Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Skull maceration

A $25 20 qt pot and a $15 1000 watt single burner hotplate from Amazon. Take 15 minutes to skin game head, 3-4 hours on hotplate in 20 qt. pot, tie skull to sawhorse and blast what is left of flesh off with power washer. Really nothing to it. Do a couple of deer skull mounts every year. Bleach skull with Peroxide Cream ordered from woman hair care site off internet, won't degrade bone like bleach does. Coat with Mop and Glo to seal skull and antlers. You can watch your favorite TV show or browse the Campfire while "cooking" is taking place. The qt. of Peroxide Cream and bottle of Mop and Glo will do about 5 to 6 skulls or more.

My skull guy uses Mop and Glow on his commercial customers heads, too.

Just changed the water again, dumped a bunch of dawn in er. Still got some weird hangers outta the nasal passages. Fish tank heater is still working, weather has been in the 30’s -40’s outside since the project has begun....

A buddy put one on a fire ant mound for a few weeks. Worked.

I finish soak mine in Oxy Clean

Good thread! Though for now, a 1/4 tank of gas and 75 bucks I get a beetle cleaned skull without the hassle or stink. They turn out great!

Yep, if you don't have a place that can handle the stench, writing a check solves a lot of problems lol. That said, I do actually like doing these myself now. Learned a lot this year and next year's work should be even better.

Are you doing them in the summer?? Ever do one in the winter time? Mine is taking a long damn time! Thanks

I use a 5 gallon home depot bucket. Wrap it in towels that are bungee corded tight around the bucket. Fill to brim with clean water, submerge head, 1-2 electric fish tank heaters set on 90 degrees, put a black plastic trash bag over the top, and then put 2 more thick towels on top of the bag to insulate the top. Doing it that way took me 15-18 days of rotting in weather down to low 20s at night and 50s during the day.

If the water isn't warm enough, doesn't work well. I used some of that septic tank stuff in this same manner and it actually removed the brown stain from the antler bases. I would not use that stuff in this manner. I fixed with hot coffee grounds rubbed in till the bases were browned up again, so no big deal.

Gotcha. Stopped at Home Depot and grabbed a water heater insulation blanket, I’ll wrap my bucket up and throw a bag over it.

Month 3, membrane in the nasal cavity seem to be hangin me up

Fish heater got my bucket insulated, lots of dish soap.

It should be nothing but water. The dish soap is killing off your rot. Don't degrease till after the skull is totally clean. Hot water for about 17-18 days had my skulls totally clean. Then I degreased and hit them with peroxide.

Oh gotcha.... think I should put some more rid x in there?

Been running dish soap for about the past month. Guess I probably need another tank heater or 2 to keep the temp up too?

Patients is what it takes

I put mine in a bucket of water then cover it with a black trash bag in late November and don't bother with it until May.

Rinse in off and clear the extra stuff out of the tiny spots then finish soak in Oxyclean

Judman, If you can keep that water at 80 degrees, totally clean water with nothing added, that project will be done fast. I was running two tank heaters and had my tank wrapped up. I did not like the Rid x as it discolored one set of bases I had. So I got away from that. Just add water, and let it rot with the heaters. It'll go fast.

Copy I just rinsed everything off/out and put straight water in er.

Keep the water warm and it'll be clean soon enough. These were 2 of the 5 I did this fall. They turned out pretty good for me and my patience level. I've got 3 tank heaters now and a lot of buckets. Ready for more work this fall.

Those look damn nice. My taxi says done right shouldn’t take more than 2 weeks . I need another tank heater, it’s been pretty chilly here, water is only Luke warm. The heater I have is fixed temp at 78..