I had been interested in European mounts for a long time and thought I would try it myself with last year's bow kill. The buck is not a giant by any stretch of the imagination but is the largest I have taken with my bow. I did not want to spend upwards of $500 to have him mounted so......this is the end result. I think I came out pretty well.
I had no way to boil the head so I used the water soak/rot method. It took a l-o-n-g, stinky time and actually just finished it.
I handmade the mounting plaque fashioned somewhat after one I saw on the internet.

Looks pretty darn good! If you want to darken the antlers a bit they sell antler darkener. I just darkened my European mounts this summer.

I have done two of them and agree they are pretty smelly to do. After doing two, I decided last year to do some research and see if I can find someone to do them with beetles. I found a guy in Wisconsin that does them for $50 plus shipping. He does thousands of them a year. For around $70 including shipping they come back to you with a plaque and perfectly white and even still have the nasal tissue there. I was quite happy with mine this year.

Great job though, everything look great and quite as nice buck as well!

That turned out pretty nice!

very cool mount

Looks like you did a good job.

Damn nice job! For the longest time I thought I would never want a euro mount. Then I had one done of my 2012 gun buck and i'm glad I did. Bonus is that it is also cheaper.
For the record I had someone do this for me Chit now that I think about it this was my 2nd euro mount. I had a buddy do a buck I found dead spring of 2012. After doing that buck and another he said he would never do it again. Stunk to all might hell he said. lol

Looks pretty good. I have done several of my own and here is what I have found to work well for me.

1. Skin remove the eye balls and anything else that is easy tp cut off.
2. Put in a bucket of water. I have my bucket where the temp stays roughly 70 or above
3. After about 4 to 6 weeks I can take the head out and get it clean. I use a pair of pliers and stiff brush.
4. Soak the head in clean warm water with dawn dish soap. This helps pull the grease out of the skull. If you don't do this most skulls will develop yellow spots.
5. Let the head dry for a day or two.
6. Go to a beauty supply store and get 40% peroxide paste and the powdered whitening agent. Mix them and coat the skull in the mix. Out it in a sunning and warm place. I coat it several times over the next few hours.
7. Rinse the skull well in clean water. It will be white and will not stink.
8. Use wood stain to touch up the antlers as needed.

-john

congrats man..i think it turned out really good..I like how you have it mounted.. I like how its off the way a little bit..

good job man

I used a knife, pliers, wire brush and a long shank, flat head screwdriver to clean the skull. I did get some of the 40 volume peroxide from a beauty supply store. It is very cheap and I used a cheap foam paintbrush to apply. I only used two coats and as you can see it bleached it out very white. I was very pleased overall with the way it turned out but it did require a lot of work and I learned a lot from this first experience. I did not skin the head originally; I just placed it in a 5 gal bucket. Next time, if there is a next time, I will skin it before placing it in the bucket. I had frozen the head and didn't take the time to thaw it out before placing it in the bucket.