Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game how to preserve moose antlers?

Just shot my first moose yesterday

God sent me a little bull. Don't think I'll have the shoulder mount done, but would like to put the antlers on teh side of the house. Any way to preserve them from bleaching out in the weather etc.?

Any advice for cleaning the meat off, etc. in preparation for that sort of display?

The sun will wreck them in a couple of years. Keep them in the shade if possible. I suppose you could put a waterproof finish of some kind on them, but I've never tried it. The sun will bake off most finishes, too, so it needs to be redone every couple of years.

As long as you are going to ruin them outside, why worry about it?

Oh, good luck on the meat.

Keep them inside..... Outside, they'll bleach out white and last 20-30 years, unless someone steals them....

I cut a 55 gal barrel in about half lengthwise (It's offset a bit, accommodating different antler configurations, propped it up on concrete blocks, and boiled the chit out of the skull using a wood fire (a friend uses a propane burner), using bleach water. Did get a color differential at water-line on the antlers.... but I just don't care. The antler configuration was worth mounting...

Thanks for the boiling info las. That's a great looking mount
Thanks for the tips Rock Chuck.

The idea for you other guys is to look for info on how to prevent the weather from ruining them.....

keep them indoors,
if you have an ant mount nearby stake them to it and they will have it picked clean in a hurry, might be a little late in the year though.
do the boiling/bleach water thing. I did it on my elk and it worked nicely. boiled it 3 or 4 times, and between each one I would scrape the meat/brains off the skull. it wasn't a fun job, do it outside for sure.

then store them in your garage or other part of the house, but indoors is the only way to keep from ruining them

So the consensus is that there is NO way to preserve them against the weather?

Bingo!

If you're going to "weather" them outdoors, I would recommend against any kind of harsh prior treatment, or chemicals. Skin the skull cap, scrape excess tissue off, the rest will dry or be eaten by naturally occurring small vermin. The antlers will whiten naturally but will, assuming something other than rainforest conditions, last for many, many years. Expecting 20 years should be a minimum.

The sun's UV is the culprit. It's what wrecks roofs, not rain. It wrecks decks, car paint and dashboards, tires, and about everything else. It does a serious number on your skin, too.

Hmmmm.....so if I coat them with a UV resistant deck preservative..... I think I'll try that

Redwood colored antlers might be attractive in the right setting.

Mssgn;

Seal them with deck sealer, and put them on the house. By the time they are faded and starting to deteriorate, you ought to have another set to replace them.

Mickey the Moose. They might be aesthetically lacking, but those synthetic antlers will sure be stable and strong.

I like the way you think!

I stain my deck with clear UV protector every summer. I'll just do the antlers too!

They will last better with nothing... UV has virtually nothing to do with their demise. It is the freeze-thaw cycling that breaks them down. Putting a film over the works will cause the film to hold bigger chunks and when they start breaking out it will lead to more "erosion" faster.

UV does not go very deep and the oxidized surface layers will "protect" the antler material underneath. I have seen lots and lots of treated and untreated antlers left in the weather.

YMMV...

NO bleach necessary in the boiling water cleaning method. Better to have darker bases from the fats in the boiling process than white bases needing stained to match from bleach. I learned from a taxidermist to put linseed oil on my antlers (indoor mounts) to help them not dry out and stay nicer looking, might work outside too.

I restored a slightly dried out and faded set of moose antlers with linseed oil, wipe on and with another rag wipe off the excess. NEVER use bleach in your boiling water or in an attempt to whiten bone, that stuff never quits eating away.

Linseed oil will lead to black antlers outdoors. They may be "gold" for awhile, but linseed oil will darken and mildew in the weather. Left alone, antlers will bleach as little else but the calcium is left. If the area is shaded and damp, you may get some lichen growth, otherwise they'll become starkly white - not unattractive in many situations and contexts.

As Sitka Deer points out, the mineral is going to be broken down by freezing and thawing more than other things. 30 years or 40 is not an unreasonable life expectancy for antlers where I'm at. I expect one could see at least 20 in most places.

As far as bleaching, do not use bleach, use hydrogen peroxide. There is an excellent treatise on this at http://www.javelinahunter.com/preparing_a_skull.htm

step by step recipe for skull prep and preservation.