I started out doing the "maceration" method, but I couldn't keep the water warm enough in the garage, even with the aquarium heater. After letting it sit for 2 weeks in the water, the flesh was real soft. So I took it to the car wash and blasted most of it off. That's when the nose broke off too. Oh well.
After getting most of the flesh off at the car wash, I took it home and simmered it outside in a pot of water on my grill. I simmered it for about 2 hours in Dawn dish soap to get the remaining meat off and start degreasing. It looked OK, but it was still pretty yellow.
Normally, this is where you'd continue degreasing and then use 40% peroxide to whiten. But being lazy, and after reading the other thread about spray painting euro mounts, I decided to get the paint out instead of driving all over town looking for 40% peroxide.
Here's how it turned out. I'm going to paint over it with a dull finish paint. This is high gloss, so it looks a bit too shiny. I also got a little bit of paint on the base of the antlers, but I can get that off with sandpaper I bet.
Overall, it wasn't hard. The worst part was the eyeballs and brains after it had been soaking for 2 weeks. I almost hurled. I think next time I'll pay the $75 and let the taxidermist do it with the beatles.
My first Euro mount.
Boiling is the way to go.
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