European Mount
 

I was fortunate enough this year to harvest a nice buck being I have several deer mounted the conventional way (and I didn't want to spend the money) I though I might do it myself. (If I did it right, and I am not sure I did), it really wasn't too bad, I first fleshed the head and tried to clean out the eye sockets and brain area as best I could, and then it was boil-scrape-boil-scrape-etc, I did wrap the lower part of the antler with foil, I have not used any bleach or whitener product on the antlers, I might hang them on one of the shed this summer and let mother nature do its thing. I wish I would have taken more and better pictures, anyone thinking about doing this, I say- go for it!! pretty easy, It only took a few hours, kind of fun, Den

After fleshing "The Boil"

After some scrapeing

Just about done, just some final scrapeing and WALA!!

nice buck nice job on the mount!what does he score anyway he is nice

KuK, Thanks, I haven't had it scored, I have a friend who is pretty good at it and the next time he is over i will put him to work, Thanks again. Den

when you find out his score let me know he looks like he is up their no doubt... again nice job on the mount

How long did you boil it the first time? Did you reboil after first cleaning?

Crutch, being it was my first time I didn't want to ruin anything so I checked it about every 10/15 min, and would scrape what I could off, and then put it back in the water, I did this repeatedly, I think the longest I left it in the boil was 20/25 Min. I did get a little worried when the lower jaw literally fell off, but I think that is normal
also the "Lower part of the nose is "Cartilage" and just kind of boils away, If you are thinking of doing one I would go for it, as it all seems to fall into place, grab a couple of beers and have fun, You do have to cut the back of the skull to get at the brain area, I just cut it at what seemed to me to be a natural angle, This was my first one and I am very happy with the way it turned out. Good Luck Den

I cut the lower jaws off first thing, get 'em outta the way. I also cut open the base where the spinal cord would enter so there's a larger hole--helps to clean the brains out and gives you a mounting place easily. I, too, boil it multiple times--get things heated back up so they come off easier. Also, if/when whitening it by soaking it in peroxide, the small pieces of meat you couldn't get to should fall off rather easily with a hose and take away any bad odors.

Big Z, Good advise on that Jaw, having that out of the way makes the scraping a lot easier, but being my first time it was "trial/error
Not sure just what I am going to as far as the whitening goes, I think I am going to hang it on one of the sheds for the summer and see what the sun will do to it, Thanks for the tips, Den

Here's mine. A buddy of mine made me a solid walnut plaque but I haven't mounted it yet. My method was skin, scrape, boil, scrape, boil, scrape, boil, scrape, boil, scrape, boil, scrape, soak in hydrogen peroxide. I removed the jaw in the skining process. Now it's just sitting in my library slowly drying out. After x-mas I'm going to spray some clear polycoat on the skull then mount him on the plaque.

R-Biker, Really looks nice!!! maybe I should try the hydrogen peroxide. Den