DE.Hunter

I told myself that I would never mount a buck that didn't qualify for a "quality buck" according to my home state of DE. After 6 years of hunting, I finally get not one but two bucks larger than the 15" spread needed to meet the standard of a quality buck. I got my first buck in September and he is being mounted. The second buck (which is bigger than the first) came to close to my stand in November, both where taken by bow.

My question is how do I get the hide, skin, ears and rest of the stuff off and out to do a European skull mount. I can't afford to have both mounted traditionally. All the whitening products I can find tell you what to do once you have the skull and rack not how to get the hide, brains, etc off. Any advice would be greatly apreciated.

jeg3455

Hang it in a tree or throw it on an ant bed. Just a couple of old timer methods.

m.t.hands

i use the fire ant method, works good for me heres some others ideas

http://forum.hunting.net/asppg/tm.asp?m=856129

rybohunter

Or you can do it the old fashioned way. skin the face and hide off. Cut as much meat and other junk as you can, then boil it in Dawn dish liquid or soda ash. THe dish liquid only takes a little off but helps keep the smell down. The soda ash really breaks up the rest of the meat. Its a lot of smelly, tedious picking and boiling at that point.

jcchartboy

The professional way is with meat eating beetles. I have used the skin and boil method, and yes it is a great deal of work. If you want a profesional job at a lower cost many taxidermists will give you a discount if you do the skining for them. Then they finish the job with beatles, bleach, and they will mount it on a plaque for you. (I had one done last year for 75$ plus shipping).

Poke around this site for more info.....FYI..he also sells beatles if your up to that.....

http://www.skulltaxidermy.com/milo.html

bullmoose38

Here is a tip for bleaching. DO NOT USE CHLOROX! Use peroxide its fool proof. I usually soak for 30 hours in it. Pour peroxide just shy of base of antlers. Put peroxide soaked cotton balls on top of the remaining part of skull that is exsposed. It will really get white!

AlabamaDan

From what I've read you don't boil it hard as that will cause cracks. I've read quite a bit about skull (European) mounts and the best method concensus seems to be scraping as much of the meat off the bone as possible, but don't actually leave marks on the bone, do it gently. Better to leave meat than damage the skull.

Then submerge the skull in clean water. The trick here is to allow the meat left ont he outside of the bone, and the meat inside the bone, to rot slowly. This is less stressful to the bone and will prevent cracking the bone. It'll take a while and may cause a smell, but the old timers seem to think this is the best way. Change the water out every so often. I think this may take a few months.

Once all the meat has rotted off the bone it's time to take it out and use insects to finish. Like someone said beetles are the best method, but I've heard ants work well too. Just drop it in a fire ant bed and leave it a while. The bugs will not only eat all the meat on the outside, but go inside and eat the brains, membranes, and stuff you couldn't get to.

Then you do the peroxide thing.... I'm gonna try it if I can ever get a little buck again... Bad year this year.

Slamfire

If you are going to bleach, be sure and cover the antlers so they don't come in contact with the liquid solution, Not even the little droplets from the boiling.

ike1371

putting it on a ant hill or hanging it in a tree during the summer and letting nature do the work is a way to do it. or you can go to cabelas and order a european mounting kit from them.

www.cabelas.com

Elkcrazy8

I have done a bunch of them and I boil them. I have a stiff nylon brush and I will pull the head out of the water and brush the meat off. Soak it afterwards in peroxide to whiten the skull. When I boil the skull I pour in baking soda. This helps a little with the stink and helps dry out the skull when finished. Don't pour too much baking soda in at first or you will see what I did, a huge foam pile on the kitchen floor. If you do it before the meat begins to rot it smells like venison stew cooking. Good luck