Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Skull maceration

CT, I'd be curious to see you try something with that skull. I just did 3 skulls, have 2 more rotting but not sure 3 tank heaters can keep up with overnight low here of 9. Anyway, on the 3 I just did, I sat them in Dawn and hot water for 2 days. Rinsed well, coated in 40% peroxide paste and sat them in the sun for 8 hours. They are totally pure white. Now they could seep grease out I guess at a later date, but the ones last year have not yet.

If you try that and it doesn't work, could you then just go back to soaking it in Dawn? I get impatient and it seems like the sunshine peroxide combo is working really well. If you try it, let me know how it goes.

Gotta go out to barn and see if I can rig something over the 15 gallon tank to keep the heat in without burning down the barn.

I've gone the quick route and grease spots showed up each time. I'm peculiar in that I want no grease floating after a two week soak. I soak until that happens. But if you're happy with it, by all means, rock on.

Regarding re-soaking in dawn after peroxide, later on down the road, absolutely you can. Peroxide does nothing to trap the grease in. I soaked old euros that had been simmered, back before I knew better, and it was pretty darn effective.

Thanks,

Pretty much the exact process I used on this antelope, I put it in a black garbage bag in a plastic feed barrel for 3-4 days in the summer heat and the sheaths will just pull off, then put the skull back in a 5 gal bucket and soaked for a couple weeks then I degreased in dawn, and then I sprayed with 40% HP!

I bought a tank heater to speed the process on the next ones after reading this thread!
I think this maceration process turns out very good results

Ya man what a hammer !!!! Got the sheaths off mine already gonna dunk er in water

looking forward to your results!

I posted my progress on a muley in this thread last year, by far the best euro mount I have. Just gotta be patient

Here are the last two to get through the process. Have 6 more coming at a minimum this year from friends and family. The stench in the barn is pretty real lol. Toughest part is keeping the rot buckets warm on cold nights.

You definitely have the process dialed in

very nice looking skulls!

Do you seal them or leave them natural?

What container do you use for the elk skull? I have a bull I shot a couple weeks ago I’d like to do. Have a Buck from the weekend and a couple bears in the freezer I need to work up too.

Ackley, been leaving natural. It leaves options if any grease were to surface later. But sealing is a rattle can away.

TheKid, ranch supply store had a 15 gallon black soft rubber like horse water bucket. I had 3 tank heaters in it. It fit an elk and a mule deer at same time. On the bears, be careful on having teeth fallout and get lost in the sludge. Not sure how you get around that on the bears.

It warmed up here the other day, so I put a heater on my frozen bucket of bear skull.

I guess I need a tank heater.

TheKid, This is the container:
https://www.bigronline.com/miller-mfg-15gallon-heavy-duty-rubber-tub-black-601415.html

CWH2, that'll look like new after about 12 days in some nice luke warm water.

I take a simpler path. Put the skull in the canal and hope the gators don't make off with it. Crabs take care of the light work. Tusks on the bottom, pick 'em up and glue them back in place. Short soak in bleach,dry it out and go. 3 days in the water was all it took.



Resurrected:



Crabs gotta eat too.

And these clowns as well.

Trying an experiment with a small tank aerator in the Dawn soak along with the tank heater. Thinking that agitated warm water may degrease a little faster than still. We'll see.

Just put 3 buck skulls in to rot off.......I will pull them out in May or June

Why no tank heater and done in less than 2 weeks?

I have patience

I must be doing something wrong with an elk skull plate then. I didn't do a great job of fleshing it off a few years back, but now I've been soaking it in water and several water changes with Dawn over a couple of months and yesterday I took it to the car wash and blasted it for four minutes. I've already spent hours with a knife, needle nose pliers and a hemostat and there is still 10% of white smelly skin stuck to that skull plate. I do have a new appreciation for how tough elk hide is. No deer skull was ever this much work.

Windfall, Do not add dawn soap to the water. Just hot water with a tank heater keeping it at 85-90 degrees. It will be clean in 9-12 days. I don't scrape on them or anything like that after I pull them out. The maceration basically dissolves it all. Now that said, I don't put unskinned heads in the water. But I still think what you have will rot off.

Tank heaters are $13 delivered on Amazon.

Thanks for that 30338, but it was skinned back when it was fresh, but now I'm contending with layers of very thin skin layers that were under the hair hide skin. I've always boiled my deer skulls and I'm considering that with the elk now too. It is drying in the garage, but the effluvia funk is filling the garage and it enough to gag a maggot. Sweetness isn't about to let this thing into the house again even down in the man cave.