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completed European mount

Just finished a European mount for a friend. Scored 139 7/8. Nice chocolate horned rack that nicely contrasts against that white bone.

The pose that counts of course. His best bow kill to date.

Beautiful deer/rack. I personally love those dark chocolate racks!

Steamed above boiling water in a large pot. I do not submerge it in water, as this can impregnate the skull with fat, which can yellow over time. Strip off the meat as it cooks. Then scrape as much as possible and steam again. Most of the connective tissue can be taken out with tweezers, a scalpel, and forceps. I will pressure wash the skull with the spray as wide as possible to clean out the nose and brain. I then put the skull in a bath of isopropyl alcohol to displace the oil. This bath is two days room temperature. Then I allow it to dry. Once dry, I use peroxide based swimming pool shock to whiten the skull. Approximately 27% H2O2. Simply wrap the skull in old white cotton socks and the pool shock will be poured over the skull and socks to keep the skull wet. 12 hour bath and you're done. As long as the bath has liquid in the bottom, the socks will wick the liquid onto the skull keeping it moist. Dry on a towel with good light, and they will be white as ivory.

They do hold their color over the years, and I believe imperative process with fatty skulls such as pigs or bears, that can turn yellow over time as grease leaches out of their porous bone.

Here's a few I have done over the years for the family. I've done several for friends over the years. I have a friend in the business that has the dermisted beetles. He macerates his skulls in conjunction with beetles, but uses acetone versus isopropyl alcohol to displace grease. He also uses industrial strength hydrogen peroxide to whiten.

I wrap the bases below the pedicle with those cotton socks. I do not submerge the entire skull, instead the bath is in a pan with the skull laying on his teeth versus a bucket where his antlers could be submerged. Like I said, the cloth will wick the liquid to the skull from the bath.

Acetone? We were obviously typing at the same time. Acetone is much more expensive. Basically looking for a liquid with a different specific gravity that will force oil out of the pores. Isopropyl alcohol works just fine. Also hides any odor with a much cleaner smell.

Yes. There was very little pedicle to stop it from wicking above the burr of the bases. That was perhaps the first deer I ever whitened?10 years ago I imagine? Learned plenty since then through trial and error.

So I posted earlier (live hunt thread) a mercy kill I made on a 2 year old that had a blown out shoulder. After butchering the deer, his front right leg was detached from the shoulder. Not sure what happened to him, but I would guess he blew it out chasing. No real damage with exception of the ball was out of the socket.

Just got done drying him completely.

Well dawn definitely takes grease out of the way. Soap molecules in the presence of water encapsulate the fat molecule based on their oppositely charged molecules attract one another. The grease that's in the bone needs to be evacuated by a non homogenous liquid that basically forces it out of the pores of the bone because their specific gravity is so different. The lava lamp principle. If you were going to simmer the skull in water versus steaming as I do, I would suggest sal soda or dawn dish soap. Just never use bleach.

C2D, there are certainly many recipes to completion. Some might be recipes for disaster however. Honestly, a bleached skull is probably not quite bone white (perhaps whiter than natural). I've seen the painted ones. I prefer the look of natural bone with nothing painted over the surface.

Thanks for the compliment. You can do it yourself, not very difficult. The pool shock costs around 14 bucks a gallon. That can whiten many skulls (and can be used multiple times) as long as the skull was very clean to begin with.

Nice work , I looked at some white skulls mounted on wooden back boards at Walmart . Not bad but the original looks better .

Thanks Ruger, and I agree about the original bone.

Powerwashing your deer skull ….

Kevin, I use the power washer trick as well. Just cannot get too close to the nasal cavity or it can tear it up. Wide swath is key.

Nice job on the mount, I did my first one last year but did not bleach it. I have found boar, doe, and coyote skull and I figured I would let this one yellow so it matches my found ones. It was a fun and interesting process. I learned it from u-tube. Now, if I get a bigger buck I will include the bleaching process. That same fall my brother in law paid $265 for his to be done. I was pretty proud of my free one.

$265? I'll do it for half that lol! Howatt or RC will do it for a donation of one backstrap! But since they are two different people, it might cost you two backstraps LOL.

This is where I had my son's done. They do a great job!

$265? Wow! Most taxidermists I know do it for somewhere between $50-$100, tops.

$265 sounded crazy to me too. And to think it was a small 4 pt. His first buck though and I don't think he shopped around. I wasn't sure if that was a high price or not though since I had never had one done myself.

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