European mounts or Skull mounts

Hello all, I would like to here from others who have done there own skull mounts. I have done a few trial and error. I did a real nice job on one for my son and he has a nice 5x5 whitetail mount hanging in my dining room. a forty yard shot with a twenty gauge single shot with not sights. Anyway, I have always skinned the skulls down removed all I could and then set the skull in a deepsink with a little bleach in the water, then later just kinda scubbed them down with coarse sponge. I screwed one up by letting the bleach touch the antlers. Are there other methods? Better methods? This year is my first mule deer hunt and if I am fortunate enough to take a buck I would like to do a skull mount with it, I also want to tan the hide fur on if I don't screw it up to bad with my shot. I would appreciate hearing others methods of producing a skull mount, thanks Harv
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sawsman
harvey,

Here are two mounts I did a couple of years ago. The one on the left was done by simmering(not boiling) with sal-soda. The one on the right by using the maceration method.
some people/taxidermists will use dermestid beetles as their de-fleshing method.
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wilecoyote76
All the skulls I have cleaned were the slow boil method like sawsman mentioned. Not rolling boil by any means, just hot enough to get the meat and flesh off. I dig out the nasal cavity since it's a bugger to get clean when boiling. I use a pressure washer to get all the final cartilage and meat off the skull. Works great! I then use peroxide/bleach mixture from the hair care salon supply places and it does pretty well. The dermastid beetles do a great job too.

I like the turn around time when I do my own or I would have it done by those who have beetles.

Same as avatar.....
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killerbee
i've seen the skull in your avatar, but i've never noticed the antler base for it. that is VERY cool! deffinatly going to be part of my next skull mount!
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Default Avatar
What is sal-soda? and or maceration? It looks in your pictures that your boiling technique is better than mine as my skulls are more of dull white or yellowish color not white like yalls. I have heard of using beatles but not sure were you would get them?
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sawsman
Sal-soda is sodium carbonate(washing soda). It helps in the simmering process to cut grease and gel up the flesh so that it comes off clean from the bone.

Maceration is the process of soaking the skull in warm water and letting bacteria do the work of cleaning meat and tissue from the bone. It takes much longer than "boiling" and is a much smellier process, but is the better of the two methods. The bone will stay intact better and be much stronger.

After these two process you need to degrease the bone or it will yellow over time. If you boil the skull at too hot of a temperature you can actually cook the grease into the bone making it harder to remove. The degreasing step takes at least two weeks in a strong solvent or a solution of household dish soap mixed with warm water. This is the most important step in having a nice bright white skull.

After degreasing you can proceed with the bleaching step. Do not use chlorine bleach as it will weaken the bone and make it chalky. A peroxide solution is best for bleaching.
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sawsman
Here's another skull that was macerated.
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