Well this past spring I entered the wonderful world of taxidermy. My first undertaking was a European Mount of my first muzzleloader deer. He was a shed antler buck that I figured I could cut my gums on, and it wouldn't be terrible ifI completely ruined it.
To start off:
I put the complete skull in a wire cage and set it outside from like January until June. This actually worked rather well and the majority of the meat and membrane rotted away, to the point when I opened the cage almost all of the hair came off with the push of a stick. Then I placed the skull in a pot of boiling water for a couple of hours. Next I dumped out the dirty water, put in new water, and added a couple of squirts of dishsoap to cut through all of the remaining fat. Boiled this for a half hour and the took it out and sprayed it off with a hose to finish cleaning everything off. Finally, I put the skull in a solution of 1:8 water to bleach. I let that sit overnigh, and wah-la it was finished. Then I made the wood plaque you see there in woodshop and that is how I aquired my second attempt at a European Mount.
What I messed up:
[ul][*]I threw out the nose pieces because I didn't realize you were suposed to keep them.[*]I used bleach instead of peroxide, so the bone has weakend a little bit.[*]I let the water get too low at one time and there are a couple of burn marks on the skull.[/ul]
Pictures: