Bulzeye; The last skull I did I left buried close to a year when I dug it up it still needed some additional cleaning , this was done buy emersing the skull in bleach water( careful you dont let the antlers come in contact with the bleach water as it will bleach out your antlers) after soaking in bleach water( Dont leave the skull emersed to long because it will cause your skull to start to flake off like peeling after a sun burn. Check it every day) I remove skull and wash out with hose using as much pressure as possible to blow out those pieces that were still attached but be careful when hosing around nose part, You dont want to use to much water pressure around the nose or you will damage the fragile bone pieces and cartilage of the nose. I then used tweezers etc to remove any pieces still attached. I used white paint to paint the skull and used a light varnish coating to finish it off. If you do get any bleaching on the antlers you can use wood stain or order antler stain from a taxidermy supplier to restain your antlers. ( I had to learn this the hard way )

Bulzeye, you don't need much in the way of facilities. I used a large aluminum pot I got at a garage sale for $2 and my Coleman stove. I used peroxide to whiten. I think it is a little friendlier than bleach. Don't soak any part you don't want to whiten. I re-attached the jawbones with wire ties just because I wanted to. If any teeth fall out, just glue them back in. I rinsed the skull out at the car wash. It worked great, but I did lose some of the delicate nose pieces like Lady Forge warned about. You can spray it with clear acrylic or whatever when you get done, but I left mine natural.
Hey Lady Forge, are you married?
By the way, I saw a big buck and two others still wearing antlers last Friday. 2/22.

Bulzeye; Racks7 did it the quickest and easiest way that I have been able to use for a fresh skull. I found out that fresh kill buck heads came out the best when I boiled them.Remove skin,eyes and as much flesh as possible from the skull before boiling it, and if any of the nose pieces come off you can also glue them back in place.But the same issue comes up when boiling them dont let the antlers come in contact with the boiling water. They really turn out nice and Quick when you can boil them.The reason I finish mine with a clear finish is to seal the bone ,because of and dust and airborne debris and if you have a smoker in the house etc the bone will not be discolored with time and it makes it alot easier to dust and clean them.Racks7, Am I married? well that depends, how rich are you and how much prime whitetail hunting land do you own that I can hunt?JUST KIDDING! I am very married,And god bless him, he is the one whom started me hunting and bought me my first and second bow.<img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>

I found a couple of halves this past week. With the lack of snow cover the rodents are getting to them fast. The smaller rack was chewed up pretty good in a couple of places while the larger rack only had a couple of knaw marks.

The smaller one has my interest peaked. It's probably from a 2-3 yr old buck, but what is interesting is that the main beam forks right abouve the brow tine. Each fork has 3 points on it for 7 total on the half. If the other half is similar, it will be a very interesting rack next season.

My brother has found two sheds this year in SE Illinois. But he said he saw 6 bucks, still with antlers, yesterday while he was putting some corn out. He saw 9 deer total and he said that the other 3 were just as large. So some have shed their antlers but there are still some out there with racks. I have went just once and haven't found any sheds. Maybe next weekend I'll have some luck.

The Chicago area just got 8&quot; of fresh snow, so my shed hunting just got postponed until some of it melts. It might be a while because it's negative 4 freaking degrees!

Keep 'em all in the Bull.