European Mount- Burying?
Whitetail Deer
I have boiled a skull before. I want to try burying a skull up to the antlers to get the skull clean. I will put a plastic tube over it to help keep the antlers from being weathered and from critter from getting to it.
Will the antlers be discolored in any way by doing it this way?
How do you keep mice from chewing on the antlers?
I live in Minnesota, can I bury it now or should I wait (damage from freezing thawing??) until spring?
Any other suggestions?
Thanks for your help!
Yes, if you bury they will be discolored, no way around it underground... It'll require paint...
My 11/11/16 Kansas buck has been hanging in my trophy room as a euro for a week already because I boiled it out. Soak it in a pot for 24 hours then boil for an hour, scrape, boil for 15 minutes, whiten the skull and your done.
Local vermin will remove your rack to parts unknown! Congrats on the buck! C
Mine are all completed on the Saturday or Sunday following the kill. I boil three hours softly. Then don my rain gear and use my power washer on low pressure. It works amazingly but the key is low pressure or you can damage the skull. Especially the soft areas in the nasal cavity. I can go from skinning to drying in 4 hours. Three of which are spent drinking beer and making sure to keep the pot full as it boils off.
boil and bleach, 2 days its on the wall
Jay found a deer on our lease.
I was debating burying it or throwing it into my old neighbors pond.
I was told if I threw it in the pond the teeth would fall out?
Does anyone know if that is true?
One of the bucks I had boiled lost the teeth- unfortunately it is one that I have as a skull mount. Calcium Carbonate or Blue Dawn dish soap, boil and repeat- gently pressure wash and I prefer to use hydrogen peroxide products over the spray bleach products the skull places use, and put it out in the sun to dry.
burying it will likely discolor the skull too- ant hills, ponds, just take it someplace.
I ultimately prefer the dermistid beetles over boiling but the guy I use is in Georgia and sending him anything bigger than a Pronghorn or Lion/Bear is a chore.
I bury all mine, they kinda come out with a cool color. I'm just not a fan of the bleached white look. To each his own
Yep, the teeth will likely fall out if you soak it in the pond I built a skull cooker this year. I cut a 30 gallon barrel down and put a 110v water heater element in it. It works great and I can do a couple at a time
I buried two of them this summer and the predators stole them. good luck. oz
I made a cage out of chicken wire that worked pretty well. I wrapped the antlers with plastic grocery bags to keep the sun and critters off. The only downside was that it smelled pretty bad while it was decaying
What if you turn over one of those big Tupperware tubs while it's buried ?? Put something heavy on top to keep critters from getting in?? Haven't tried but just a suggestion
Just boil...simple effective
Been burying heads in the compost pile for years. Get them a couple feet down, and put a couple cinderblocks on top. Never had a problem with mice or something hauling them off. If I was I'd probably put the head in a cage and drive a few rebar stakes.
Imparts a beautiful golden brown color in about 6 months, and the crawly things take care of all the soft parts. If you have a hot pile, it will probably work through the winter - let us know. Once dug up, you can leave it in the sun for a few months to bleach it out naturally, then shoe polish the antlers. Really very little work. and the price is so right.
This method will result in a bigger problem with the color of the antlers, IMHO. You will spend more time and effort getting the antlers looking normal that if you just boiled it out.
>>>>-------->
Just simmered (hard to get 28 gallons to boil with my set up) my first elk head! found a 5x6 died on the property I hunt, cut the head off and buryed the body with backhoe P U it was so bad I had to bury it. I simmered the head for 1.5 hours first time cut all the big stuff off then took it to a pressure wash second simmer was last night 40 minutes with clean water and Arm and Hammer powered laundry soap 3 cups (pulls oils out of bone) finale step tonight, clean with wire brush and apply with a brush! crazy as it sounds hair developer from the beauty supply house...ill share pictures when im done its my first try so Im crossing my fingers MikeC
I macerate in a bucket of water. With or without the hide still attached doesn't matter much. It takes just as long as burying, but it's just clean water, so no staining. Check it every couple weeks or so, pick the crap off, hose it off, change water and repeat. To cover the antlers, I drape a heavy duty construction bag over it.
And I do not bleach the skull w/hydrogen peroxide, it came out that white.
It is way easier to boil than dig a hole
It really isn't that hard to do it without burying or dropping in a pond. Skin it's head out, throw it in a simmering pot of water with some dawn dish soap for about 30 minutes. Blast the cooked meat off with a power washer. Simmer again for 15 minutes and blast the last bits off with a power washer. Coat it a pasty mix of Volume 40 hair cream and Basic White. A couple days later it is white as snow.
I just did my buck from this year and it was easy. Took about 4 hours one afternoon and then two days of bleaching it in the Volume 40 mix. I also did a couple badly stained ones for a friend and they turned out great. Here is a before and after of the badly stained ones.
I have tried boiling once and it didn't go too well. Couldn't get all the tough bits off. This year I decided to buy some beetles and see how it went. So far it's not what I expected, but I'm going to ride it out and see if I can get a good colony going.
Not to sure you want to "BOIL" the skull in boiling water. I bring the water to a boil and then simmer for the next 4-5 hours. This way the skull bone does not get too soft and break off. Two Coues WT completed this way.
my best, Paul
There are a lot of great "how two" videos on this guy's YouTube page. I am in no way affiliated and don't know the guy from Adam. I have found a handful of his videos to be very helpful.
How's the smell with the boil? Not disparaging the process or the results (very nice), but a compost pile is just a compost pile, and in my experience the boil steam isn't the loveliest of smells. Maybe Dawn helps a lot.
I remove the lower jaw then cut off as much meat as I can and cut the eyes out, flush the brains out then boil it in a pot with a rolling boil for 20-30 minutes, I do not waste time simmering as it just takes to long for no better results. Then cut and scrap as much meat off as I can, repeating the boiling, only much shorter time and cutting/scraping several time until I have it cleaned. Then let it dry and use a wire brush on the little stuff that is left before whittening with peroxide which also remove little bits of leftover meat.
Lightly burned
Lightly burned
I does stink to do it inside. I do mine over the fire now. Power washing is far and away less time consuming and less labor intensive and it's easier to clean out the brain and nasal cavity. Another option than bleach is paint dipping(ten min start to finish) or torching(ten min start to finish). I always use the boil time to make my plaque while I'm waiting. The one I'm working on now I am hand painting a camo pattern on.(very time consuming) here are a few examples to show the dip and burn.
Dipped, two colors, first ever try.
Here's one with the jaw cleaned and hot glued back on.
Here's one with the jaw cleaned and hot glued back on.
Just finished this guy in north Idaho. Boiled, picked clean, and whitened with a baking soda peroxide mix.
I don't know what happened in my link above. It was supposed to take you guys to a youtube channel with a lot of Euro skull how to videos. But instead it linked to one of my hunts. Sorry about that.
Get on Youtube and search for a channel called " Whitebone Creations Hunting" He does excellent how to videos and tells you the pros and cons of various cleaning, de-greasing, and whitening products. Shows you how to do an efficient job on the project. Like I said, I'm in no way affiliated. I have just watched a few of his videos and thought they were very informative.
alot of work! dont think I cooked it long enough or hot enough ,its taking alot of knife work to get it clean like I want it..I think one more trip to the pressure wash for the nose area and all the bumps and spurs at the back of the skull...then Ill apply this and rinse off in 20 minutes so ive been told,was told it was easy too but it was my first try
this is the special postion i guess apply and rinse in 30 minutes
Mr C you didn't cook it long enough. Also, add some Dawn dish soap and Arm & Hammer Laundry Soda to the water and all that stuff you had to cut off will turn to jelly and just fall off. Even the stuff inside the nasal cavity that is still connected in your photo. I don't use any tools to remove: it just falls off. Then the pressure wash gets the little pieces from between teeth, etc.
after cooking it again with powered laundry soap..i went back to the pressure wash and had more day light and a head lamp and was able see better and clean it up good.no more junk in the nose,or in the brain cavity,and the back of the skull is clean ..ive decided to try and do the dip paint method and not "bleach" it...i think that looks really cool
When you guys go to boil your skull, after you skin out the animal, do you try and remove the lower jaw, eyes and brain, or just throw the entire head in. Ive tried putting an entire skinned out head in and it didn't come out to well, but I was boiling it, not simmering it. If you do take out eyes and brain, what is the best way to do so?
If it's already cooked, a bit of salt and pepper, a knife and fork work well or maybe chopsticks to get in the tight spaces. I have only ever heard of removing that stuff prior to boiling
The best way I have found is to freeze until spring or summer and then put the whole skinned skull in a heavy garbage bag and poke a hole in the bag. The flies will get into the bag and lay eggs. the maggots will hatch and eat everything clean including the brain. Everything will turn into a soup in a month. Then I just hose off and it is as clean as can be.
I have buried a bunch of skulls. It's easy and works great. Don't bury the antlers. Cover it with a trash can. I usually wait until July of the next year. I have boiled a couple. It's more work IMO.
I can take a deer head, skin on, and make it into a professional European mount in less than 4 hours.
Skin the head and remove the lower jaw. Cook in water (boil, simmer, basically just cook) for 1.5-2 hours. Add half box of 20 mule team Borax. Cook 20-30 more minutes. Pressure wash. Everything will come off/out of the skull.
Place different pot of water with peroxide developer mixed in onto cooker. Heat to boiling. Turn off cooker. Dip skull into liquid for 20-30 minutes being careful to not dip antlers into liquid (usually tape up bases to protect them). Remove and let stand for 30 or so minutes.
Skull is ready for display.
It's remarkable how well the hot peroxide degreases skulls.
Burying will stain the bone, you'll likely wind up painting it. Mice and other things in the dirt/compost can chew on the finer bones too. Depends on what kind of finished product you want (i.e. where you will hang it).
Couple things, "boiling" is likely not the right term to use although many use it and don't really boil. Real boiling is much to hot, can and will damage bone. And can discolor antlers as well. "Simmer" is the proper term. Use sal soda (arm and hammer laundry soda) maybe some borax and dawn for the grease. Most will liquefy and fall off. Pressure washer you are on your own, personally I wouldn't but my pressure washers are different than what most would use. I hate picking up bone fragments in the wash tank....
If you want a REAL quality job, they need to be degreased for a week or two in warm (105-110 degree) water with dawn and ammonia, change out the water every couple days until it's clear. Deer are easy, sheep, goats, etc. are greasy and can take a month or three. Pigs can be worse, as I hear bears are. Normally I put the head in a paint strainer bag to make sure teeth and bone parts that sometimes fall off aren't lost. Dry it well from there and it's 90% whitened already.
Another term that folks shouldn't use is "bleach" as I know many who's first thought is chlorine. Chlorine will destroy bone. Use a high volume (40 is about the highest and about 12% if I recall) peroxide. It may take several coats and rinses to get it where you want. I use 30% liquid and does it in a day, so white you'll need sunglasses. But that stuff will take your fingerprints off or blind you if you aren't careful, safety goggles, gloves.
Sealing from there will finish it well. The stuff I use is called Paraloid, seals the entire bone inside and out, soaks into it. Depending on how you mix, it can leave a flat finish with no shine or a gloss finish. It's what the museums use on their fossils and things. I have tried a few clear spray on coatings, but most yellowed over time. There were some real experienced folks here that used a good spray product that didn't, but offhand I forget what it was called.
To the guys trying beetles, when you get your colony it can take several weeks (or depending on how many you got even longer) to get it up to speed or it's going to take a LONG time. They take so long the meat drys hard and they take even longer. The bugs should be able to eat a hot dog in a day, maybe two. Then they are ready. Trim up the head as clean as you can, makes a big difference, and make sure the eyes and brain are removed.... they will eat them but they will liquefy before they get done with it and make a stinky nasty mess. My hottest colony right now will clean a deer head in 2-3 days. Always have a backup colony or two. They are susceptible to a great number of predator insects, spiders, ham beetles, etc, that once in an unlimited food environment like that will explode and wipe them out in no time.
Tons of info on taxidermy.net, go to the "skulls and skeletons" section and there is a wealth of knowledge there on cleaning, preserving and displaying euros.
turned out ok . know to seal and dip with my 3 favorite colors red white and blue
MrC, whats the brace for between the antlers? Looks alright though esp being as you're painting it. Where did your nose go?
Halibut, w/ the hot peroxide how do you get the top of an elk skull? The horns sit pretty low on bigger elk.
Most common mistake is to over boil and have the nose fall apart, boil less and pressure wash sooner. even if you have to do it multiple times.
oz
1st time didnt simmer long enough (outside and cold) work my fingers to the bone "pun intended" trying to get the skull clean ...second time inside the shop i over boiled it and parts fell off, ill hot glue them back if possible ..lol learning curve ..i was told by an old timer once the stick will keep the antlers from shrinking closer together while drying ,dont know for sure but it sounded good, ive done it since that day
the bigger of the two has had the stick in since Sept 12 and its gotten very tight ...
