Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game How to hang a european mount?

My "mounts" might not be strickly "european", but they are smaller and cheaper than shoulder mounts. I think provide a great way to showcase a set of horns.

I prefer pedestals on a plaque that keep the skull in the natural level position. Have several with teeth, one with bottom jaw and one with no teeth. I like them all.

stumpy

If you boil with about 5% liquid detergent (dish soap) it works well... wrap the lower horns in aluminum foil to keep them from discoloring. Keep on a low boil and keep removing meat, fat, etc.

Then, soak skull in a 1/3 water, 1/3 peroxide, 1/3rd calcium carbonate mix... allow to sit for 3+ days.

Calcium Carbonate is an absolute necessity and can be purchased by the pound at a pottery supply house... bleach should never be used with skulls.

Brad, good tip. Your elk has a nice, clean white skull.

Might have to give my deer a re-soak with the calcium.

Sammer, I've always got a couple pounds around.

I just drill a hole in the skull, just anterior to the brain stem hole. I will get some pics up tomorrow. Then I put a 5/16" lag bolt into a stud in the wall. I have a 6x6 hanging above my bed using this method and I am not worried about it impaling me one bit.

As for the process of doing the actual euro. I boil mine in a rolling boil all the time after getting as much meat off the skull. However, I don't let it go overnight. Only for about 45-60 minutes. Then I use a hot water pressure washer with a 0 degree nozzle to knock all the excess off. I then use 40 volume peroxide and let it sit for 15-20 hours being careful not to get any on the bases. Any more than that, the bone starts to get chalky. As a final touch, I spray the bone with some clear satin polyurethane to seal it and keep the bone bright white and prevent discoloration from dust.

European skull hangers.

http://stalkeroutdoors.com/131-European-Skull-Display/View-all-products.html

Never used Calcium Carbonate (which is just Chalk?) and I thought it was only used to form a paste with the peroxide, making it easier to apply?

I generally simmer the heads gently until the meat goes soft. I've tried adding Sal(washing) soda (sodium carbonate) and/or dish soap and in future I think I'll go with just dish soap.

The trick is to change the water two or three of times during the simmering process to get rid of the accumalated grease and other crap.

As you change the water and also right at the end, as you lift the skull out, rinse it off with clean boilling water from a kettle to get rid any surface grease/gunk...

For really greasy skulls like hogs or bear, you can then soak the skull in white gas for a week or so to leech out as much of the remaining grease as possible...

Once the skull is clean and free from all meat, but before I soak it in peroxide, I dip it back into boiling water for a couple of minutes. I then soak white cotton wool balls in the peroxide and completely cover the skull. The skull needs to be in a plastic container to catch the "run off" and this also allows the cotton wool to keep wicking up the peroxide...

Not tried heating the peroxide or adding peroxide to the boiling water as the above method works fine and gives porcelain white results in about 24 to 36 hours. In fact, even after the skull has be rinsed of all peroxide it will continue to whiten if left in the sun for a day or two...

If done this way, its fairly easy to get results like this Muntjac skull below:



On the other hand, if too aggressive chemicals are used for degreasing, or ordinary bleach is used instead of peroxide for whitening, you risk getting pitting in the bone as below:



One other tip is at the start of the process, once you have the head removed from the carcass, roughly skin it out and leave it sit in a bucket of cold salted water for at least 24hours or until you get around to cleaning it properly.

The cold salted water leeches out any blood and effectively is a first step in the cleaning process. I've tried both ways and it does seem to help a bit....

dont laugh but i put mine in the freezer... double wrap the skull in a garbage bag. tie off around the base of the horns.. sits there all winter... in the spring i wrap the horns in alum foil and hang it in a tree. a month or two later i take it down and wash it off sometimes i have a spot or two to do but the bugs in there feast on it for a long time in the hot sun... i am cheap...

woofer

these work good

http://www.euromounter.com/

I've heard of a few variations of that, but the two downsides I can see are the smell and the risk of loosing your trophy...I say that because somebody on another forum was doing exactly that and when they went to get the skull a few weeks later, it had gone and the guy was gutted.

Another method that works very well is to place the skull into a large bucket of water and allow the bugs to rot off the flesh. The weather needs to be warm (or you can rig up an aquarium heater)

As it gets really "soupy" you can periodically change the water, but leave a little of the old water in as it contains a starting stock of bacteria. Pond or other natural water works best, as tap water often contains chlorine which will slow things down until it dissipates...

You mention wrapping the antlers in foil which is a very good idea they are going to be left outside during this rotting process as it stops them becoming bleached or weathered by the sun/rain ect..

Again if doing this outside, the smell and security need to be considered...

your right. i should have mentioned that.. 10 acres with woods helps.. i also hang it a country mile in the air... if i had a trophy i may have to do it the right way...

woofer