Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting DIY European

I have done a few myself, but I agree with Crow hunter here! I feel that is twice as true if you are talking about tanning a hide!

Please, please don't use spray paint though.

Well, I spoke too soon. I found a nice 6 point that had been poached but apparently lost. I have it soaking in water now, I just can't see spending the money on a deer I didn't shoot, but don't want to see this set of antlers eaten by the squirrels.

For us here, instead of doing all the fish tank heater thing, I just wait till June or so and take em out of the freezer and in a few days IE a week or so they are done...

My Nephew put this together from the bucks we killed this year on some management hunts. I think it came out great

Have you found the need to heat the water during degreasing or are you getting it done without heat?

I use a really big plastic storage container with a couple concrete blocks on the lid to keep dogs and squirrels out to do 3 and 4 at a time

100 degrees in the shade, and a bucket of water, and its generally done in a week or 10 days, totally clean, no need to degrease anything if you didn't heat the water to boiling or close to it to start with.

Boiling is a complete disaster.

now if I knew how to get the green algae off the heads when I screw up now and then.... I'd be way ahead of the game.

Just have that problem right now again... 2 bucks locked and dead in our tank, they were already rotting so I've had them in water off and on changing it for the last 3 months... and damn pollen fell while I had a week of nightly EMS/fire calls and I was so tired I forgot about the washtub......... clean of goo, but now the algae... can't win some days.

And that is the way I will do it in the future!

John

I have two 8 pntrs and an antelope in the big blue storage bin now....ill post some pics in a couple weeks or so

Here's one I did, that my wife got with her Muzzle Loader
I even cut down the tree the plaque came from:

I should have paid attention. The squirrels got to my antlers and have almost eaten through them.

I'll use the big covered tub technique next time.

maceration is a stinking mess. It works though.

Question, how are you keeping the antlers out of the nasty water, but still getting the meat around the pedicles gone?

I don't worry about keeping the antlers out of the water. Soaking in dawn for several months takes the nasty out of them.

Cool, so you are not losing color around the bases?

I need to try this method. I usually simmer, but it is impossible to get all the meat out of the sinuses and that is a bug magnet later on.

Thanks.

I just started doing it last year for myself and few friends. I haven't lost any color in seven deer in two years. As you mentioned, boiling just doesn't cut it inside the skull, especially in the sinus area. With maceration there is absolutely no tissue remaining anywhere.

FWIW, I had a couple that were boiled with lots of tissue remaining inside. These have been boiled for several years. I dropped them in a ripe bucket and it cleaned them right up.

Does a 'rubbermaid' type container or 5gal buck with lid contain the smell enough that the neighbors (I live in a subdivision on 1/4ac lots) won't complain?

Pointer, its plenty to keep the smell down. Except when the lid is off.

The difference between maceration and boiling, (it was boiled poorly and degreasing was ineffective)

Now, I only european mount. I can go on more hunts without paying the rapidly increasing taxidermy charges. Sometimes, you here of people burying the heads in dirt. I don't suggest this as the dirt can stain the skull. I've done some that don't get stained, but this one did get stained.

May have to give it a try. I don't really care too much what my neighbors think/say, but my wife does and I don't like the dog house...