European Deer Skull mount

[duramax]

I killed this 8 point earlier this year in bow season. I skinned the skull the day I shot it (leaving the eyes, brains, etc... in it) and put it in the freezer. I put off doing anything with it until 2 weeks ago. I read all these techniques on how the "right way" to do a euro mount, but found one guy that said just to boil it for a couple hours in plain water and then pressure wash it. So I tried it. And as you can see from the pics, it worked quite well. I boiled the skull (using a turkey fryer deal) in water for about 1.5 hours, then poured out the NASTY water (smell is horrendous, so don't do it in your garage or anywhere close to anyones nose) and put fresh water in and boiled it for another 1.5 hours. I used a fairly heavy duty gas pressure washer (about the strength of a car wash pressure washer) and used the jet spray as opposed to the broad spray. The brains and eyes came out quite easily and after a little time blasting away, it looks pretty good. You might have to boil it again for about 30 minutes after pressure washing to free up the last bit of stuff still on or in the skull and spray it a little more. I was suprised how tough the skull was. I gave it to that thing with the pressure washer and it flipped around a few times, but it held up. All I have left to do is mount the thing on a piece of wood.

Here's the pics:

[feedcall]

Great Job, he looks awesome.

[MallardMauler]

looks good!

[MSDawg870]

I did one a couple weeks ago, I'm looking for a mount to put it on also. I'm either gonna get a piece of old barn wood for a wall mount or I've seen some neat table mounts where it'll sit on a desk.

Looks like a job well done.

[Doc & Nash]

The beetles that eat the flesh off in a day or two are available on line fairly reasonable. One 55.00 purchase could do every deer every member of this forum killed in a year.

[woundedduck]

i know a guy that ties his to a rope and tosses it in the reservoir for about a week and it is completely cleaned. obviously you could do this in a lake or river too. the fish eat all of that crap off it.

[pondman]

Looks good! I have one that I plan on doing in a couple of weeks.

MSDawg870 -- I have several pieces of board that came off an old sharecropper house. I used some for the same purpose. Its 1X12, pine and probably 75 years old. Holler and I can get you a piece.

Pond

[ACEINTHEHOLE]

boiled the skull (using a turkey fryer deal) in water for about 1.5 hours, then poured out the NASTY water (smell is horrendous, so don't do it in your garage or anywhere close to anyones nose)


Hehe, I learned this lesson when I ran out of gas and put it on the stove in the house. Was the worst thing ever. Wife was not happy. I finally got it done, but will pay to have it done from now on.

[4dawgma]

Looks good. I've heard you can also freeze the head, then throw it on an ant mound in the summer. I don't think it would work if you had dogs.

[duramax]

Looks good. I've heard you can also freeze the head, then throw it on an ant mound in the summer. I don't think it would work if you had dogs.

I've heard that. They say to put a bucket over it with a big rock on it so that critters don't get after it.

[cwink]

Very nice..

[Duck Nawteek]

nice

[Bglenut]

Looks great

[huntingup1]

Great looking mount and you didn't have to wait 6 months on it.

[Damn_It_Boy]

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