I am doing a skull mount, and need to get the brain matter out of a mule deer skull. Any tips?

Ask it to read one of VarmintGuy's posts..

After boiling the skull I use a hot water pressure washer with a 0 degree tip. Most of the matter blasts out (wear safety glasses!) What is left is some rubbery stuff that can be pulled out with a pair of needle nose pliers and piece of bar stock bent into a hook on the end.

I always take a 6-8 inch piece of hangar wire with a hook bent in the end. Put it in a drill chuck and scramble the brains that way. An airhose is then inserted through the nose opening and it is blown out. It will usually all come out but you may have to use the wire hook a little by hand too. Wear your grungies when doing this and don't let the wife anywhere near.

Had a BJ expert in Bankock that could do it baCK IN THE LATE 60,S ON MY WAY HOMe FROM nAHM

i used a .357 this year. it worked well... most of the brain went out of the three inch exit wound where the eye used to be...

Scrambling the brains with a wire is helpful,,,,but not really nessisary. Just stake the skull down on a fire ant bed, stir the bed a bit, and wait for a week or so.

Yup but just a hint atleast a rain coat.

I dig it out with a screwdriver after boiing for 10 or 15 minutes.

Im convinced there is not an easy way short of doing some cutting.

Joseph

I always cut the back of the skull flat anyway, so it rides the panel better. This also makes the hole larger at the back of the skull. After boiling for awhile, you can usually bang the back of the skull on the edge of a trashcan, and the brains will plop out for the most part.

After freezing / thaw, and before boiling / simmer, I take an old hack saw blade, break it in half... makes a pretty good scoup, through the spinal hole...the rest is easy pickens after boiling...

How long do you guys boil for, and do you add anything to the water? Like baking soda or salt?

Boil 30 minutes in Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda and then remove. Set the skull on the ground and power wash all of the now rubbery/gelatinous meat and other materials right off. You can blow all of the brains right out of it from the nasal cavity and the spinal hole. It is a mess, however, wear a rubber apron or something similar.

Watch the Discovery Channel. Egyptians perfected it 5000 years ago.

Use a straw?

boiling can create a disaster. Simmering not so much. But i'd never boil a skull. Either rot it off by sitting in water and trust me after a week in the heat or a few weeks in non heat, the brain pours out.... Or send it to a beetle man.

I was gonna say that

Simmer in washing soda. It takes hours though, and I hate doing it. Beetles are the way to go, but the skull stinks afterwards, so you have to simmer it anyway to remove the smell.

I wouldn't call their technique perfect. Look at some mummies. They're nothing you'd want on the wall. Well, MOST of us wouldn't, anyway.

What are the problems you refer to with boiling? I boil 30-45 min and blast them off. No problems - I do try to remove a lot of the big chunks of meat and the eyes before starting and occasionally I'll put one back in to boil for a while if it's being stubborn. I can see where boiling too long might soften bones or scorch the skull, but if the time is kept to a minimum I have no issues. I will agree that beetle cleaned skulls produce a nicer finished product, I just don't want to deal with the bugs.

I've seen some bone cracks develop from boiling.

(just speeking for myself)

I've eaten moose brains, but never deer brains. We used a chainsaw to remove the top of the skull, and just pulled the whole thing out. Eating it didn't make me one spark smarter, though.

Actual boiling can make the skull chalky. That is why you have to simmer it instead, but most still call it "boiling" including myself. Problem with cooking skulls is you cannot get all the meat out of the internal parts of the skull, and it will attract bugs. There are nerves in the cheeks, and gristle way up in the sinuses that are about impossible to get out without bugs.

A Core-lok will do it...

Toss the head in a freezer. Spring thaw I wrap the horns in aluminum foil, triple bag the head in plastic, hang way up in a tree. End of july or so I take it down and wash it off...bugs and other mystery larvae have pretty much cleaned it for me....

W

A 250 gr. .338 round at 30 yards comes to mind..... Worked on a moose at 70 yards for me once. Expanding spray foam filled in the leather-covered skull mount quite nicely.

cook it first in salt water then suck them out with the straw.

Send it to a liberal college for a semester. It will come back clean as a whistle.

BP...

Washing soda, whats the chemical name... I forget if I"m on the same page, but that too, if you don't go by directions, can eat the bone away totally, IE I got some for a friend... oh yeah he'll be real careful.... dunno how many beers later, read hours, the realized the skulls were still in the kettle simmering.... not much at all left..

And yes, simmer, don't boil. Which is why I don't do that either, wait till 130 in the sun TX temps and just let it in water, about the same. Boiling also liquifies the grease, and opens the bone pores, and allows more grease to lodge in the bones than you had to start with. Will turn yellow and smell rancid.

Simmer it and quick to the car wash.

Soaked it in a bucket and that softened everything up pretty well. Do people ever add vinegar or ammonia to the water?

I've only done one Euro mount. It had sat in dads barn for the better part of 2 years, so most of the goodies were already gone anyway. Then I just let sit in a 5 gallon bucket of water to soften up, let sit for a couple weeks, every few days I'd pull and scrape and pressure wash off the last bits. Time consuming process, but no worries about chalking up the skull, or pushing oils into the bones.

M-80.

Seriously, I'd probably go with dermestid beetles.

Tom

I used a 225-gn Partition at about 20 yards:

nice picture Jeff...