So;
I got a “decent” buck this year. Kinda cool antlers. I decided I wanted to try doing a European mount with this one.
How does a guy go about it?
Boil the “living snot” out of it?
I have a turkey cooker. Is that the way to go, with the bigger pot?
Is there a “prime” temperature to maintain (not too hot?)
Do I just use water?
How long does a guy boil it for?
How do you get the brain matter out of it, the cartilage?
I have never tried it but would like to someday. Here is some info I found.
That sounds like it would work to me Gary, Id do it that way too, maybe scrape some with a knife a little. Scrape it and boil it. Maybe spray a matt clear coat over everything when your done to protect it and keep it from fadeing.
Thanks Steve!
That is a good link.
I just received this message on the process too!
Quote:
First things first: skull soup is a stinky, time consuming enterprise that is sure to upset anyone sharing the kitchen. It also ruins a kettle. It’s best to buy an big old kettle at a thrift shop, and take the operation outside in the heated garage with a hotplate, camping stove or gas grill.
Start out by cleaning the skull with a utility knife, pliers and a flat screwdriver. Wear leather gloves. These will be your tools of the trade. Designate them as such. You won’t want to use these for anything else. Get all the skin off the skull and as much flesh as possible. The eyeballs will be very difficult. Depending on your decision, the brain could pose a challenge as well. When removing the head, if you decide to cut through the center of the skull (hacksaw), it’ll make cleaning out the brain much easier.
Then, using water and a just a dash of household bleach, boil the skull for awhile. Be very careful not to use too much bleach. You do not want compromise the bone structure of the skull. This was a mistake I made most often when I first started cleaning skulls. Also, this is a hands-on project. It requires full attention at all times. You’ll want to be very careful not to submerge the antler bases into the liquid. EVER! Even water will start to discolor the bases. Also, I always try to leave as much bark material and foliage around the bases. This gives the buck character. With a big spoon, slowly ladle the liquid around the top of the skull and other parts that aren’t fully submerged.
After boiling, start picking away at it with your tools. After you feel like you’ve made some headway, fill up the kettle with pure hydrogen peroxide. You can buy this very reasonably at Target or Walmart. Let the skull soak in this for an hour or so, ladling the liquid around the skull. Take it out of the bath and start picking at it again. This part takes the longest.
Then, it’s back into the soup for another round. This time, heat up the H2O2 and bring it to a boil. This is the most important step, as you’ll see the skull get very nice and bone white. Make sure to constantly swish the liquid around the different parts of the skull, taking extra care not to get ANY on the antlers. If you do, spritz it off with some water. It’s not the end of the world. Keep an eye on the burner; you don’t want this to boil over.
Gary I have done several and the easiest way I can tell you is to pull, tare, scrape everything off you can right away (eyes, hide, fat, eyes, brain matter, etc…). Then boil outside, scrape more, boil again, and scrape again..Its pretty easy but takes time..The smell is nasty when boiling but the end resault is worth it…good luck…Jay
I have heard about guyus that put some bugs on em’ and they eat all the flesh, right down to the bone, and it just then gets bleach washed. Anybody got any hungry bugs ???
big g 
G your thinking of a certain kind of beetle….and you need a ton of them. I, for the life of me can’t remember the name of them but I’m sure you can’t buy them at Wal-Mart 
I beleive they are the Dermastid Beetles. They can be bought by the colony and will definitely do the job. But, I beleive keeping them alive is hard.
Another word about the boiling-DO IT OUTSIDE!!!! That smell is enough to gag a maggot 
There is a guy in St. Cloud with a colony of beetles who does this for $75.00. I’ve taken a few to taxidermists who charge between $125-$150 who farm out the work and Rory from Beetle my Bones. BMB skulls are by far much whiter meaning all the oil has been removed. If you plan on putting it in your house have them beetled as the nasal cavilities will never be totally cleaned and will eventually attract bugs. One of the few I have was farmed out to somebody who beetled it and bleached it, one day I picked it up and the sheds of some carpet beetles which is in the dermstid family going from larva to adult were laying on the carpet, yuk! Not what you want in a room full of mounts as they eat anything from hair, feathers and hide. If you hangit outside or in the garage no bigee. If you want his # PM me I have his card around here somewhere.
Little brother is looking to boil his outside too. They have a kit with everything you need for a do it yourself Euro mount at Gander and Cabela’s. Bleach, Clear coat, etc. I do know some Taxidermy shops touch up the skulls with an airbrush to whiten them a bit more before light clear coat. If you post the number for the guy that beetles them shoot it too me too as I’d like to have it done to one in the future too. Boiling is just smelly.
Im also thinking of doing the same im pretty excited after reading all these posts 
My stepdad was gonna do it a few years back well he cleaned it up and hung it on a tree in the back yard hoping bugs would finish cleaning it up…well dont EVER do that, the squirrels got to it and chewed up the antlers pretty good 
If you don’t have the time all that you really need to do is just put it in abucket of water and change it out whenever the smell gets to bad. You have to take the hide off and scrape it of course, and it dosen’t take that long to do it this way. It works if you don’t have the time to dedicate a day to boiling and scraping and boiling a deer skull. If anyone is interested I can get the recipie that my taxidermist uses to bleech the skull white and post it on here. I always just take the deer to the taxidermest and he will give me a free euro mount if the cape is good. He will put it on a nice plack also. Just throwing that way out there for the busy do it yourselfers. It makes you kinda think everytime you take a drink of water knowing that what is in it will take off all= that junk.
I started making my own this summer and found out it really is pretty easy…. besides the turkey cooker you will need a pressure washer….
Simmer the head after the hide is removed with a little baking soda and dawn soap….Dawn is a great de-greaser
If you put it in before the football game starts, simmer it till end of game.
Take it out and most of the meat should just fall off. If it looks like most of the meat is cooked, hit it with the pressure washer. I tie-wrapped the anlters to a 2×4 and screwed it across my saw horses.
Definatley use peroxide instead of bleach to whiten….peroxide will not weaken bone…and don’t let the antlers simmer, make sure to keep them out of the water…..
I did a whitetail, coyote, and 3 beaver in about 3 hours and 15 minutes….
good luck let us know how it turns out
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besides the turkey cooker you will need a pressure washer….
hmmmmmmmmm;
Car wash pressure washer???
How much peroxide? Straight or mixed??? If mixed, what solution?
I use a 3000 psi 190cc pressure washer. I don’t use the most consentrated (red) nozzle. The other two got the job done and I never had any broken parts of the skulls.
As for the hydrogen peroxide, drug store type works fine but if you can get the straight peroxide from a salon, it works the best. Rebottle it when your done because you can use it over quite a few times. I also wrapped the head in toilet paper and doused it every so often. It didn’t take long to get it as white as I wanted.
You can find that guys phone number at beetlemybones.com. I hope it is OK to put that here since it was discussed previously. I tried my first Euro mount last year and it looks great in spite of my approach. I left the hide on (don’t know why) and boiled it with water and a half cup of bleach and borax. Then this thing was a complete pain to pull the hide off, scrape out the putrid eyes and then the brain. I was scraping and scraping then decided to take it to the car wash. As I stuck the hose in the brain cavity the boiled rotten brain matter backwashed all over me and my coat!! At least my mouth was closed. I won’t do that again. I eventually got to the point where I whitened with some stuff from Gander and then sprayed on a sealer. Then ordered a mounting plate. My son and I are glad we did it…..next one I may take to someone for the $75 charge but I do like to do what I can….and I learned some lessons so it should go better next time. 
I think Corcorans out in hampton does it pretty cheap,might save ya a lot of work and stink. 
Chuck Corcoran charges $75 to do it. I gave him the cape from the deer for a head mount that he needed to get done. I sure wish the rack matched the big body of the deer. The deer pushed 200lbs field dressed and was nice and dark. Just the rack has no width…… 
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