I boiled and cleaned the head of a 9 point I shot last weekend and I still can't get that smell out of my nose.

I decided to put it in a ant bed for a week or two. I couldn't deal with it any longer.

Are there any better ways to European Mount a deer skull?

Let a taxidermist handle it.....

mmmmm...boiled deer brains and skull. I caught a deep whiff one year when making my Euromount. Short of buying a bug box or just letting it rot for a few months, there is no quicker way.

Now I just tie it up with bailing wire and leave it in the barn for a few months.

[This message has been edited by queso1 (edited 12/13/2010 9:59a).]

Step 1: Do it outside

Step 2: Imbibe alcohol while completing process

Step 3: Stop being a pansy

Antbeds, particularly in the winter, are far FAR less efficient.

My BIL added Dawn and Tide when boiling his and it didn’t stink too bad.

I soaked one in a 5 gallon bucket of water for 2 months. Nasty.

If the smell bothers you that much, add a little dish soap to the pot. It'll help, but won't completely clear it up.

not trying to hijack the thread, but does anyone know if anybody in the B/CS area does the beetle thing( sorry cant remember the proper name )

My brother tried to do the beetle thing one time. He order some online and then put them in a terrarium with the deer head and let them go to work. After about 2 months of the thing stinking to high heaven, he moved them out into a shed away from the house. A couple weeks later there was a hard freeze and all the beetles died.

I laughed a lot, and he vowed to not use beetles again.

I put some Copenhagen in my mouth help the smell but that just made it worse.

Maybe the ants will work. I'm not counting on it but I'll let you know.

This was posted on another forum that I occasionally look through. Hope it helps.

http://discussions.texasbowhunter.com/forums/showthread.php?t=175971

I boil from afar and then kick the head out and use a power sprayer. Once you catch an edge, peels right off and you can be a few feet away. I dont know if it would effect the boil, but it school we used fabric softner in our cadaver tanks to help with smell...

I boiled a deer head in my 650 sq foot apartment in law school. My buddy came over and walked in while I was sitting on the couch watching tv, and he immediately started dry heaving and ran out. He said the stench hit him like a ton of bricks and there was a brown haze in my apartment. I was just sitting there drinking beer. I guess I didn't notice it was that bad since I'd been in there the whole time.

txaggie02's list of things that are not worth doing on your own
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#145 - Change oil in vehicle
#146 - European mount on deer

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I boiled a deer head in my 650 sq foot apartment in law school. My buddy came over and walked in while I was sitting on the couch watching tv, and he immediately started dry heaving and ran out. He said the stench hit him like a ton of bricks and there was a brown haze in my apartment. I was just sitting there drinking beer. I guess I didn't notice it was that bad since I'd been in there the whole time.

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Laughing out loud very loud.....

Once the skins is off take it to the carwash and use the pressure washer. Thats what me and my cousin do to get the majority of meat/tissue off the skull then your only left with a little stuff on the bone, boil it mixed with baking soda and you should be good

I used lots of dish soap and breathed primarily out of my mouth. After boiling and cleaning it for probably 3 hours, I took it to the pressure washer, then left it in box filled with borax.

Smell was never unbearable but was certainly worse than roses

Anyone ever tried throwing the head on an ant pile?

I just chew on it every so often while watching tv. A butter knife and a seafood fork help you get the little bits out.

quote:

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Anyone ever tried throwing the head on an ant pile?

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Not nearly as effective as you might think.

bolillo: read the thread before you post.

Sorry helgs

Don't do it again, Mister!

Boil in salt water with a lot of salt. We do it outside with the turkey cooker. Power wash it after a 2-3 hour boil. Soak in bleach/water mixture about 1/3 bleach for an hour or two. Let dry but do not rinse. You will have to stain the bases of the horns if you get bleach on them

Don't put it on an ant pile. It takes forever and something will eat it. Coyote might haul it off or rodents nibble on horns.

Don't continue to boil it. Probably damaged the sinus area already.

Soak it in 5 gallon bucket with water, even larger tub is better. Then let mother nature do all the work. Bacteria will eat all the meat fairly quickly, especially if you are in warm part of Texas. Meat just rots away. It takes just two or three weeks, even if you haven't skinned it.

It will be gnarly soup. You can dump the water and chunks of meat every week or so if you like. If you don't bacteria will choke out. Just leave about 10% of the water in tub so your colony doesn't have to start from scratch. Wash off the skull when you change water and it will get a bunch.

After it's clean, just hang it in tree for week or so. That will bleach it out and no smell.

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#145 - Change oil in vehicle

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You tit, you can almost walk under your truck!



That said, the dermestid beetles are VERY interesting to me since Mrs. Terk was an Ento major at A&M. She almost let me get a colony so I could do some heads, right up until I explained that I was going to be doing it in the garage... game, set, match that was over fast!!!

My buddy did it with an aoudad head at his parents house when they were gone for an afternoon. They got home, and his mom asked if he had cooked meatloaf. She wasn't much of a cook, so I guess the smell of any kind of cooked meat was a different smell to her.

I do my own Euro mounts on all of the deer that I don't get shoulder mounts done on. It is easy to do and I enjoy doing it myself. I will see if I have any pics of the process and post them.

place up here ties them up with wire and throws them in the pond. turtles pick it completely clean. might give it a try

I found them...
Before boiling, cut / scrape off as much meat as possible from the skulls. This will make the rest much easier. I boil mine in a large pot with water and a little dish soap in it until the meat begins to come off on it's own. Here are a few boiling.


After boiling, I let them cool a little and begin to do a second scrape and clean on the skulls.

Once they are fully cleaned, I get some 40 volume peroxide ( you can get the wife to get it at a beauty store). I lay them out on a piece of plywood and coat with peroxide, with a paint brush, and let sit in the sun until dry.

Once dry and completely bleached, carefully rinse them off to get any residue off of the bone. Be very careful not to get any of the peroxide on the antlers, it will bleach them out.


Some I do with a partial euro, where I cut the back of the skull off to make it flat. Hope this helps a little.
Edit: stupid photobucket copied the same picture.

[This message has been edited by bushman (edited 12/13/2010 6:40p).]

Halfway through this thread I realized that I wasn't breathing through my nose.

It's a reflex that I learned the hard way in my intern year. Didn't know that reading about something could trigger it!

Bushman ^ has it right. And if you have a pressure washer, you can clean out the brain cavity pretty quick too. Some people finish it out with a low shine clear coat, and screw it to a mesquite mount:

http://www.texaswildwood.com/Taxidermy.htm



[This message has been edited by ghenson82 (edited 12/24/2010 1:50p).]

Also, another trick my dad uses when they have a dead body call is to put some Vick's Vaporub under your nose.

ghenson or anybody else, that was my next question for the skull. I just finished one today and was very pleased with the results. Question is, should I put some kind of clear coat and exactly what should it be. Last thing I want to do is put something on and it look like crap immediately or start peeling or yellow and really look bad down the line.

Oh, and one more thought, it was very satisfying when I was done particularly because it was my 10yo's first buck, but if someone does a good job for $100, it is CERTAINLY worth it.