Nuge I guess I should said this is if your using bleach in the water solution. I actually haven't needed to boil around the pedicles, however I cape out all my skulls asap and the removal of the hide is much easier when fresh. In the past when doing a stale flesh or cape job I have just let the skull soak in plain water for a night changing the water every few hours, this works well for doing a skull cap mount as the poster is wanting to do here, for a euro you must boil. I try to keep the antlers out of the water as best I can, by fashioning up a hanger system to keep the antlers above the top of the boiling water line. It is how I have always done it!