I have done several european mounts myself and it can be done very cheap. what you will need: a large pot, heat source (i use a propane cooker designed for frying fish and turkeys), knife, small wire brush, rubber gloves, water hose with pressure tip, tide detergent, wire coathanger, needle nose pliars, whitening agent (will explain towards end of post), wall plaque, 3/16" drill bit w/drill, 3" drywall screw.
put about 1/4 cup of tide per gallon of water in the pot to cover your head. bring to a boil. boil it for about 2 hours. take it out and clean it up as good as possible with knife and wire brush. repeat this process 2-3 times. once you have the majority of meat off, use the wire coathanger to stir up the brain, make sure you get this out completely. you can use the pliars to get some of the hard to reach places. you can use the high powered pressure hose to spray out anything left inside (always spray only from the back of the skull or you will break some of the small bones) it will take some time and it will be smelly, i would not recommend doing this indoors. once the skull is clean, you will need to whiten it up. I have done this two different ways. i have put fresh water in the pot and added a couple of bottles of peroxide and boiled it until it was as white as i liked. if you do this, make sure you cover the antler bases with foil or tape or something, as the peroxide will turn them white too. this is not a big deal as you can stain the antlers afterward to the darkness of your liking. typically, some portion of the antler bases will always turn white do to them being pourus bone and they will suck up the water/peroxide from the inside. i recently have ordered from van dykes taxidermy's website and got some of the bright white and 40% peroxide that you mix and paint on and let sit overnight. that worked well with the one I did a couple of weeks ago. the 40% is different than the brown bottle you get at the store, it is only 3%. but it is a little more expensive (still only about 15.00 for my order at van dykes), next, you can stain and wax the antlers if you want as well as spray some clear acrylic on the skull. lastly, pre drill using a 3/16 bit into the plaque and the back of the skull (there is a place on the back of the skull under the brain cavity hole that has thick bone, best for mounting) and use a 3 inch drywall screw. i have used a peice of 1x8 oak cut to 14" that i have stained or you can buy a wooden plaque from a taxidermy shop.
hope that helpes. i tried to make it as short as possible with still getting the steps in.
here are some before and after photo's of the one i did thisyear so far.
http://i425.photobucket.com/albums/pp335/jklinkovsky/Joesdeer210-18-08.jpg
http://i425.photobucket.com/albums/pp335/jklinkovsky/Joesdeer08.jpg
let me know if you need any more info or want anything detailed more.
Lookin to do a european mount
