anyone ever bury a skull for a european mount?
#22
RE: anyone ever bury a skull for a european mount?
I've done a couple by boiling it, picking off the loose stuff, boiling it a bit more, then immediately taking it to a carwash. The hot soapy high pressure wand cleans the tissue from the bone nicely. Didn't have to bleach them either. Just make sure to wear your rainwear at the carwash as you'll get pretty wet when you blast out the sinuses and brain cavity. I'd estimate a mount takes2 hours tops from start to finish including skinning.
#23
RE: anyone ever bury a skull for a european mount?
It sure would be nice to have some pics to go along wiht some of the stories on how you did your skull mount?!!? Im looking forward to see how some of them turned out...ex: bleached, buried, boiled, etc...!!
#25
RE: anyone ever bury a skull for a european mount?
Dont boil or bury. look here http://www.taxidermy.net/forum/index...c,48226.0.html . These are people who do skulls daily. Nearly everyone will tell you the best way to get good results with european mounts is to use beetles or a process of maceration. Don't boil because it severely softens the bone to where it may break if you don't know what your doing (also kinda risky to do on younger deer due to there thinner skulls and bones). Burying may produce an ok result but alot of the time you have leathering and certain areas that don't decay all the way. Maceration (breeding bacteria in water), may be the simplest do-it-yourself method. just put your skull in water with a heater and change 1/3-1/4 of the water every week. A little stinky but produces a fantastic result. Check out the Skulls and bones section of taxidermy.net/forum
#26
RE: anyone ever bury a skull for a european mount?
I should have mentioned the method i listed above I only boil 15-20 minutes, then pick off loose tissuethen boil another 15-20 minutes, then pressure wash. No risk of overboiling or softening of bone with this method and you go from fur-on to finished product in about 2 hours. I'll post up some pics tonight if I find time.
#27
RE: anyone ever bury a skull for a european mount?
I've done a half-dozen of them now. It only takesa couple hours.
http://huntingnet.com/forum/tm.aspx?m=2463659&mpage=1&key=euro&#24 63659
http://huntingnet.com/forum/tm.aspx?m=2463659&mpage=1&key=euro&#24 63659
#29
Guest
Posts: n/a
RE: anyone ever bury a skull for a european mount?
I have tried burying them. I still had to boil it to get everything off and clean it up. And with either boiling, beetles, or burying, you still should skin, debrain, and take off as much meat as possible. I highly suggest debraining. Its easy with a wire hanger. Kinda scramble them up with the hole in the back of the skull, and shake out.
You can save the brains and eat with scrambled eggs later.
So in the end, I have came to the conclustion, just to go ahead and boil. That way, I don't have to wait 1/2 year to get my mount. I don't have to worry about mice getting to my horns.
You can save the brains and eat with scrambled eggs later.
So in the end, I have came to the conclustion, just to go ahead and boil. That way, I don't have to wait 1/2 year to get my mount. I don't have to worry about mice getting to my horns.
#30
Fork Horn
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: New Mexico
Posts: 131
RE: anyone ever bury a skull for a european mount?
For non-trophy antlered game boiling is probably the fastest way. But I'd caution you about boiling trophy antlered animals or bears, cougars, etc.... Boiling can cause shrinkage. Beetles would be the better method for trophy or non-antlered game.