stinking antlers!
 

Last year I scalped the deer I killed and put the antlers in the garage like I have in previous years. I cleaned them up before putting them there. However, a couple of weeks later my garage smelled like something died in it. I eventually had to peel the fur and skin off the antlers to get rid of the funk.

How do you treat antlers so they don't stink. is there some trick or something that you do to avoid this?

RE: stinking antlers!
 

if you cut the skin and hair off leavign just the skull plate you can boin it with bakink soda but you cant do it to long or u risk the skull plate cracking just check every 10 mins you'll know when its done, leaves it with absolutely no smell and perfectly white.

RE: stinking antlers!
 

you have to clean all the fur and skin and meat off. That stuff rots.


If you want to do an antler mount using the actual fur from the deer instead of leather or felt, the hide has to be tanned first so it won't rot.

RE: stinking antlers!
 

You said you cleaned them......how? Skin ,meat, blood will decompose and stink.........boil bones....... Leave them outside in the air to cure

RE: stinking antlers!
 

you soak it in baking soda and water?

how do you cure it? boil it? or just leave it outside?

RE: stinking antlers!
 

I let the antlers soak in bleach for 2-3 hours, it works every time.

RE: stinking antlers!
 

Boil in bleech

RE: stinking antlers!
 

lmao.........

RE: stinking antlers!
 

Down south you can put the antlers on a fire ant mound. They (the ants) will pick it clean. If you aren't that fortunate you must skin and clean it then boil (outdoors cause it gets stinky) till it's clean.

RE: stinking antlers!
 

Right,I use the ant trick,works every time.Be sure and cover the antlers of a dog or something might drag it off.

RE: stinking antlers!
 

my dad cleans the skin and meat off of them and then puts the skull portion in a plastic bag of salt and leaves htem for a while, like until he finds a place for them. right now we jsut have a pile of them in the garage

RE: stinking antlers!
 

The only good use I have found for fire ants. As said, tie them to a tree or brick or something for a dog or coon or whatever won't drag them off.

RE: stinking antlers!
 

Any dog or coon bold enough to try to steal from fire ants will richly deserve what it gets . [:o]

RE: stinking antlers!
 

I've always just skinned all the tissue off with a sharp pocket knife. No big deal, might take 30-45 minutes of careful cutting.

RE: stinking antlers!
 

i always skinned the bones and tissue from mine and used a little bit of bleach

RE: stinking antlers!
 

When I decide to keep the fur on the scalp, I carefully cut between the skull and the skin to open up a gap. I then fill with coarse salt for a week, empty the salt and then add fresh salt repeating 2-3 more times. Never had a problem after that!

RE: stinking antlers!
 

If I understand your question correctly, you are just wanting the set of antlers. Just clean them the best you can and then stick them in a ant bed for a couple of weeks them bad boys will take care of anything that you could not get off of the horns. Or if you know some one with a pond you can tie them off and throw them in for a couple of weeks.

RE: stinking antlers!
 

Sounds like you already left the hide on too long and have a rotten piece, plus lingering smell. Well, all the good advice you got was truly geared toward "next time" and keeping it from happening again. This time, you need to remove the rotten material, as well as eliminate the smell.

Dont boil in bleach, its not safe. Also, bleach will break down bone if not done correctly, as well as bleach the antler too. If you wanna whiten skulls using bleach, carefully paint it onto the skull and avoid the antler bases and allow to dry out in the sun. Dont boil stinking skulls indoors, unless youre single, or want tobe.

Smelly skulls can be soaked in water with borax for a couple hours and then allowed to dry. You can also scour the skull with borax to clean it up and remove the odor.

RE: stinking antlers!
 

i've always just salted them after taking them off, and I've yet to have any issues.

RE: stinking antlers!
 

another way you can do it is.. take a saw cut the antlers off and let it sit up in a tree.. it kind of works like the ants. bugs will eat away that tissue left and it will get rid of the odor..

RE: stinking antlers!
 

Skin the scullcap and use your knife to clean off any membrane, fat,and/or meat. Including the membrane on the inside. Do it when its fresh! I just dry it - never use salt - its clean bone when I'm done.

Then I glue on felt - and mount to a plaque - I've mounted hundreds (I mount for all my friends).



FH