This year's deer completed
Wisconsin
I just completed my European mount from this year's deer.
Very cool Pete. What process do you use?
Thanks guys.
The process? Steam. I believe boiling can impregnate fat into the porous bone. And eventually, the bone will yellow. Steaming is a less invasive process, that is far quicker. My heads are never in water. Basically cooked with steam, and removed. From a frozen skull with hair, to completely removed flesh in about four hours with very very little work.
For whitening, 27% hydrogen peroxide is my whitener. I use Bacquacil pool shock found at any pool supply company. Caution, it will burn you. You must wear latex or neoprene gloves when handling it. I don't use but a quart of the stuff. I wrap the head in paper towel, and just spray a bottle full of that pool shock on the paper towel, soaking it completely. Leave it in a shallow PLASTIC pan overnight, remove the paper towel, rinse the skull, dry over a fan, and you're done. The paper towel can be submerged in a bucket of water, and squeezed out several times to get rid of the peroxide. The peroxide is best dumped in a large volume of water (sink). The biggest warning I can give when handling this pool shock, is it reacts tremendously with metals, bases, and acidic materials. Rubber and plastic, and a deluge of water is your friend.
Hey Pete - good job! Looks great! I am curious also, what process do you use?
That is one awesome looking euro.
You're hired! Where do I send the skull and check?
Ha, GJG! Then you'd miss out on all the fun and reward of doing it yourself!
By the way guys, I appreciate the feedback, but every one of you can do the same deer head. The tools are above, and the process is quite simple honestly.
You did a great job. I usually get my peroxide from a hair salon, but I may try some of the pool shock. The hair salon stuff is a cream like consistency, but isn’t as strong. Do you use some cheese cloth to help keep your peroxide on the skull or do you just keep brushing it on for a while?
Great job! I love doing euros and have a cool non typical to do for my buddy this weekend. You’re right, it’s easy .
Orion, yes, I wrap in papertowel, which works the same way. It also sits in a shallow plastic pan, and wicks the peroxide off the bottom, and onto the wrapped skull. Yes, 40% volume, I believe is like 17% actual peroxide, but most certainly works. A gallon of bacquacil pool shock is around 15 bucks, and will whiten around 6 heads. Make sure when you read the words pool shock, you don't confuse it with chlorine based stuff. The stuff I'm talking about is a liquid.
Sorry, I had the spelling wrong. Here it is.
BTW Pete, no one said it...congrats on getting another fine buck with your bow. And thanks for this info.
Looks great Pete, yes boiling makes the sculls brittle. I get asked to do these every year, I just don't right now. Shoulder mounts, fish and birds (Not waterfowl though).
Thanks Pete. I'll give that a try.
And congrats on the deer as casekiska pointed out. My apologies for not including that earlier. I was poking at my phone at a stop light
Very cool and very nice Pete! This might seem like a dumb question, but what do you use to do the steaming seeing you are dealing with the head with the rack on it? How much trimming of the head do you do first? Thanks!
Wow looks great Pete! I've tried doing a euro twice and both times it was a disaster. I spilled brains all over my kitchen counter. Can never get all the meat off. Especially in those tight spots. What's the easy way to do this? Having that smell in my kitchen isn't very pleasant either haha
Pete - Beautiful mount and thanks for the tips.
Thanks again guys.
To answer a few questions. Yes, steam above boiling water, basically cooking the meat off. No prep whatsoever as far as removing flesh. Completely unnecessary. You can if you want, but it cooks without removing it. Simply put, I cook until soft, then grab the lower jaw and pull it away. This exposes a lot of flesh, by now, you can strip almost all the hair and majority of meat. Glunker those tight spots are mostly at the ear. Next time, consider locating the bony ear which resembles an onion bulb. Stick a stiff wire in the ear hole, and remove the bone. This exposes all that connective tissue. Now get out your pressure washer with a widened swath and blow everything off, including the brains. A bit more picking, and it's cleaned fairly easy. I just use a piece of plywood at the edge of the trees that border my property, and blow the crap under the spruce boughs. I'd be glad to answer any other questions. Steam to cook, pressure washer to clean most of the flesh off, then some picking with hemostats and tweezers, then dry, then wrap in paper towel, then soak in baquacil ina shallow plastic tray or pan. Allow to dry, and paper white!
Last Saturday's buck I killed. All done!
Great job Pete. I have not tried steaming yet but when boiling is brought up when guys are cooking them in water it makes me cringe. It should be simmered at a low temp. It sounds like steaming is even better. If it gets over cooked the teeth will drop out. I used to have access to a hot water pressure washer that could be turned up to steam. Boy did that work great. I have a pretty good collection of skulls from Beaver to Bobcat & have done Elk, Whitetails & Bear for myself. Another note on teeth is if you are doing a Beat that you might like to get measured to see what it scores, those front teeth have to be there & are not allowed to be glued back in. Petes method is whiter than white & they look better than mine. That is very impressive. Congrats all around.
Thanks Albino. Yes, I use a very high pressure high temp pressure washer with a large swath, so it doesn't cut through the bone with water pressure. It cleans off the flesh pretty amazingly. I also pull out the ears. That onion-looking bulb of a bone when removed (pops right out), allows a lot of connective tissue to be released. That would help people a lot. Boiling is a bad deal for sure. My skulls are never submerged in water. The water below the strainer collects the fat, so degreasing is not an issue for me. If you do degrease, use acetone, and submerge the skull. The specific gravity of oil (fat) is different than acetone, and the acetone displaces the fat in the porous bone. Steam however does the same thing.
Pete - I use a slow cooker (crock pot) on simmer or low, but this looks to do a much better job. Thanks again for sharing.
