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.

i love doing the skull mount. and since you only capped him, you can still do the skull mount with this new kit from cabelas

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/te...cat280001&rid=

skull mounts for me too...



did 1 skull cap and i was 15 or 16 hunting with dad..didnt have much say in it...doesnt look nearly as nice as the skull mounts IMO...

i did that one in the pic myself...pretty simple process...can find directions online if you wanna try it next time...or you can find a taxidermist or someone else that has dermestid beetles that will clean the skull...alot of guys do just skull cleaning and whitening and arent taxidermists and can have it done for 100$ or less if you didnt wanna mess with it yourself...

If I kill them ahead of deer dogs I put them on the front of my kennels. The rest are hanging on the trusses of my shed. This year after hunting season I am going to cover one side of the shed in them; I'm sure my wife will love that....

I hunt with some guys that cover their deer camp cook shack in antlers. It's unique and very cool. It's similar to a small pole barn covered in antlers.

We used to keep all of ours, my brother made a chandelier out of them for my Mom and Dad's house.

If I don't want to mount the deer I normally give the rack to a kid at deer camp. They get giddy and carry them around all season. It makes their day and I am glad to provide that. Some may think it is crazy to give them away, but I have no use for them.

I have suggested the antlers in the cook shack idea this year. We may start doing that.

I don't know for some reason I'm not crazy about the Euro Mounts with the whole skull. I wanted to just cut the antlers off so that's what we did. I'm actually happy with how they look other than trying to get all the hair off. I may end up trying that next time though.

For the boiling it do you just get water boiling and stick them in there or what? I don't want to mess them up in anyway.

The best time to get the hide off the antlers is right when you cut the skull cap off the head. the hide is still pliable and comes off easily.

Skull mounts are nice..

Iron Buck
 

Check out the Iron Buck plaques for antlers. They are simple and really don't look too bad. You put your antler cap in them, tighten the screw and hang them on the wall.

Thank you for pointing that out. The usage of horns/antlers has always been a pet peeve of mine.

grind'em up and slip the powder into un-suspecting womens drink at the bar;), don't use too much though, and don't say i didn't warn you;)

There's a sight somewhere on the internet, if you google, 'how to make an antler knife' you probably can find it. Anyway, you take a main beam near the end, cut it into a respectable length, soak it for like 6 weeks in water, and then push the tang of a knife into it and bingo, you have an antler knife. Just finished mine and even made a handmade leather sheath. For the sheath find http://www.piragis.com/cliffjacobson...fJacobson.html

I'll try to post a pic later on. It's a fun way to spend your winter and spring and summer dreamin about big bucks!!

DeerDad

So how do I boil these things? Do I just put them in boiling water or what? I've soaked it in water for a bit to loosen up the hair and got some of it off. However, now they smell pretty bad and I couldn't get all the hair off. I want to boil them I guess or do something. What do I need to do?

Just send to me, I use them all the time for craft projects!!

If you're going to boil the head, skin it first, and then only boil for a couple of hours. The longer you boil the head, the softer the bone gets and the nose parts will fall off. After boiling, take it to the car wash and clean it up real good then hang it up and let it dry. You might have to do a little picking to get it completely cleaned up.

I used to boil, but now I wrap aluminum foil around the antlers and bury the head with the antlers sticking out. If you bury it now, you can dig it up in late spring or early summer. The bones stay together better. Usually you can just clean it up with a pressure nozzle on a garden hose. The hair, hide and all will come right off. Again, hang it up somewhere to dry. The skull will have some coloration, but you can paint it or leave it like it is. That is the easy way to do it.

most are capped and skinned and hanging along the rafters in the basement w/ my turkey beards...