Diamond, Ill give you an idea of how Ive done my two. First, Ill say that I am no expert as well, but so far the one I have done this year has turned out pretty well. Im going to Peroxide it when I have a chance but that should be the easier of this.

I personally have done 2 bucks to date. The first one was a weird situation. It was the first buck that I ever took in Michigan so I wanted to try a Euro mounts. Had him caped out, head cut off and left on my back porch. Somehow, it disappeared off my deck. I searched the my yard, the neighbors yards, basically everywhere within a 100 yards. Nothing. In April my neighbor comes over and says he thinks my head is under his deck. Sure enough, there it was. Raccoons had decided to "Relocated" it but forgot to tell me! I boiled this head and knew it wasn't going to turn out perfect since it had spent 5 months under a deck. Boiled it, got all the flesh off and what is left is in the picture below.

The buck I did this year I'll tell you exactly how I did it and think it turned out great. First, and this may save you LOTS of time. Give your taxidermist a call, tell him you shot a buck but don't want him mounted, but want to know he wants the cape. Mine always does so I drop off the head and cape and he takes all the hide off and returns me just the skull. After this, get your propane heater out and get the water hot. Personally, I boil. Not a roaring boil but I want to see a bubble here and there. Drop the head in and I check it every half hour or so and just pull off all the meat and tissue until it 95% off.

Next, a lot of people cut a hole in the skull to take out the brain. I personally don't see why. Take a wire coat hanger, bent it with a pair of pliers to make a small hook and start pulling away. I had the brain out in 5 mins, its bsaically cooked so it comes out pretty easily in small pieces.

After that I get a pair of pliers and knife and start getting the small stuff. I pull out all of the cartilage in the nose and scrape off as much as I can everywhere else. When I feel like I am pretty much done, I head to a self serve car wash and Power wash the heck out of it. You have be careful not to blow the nose plate off so do the front from a distance but the back you can get right it. Put the nozzle in the brain hole and really blow that out. You should get all the remaining brain out and the majority of the stuff left in the nose cavity. After this you should have a very clean skull.

After that I put it in my basement. If I get no smell after a few days than It is clean enough for me. Now (and Im about to do this) Ive heard you want to put the skull in a bucket with some warm water and dawn dishwashing soap to try and pull out any remaining oils that might seep out at a later time.

After that, Ive heard you want to leave it in a 40 Volume (Not %) solution. You can get this off the interent or any beauty supply salon. I spent $9 for 4 liters. Soak it in this until you get it as white as you want. You can use the 3% stuff but I hear it takes longer and sometimes won't get the skull completely white. Make sure to wrap up the antlers so the peroxide does not get to them.

Do NOT use bleach. This is something I learned long ago in school and keep hearing it now that ive researched Euro Mounts. Bleach will eventually turn a skull yellow and will continue eating at the bone of a skull long after you take it out. This will make the skull brital after time.

Ive done a lot of research so Id thought Id share what I have learned and how I did it. Oh ya, the younger the deer the tougher it will be to get a perfect Euro Mount. Older deer have stronger bones. If you look at the deer I have below, the darker one on the right is a 1 1/2 year old buck. The buck on the right is a 2 1/2 yr old deer. The younger one is a Michigan deer the older one an Illinois, fyi. I plan n basically doing a true european type mount to the young one and basically make a 45 degree cut through the skull.

Again, I am no expert but did a lot of research and this was the most typical way it was done. Hope this helps!



Side by side look. Both were pretty much boiled, but not
a rolling boil.



Close look at the 1 1/2. Being a younger deer and sitting outside
all winter I know it wasn't going to turn out great but after some
dawn and peroxide it should look good.



No peroxide yet but after pulling off everything while
giving it a light boil then to the powerwasher.




In case you wanted to see, here's the trail cam pic of my buck 8 days before he met his maker aka my 100 grain Thunderheads!