What do you do with your deer horns?
 

So I shot my second buck a few days ago. The first one I took and got mounted so I didn't worry about this. This one was a 6 pointer way to small to mount. I doubt I will mount another one unless it's huge. Anyway, we cut the horns off of it. My question is what to do now? How do you clean them and get the hair off and what not?

I just cut as much hair off as i can, then boil the rest for a little while and it will all fall off. (boil outside, nasty smell!) Then mount on a plaque.

That's what we call antler soup!


when you say cut the horns off, do you mean separately? or did you remove the skull cap with it? you can make a small set of rattling horns with them.

I guess you'd call it the skull cap. They are together. I've seen them cut apart and don't want to do that. I want to keep them like this unless I decide to later put them on a plague which I'm not sure about.

i just cut the whole head off and let the skin rot off. i like the horns and skull to be all white for some reason.

I cut the skull cap and remove the hair with a knife and leave in the garage for a while to dry. Then I either bring them to camp and find a place on the wall for them or throw them in the cellar with all the other ones. One of these days I will take them and put them on plaques and put them up in my shop. It would have to be a real rainy bunch of days because I have a bunch of them with some elk and caribou antlers just to make it more fun.

not to be too pickey but
 

they are antlers not horns. Antlers fall off annually horns stay on.

If I dont mount it I have them around the yard as part of the landscaping. I'm having a friend make me a knife from some elk antler i have.

Cape them or skin them, cut as much meat off and boil. Pick off the meat, etc till it's clean as possible. Then I either wrap the skull in gauze and soak/sit in a foil pan with Peroxide to bleach. Or if I want fast results I use a buffing wheel on my grinders. I hang them like that in my shop. One's deemed for inside house or cabin I do euro mounts instead of the skull cap/plaque route.

European skull mount..I got a small 8pt that im gonna do...This is the one I did last year,it was my first one too..Im pleased with it..

Most if not all my deer become cat food. I know of a tiger rescue place along with many other types of cats that need to eat. I don't bother removing the the antlers. I use to but questioned why I needed all that crap laying around.