadbolt)
SIMMER!!! You get the water to a boil and then back it off to a simmer. Add "OxyClean" or similar oxidizing agent found in the laundry section of your grocery store. This will gel the meat and tissue and make it VERY easy to scrape off. Just bathe it in the water and periodically lift it out and scrape what you can off and dip it again. It'll take a while but everything WILL come off.
Next strain the water and collect the teeth. They have a tendency to come loose in this process (the best thing to do is check the teeth as you go and remove them as they come loose).
After you're satisfied that the flesh is all off (use a wire to fish out the brains and nasal tissue) soak the skull in HydrogenPeroxide. The best stuff to buy is the industrial strength used by hydroponic gardeners or at certain hardware stores. The 3% stuff in the brown bottle at the drugstore will work, but it needs to soak A LOT longer... the industrial stuff (and use gloves!!!) will whitten the skull overnight. DO NOT let the antlers touch the H2O2! Place the skull into a container that allows the antlers to rest above the level of the Hydrogen Peroxide. To get around the base of the antlers and the top of the skull place gauze bandages on those areas and allow the H2O2 to wick up the gauze. It'll work just fine.
After a long soak in the H2O2 the skull will be pretty much bleached. The slightly yellowish areas will come white when dry. Take the skull and loose teeth somewhere dry (I don't recommend direct sunlight) and let it completely dry.
Next glue in any loose teeth (Elmer's glue works great). Follow up with a few coats of clear epoxy and VIOLA!! You will have a very fine, professional European mount. GOOD LUCK!
thanks guys.
Do something along the lines of what NorthernCaliforniaHunter explained for the most predictable good results.
I have watched my brother do the out door cage thing with good results, but I dont think it was any easier than lightly cooking and removing the flesh.
And its best to wait for truely warm weather if you want maggots and beetles to do a good job.
I second what Northerncaliforniahunter says. Has worked well for me.
Do not ever boil or simmer a skull guys - maybe, maybe not you cook the grease into the bone and the bone may have a tendency to yellow on you or bleed grease.
Beetles are the best way to go about getting the meat off - but an ant pile will work wonders. Stake it down next to an ant pile, in a cage whatever. They will clean it. After it is clean get some Hydrogen peroxide - hair salon stuff (strong) and whiten it.
J
The yellow is clean bleached out with the hydrogen peroxide.
Man sat here and forgot that even withthe bugs ya need to degrease in some sort of degreaser. can be alot of things.
Boiling works and the yellow can be bleached but give it time - it will bloom.
If it works for ya give it a shot. I do boil skull plates for mounting purposes but wouldn't do so for a euro.
J
Yes do not boil simmer my apologies...as for beetles...to each their own I've seenb some pretty crappy beetle jobs...if you simmer and add a degreaser you will cook the fat out and get a perfect job. Also remove the brain prior to cooking or the skull will be stained.
I've did dozzens of skulls.Over the years I've came up with this way of doing it.
Skin your head if you wish to hurry things up you can simmer and then scrape the meat off.It you don't care about the time.The sun will do the work.After skining I just put it up on a building.More in the sun the better.This will take about a year to get rid of the meat little lesser if you simmer the meat off first.
After you think the meats gone take down and scrape off whats left.Next I soak in warm water with some dish detergent.Next after a day I take a Small brass brush a brush it realy well re detergent aday and rebrush put in the sun to dry.
Rap yor skull in ace bandge put some in the eyes put in a pan an proxide a few times a day keeping the ace wet.Remove bandge let dry in the sun.Now I take delo glue used for fletching.Any clear drying glue will work.I do all the seams an wipe off clean with a rag.Glue will stay in the cracks.Let dry spray with varafana let dry stray again.Your skull will stay this way forever.Not to white but just white enough natural look.I have over 100 skulls I killer and found and another 50 plus i've did for other people.
I did a skull mount for the first time last year. There are a lot of different ways to do it. This is how I did it.
First, I skinned the skull and removed as much meat as I could including the eyes and brain. Then I simmered it for several hours, removing it and scraping meat away every hour or so. Next, I removed it and took needle nose pliers and pulled out anything that wasn't bone. There is a lot of junk in the nasal passages. I then soaked it over night in hot water with dawn soap. The next day, I did some final scraping and gunk removal. Finally, I soaked it over night in a heavy duty peroxide solution. Do not get peroxide on the antlers, it will bleach them. I took some peroxide and mixed with baby powder to make a gelly that I brushed all around the bases and any part of the skull that wasn't submersed. This was the end result.
(http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r55/clintanders/IMG_0436.jpg)
(http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r55/clintanders/IMG_0438.jpg)
awesome job scrub! never seen one mounted on a shed antler i love it think i migh thave to steal the idea for some costumers work great idea!
Damn fine work bud! Very creative with the antler mount...if I found sheds like that I'd love to try that!
i favour the boil then i pressure wash all the meat off the skull. its way faster than scrapping and it gets all the hard to reach areas inside and outside of the skull. then i spray bomb it white highgloss and spray it with a sealer
I agree,skinning and simmer is the way to go.Nice skulls,really good work. Here's one I found that Mother Nature had done all the work,it had been laying out at least 2 years.I just left it as I found it except for putting the bead work on it. (http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t53/kendalltechau/100_1701.jpg)