Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game European Mount?

"Boiling" (actually a gentle simmering) can work well as long as you don't leave the skull in too long and you know what your doing..



As already mentioned, adding a little dish soap and/or washing soda helps, as does changing the water two or three times and rinsing the skull will clean boiling water every time you lift it out the pot..

On really oily skulls, you can soak the cleaned skull in white gas or acetone for a week or two, and that really helps remove the grease..

From personal experience, I would say rotting the flesh off in water is the worst process for producing a smelly skull, but even that can be dealt with once all the flesh has been removed..

I boiled the small one, didn't know what I was doing, didn't turn out well. The big one I just put in a bucket of water with a lid for a month, changed the water every day or so, and it turned out marvelous.



These I did by burying (Top) boiling (middle) and water bucket (bottom) For me, boiling was a pain in the butt. Burying works well unless you have black or red dirt. Good luck, I plan on doing all my animals European style.



I buried this one in black dirt and never did get it to whiten up. Lesson learned

I tried one, got impatient, then made this.



I'm going to call around tomorrow to check prices for someone with beetles to do this go around..

I like the soaking method, but you do have to have an understanding family due to the smell. Also, cover it or somehow protect it from squirrels, they love to chew the antlers!

I tried all methods, then had a beetle guy at Western Skulls do mine for about $125. Perfection. But I did not get really good at the alternative methods. Don't intend to, unless it is for small heads. My good stuff goes to a pro. Also, most of the pros finish their skulls with a treatment of 30% hydrogen peroxide paste you get from beauty supply places. Beetles alone will not get it nice and white.

thanks guys i got in touch with my uncle he said it worked good for buffalo skulls so i put some mealworms in on friday i will get some pictures up as soon as i can

Does it stink too bad even with a lid? Just curious as I am eager to try it, but live in a neighborhood. Thanks.

keep the lid on or better yet lid on and in a shed and it should keep the neighbors at bay

If you change water often enough it won't be bad.

If you walk away for a week and its over 100... not so good. Without lid.

Of course your neighbors wouldn't like me opening the lids to our catfish chum buckets either.

If you change the water, don't use tap water if it contains chlorine as it will initially kill off the bacteria on the skull and set things back a few days..If possible use rain water or similar..

The thing will stink to high heaven, but is only really bad when its disturbed /stirred up..If you locate it outside and as re not using a lidded container, cover the antlers with plastic bags or similar, otherwise the sun and the rain can end up taken weathering the colour out of them.

Also, if its a nice head, be aware of it being stolen by 2 legged critters..I remember a member hear having a head stolen in similar circumstances..

I have numerous mounts that were boiled and then a paste of Borax soap applied to whiten, they all came out very nice. But agree with other posters that my beetle cleaned skulls are the nicest.

I did have the euro mount of my largest mulie mount stolen off my back porch.

Thank god for good taxidermists. Graves Taxidermy, Uvalde, Texas: