Here's the latest from deer camp.

Shot for Just Bein' Ugly

Nice Buck and a really neat old rifle

he must of had a hell of a time eating.

Cool story, thanks for sharing.

Thanks all.

Need some help from y'all: I am not inclined to have a full mount done. Frankly, I'm strapped for cash-- been out of work since July.

European mounts look like they'd be icky to DIY. I don't have the freezer space to hold onto him until Spring and then bury the head.

I brought the head and hide home. Outside of sawing off the antlers the way I usually do and mounting them on a plaque, what could I do to preserve this guy?

I had thought I'd give the pics to the taxi man after I get flush again. He should be able to do a mount with the tongue and the overbite, right?

European aint so tricky.
You can do it yourself. If I can do it anyone can.

If you want to do a European mount, just skin the head now. Get as much as you can out of it and hang it in a tree or something until spring. You may want to wrap the antlers though because they will fade to white from the sun. But that is fixable too. Cocoa bean stain brings back the original look again. Or you could skin the head out and boil it (soft boil) now. Stinky and messy process but it can be done. www.taxidermy.net has good advice on euro mounts. Check it out.

Euros aren't that hard if you have a 20-30qt pot and a fish cooker.

This must be done outside or the wifey will be slightly angry

-1 cup of powdered lemon scent dishwashing detergent per 10qt water.
-Remove the hide and the bottom jaw(I usually chop the jaw off with a hatchet)
-Bring water to a boil
-Set the head in the water with the horns above the water.
-Boil for 30 mins, remove, scrape off what you can, and put it back into the water for another 30 min.
-Remove from water, scrape again(I use an old fork), stir up the brain with a piece of stiff wire, and toss back into the water for another 30 min.
-Remove from water, scrape off everything, pull the remaining brains out through the rear of the skull, wash with a hose, and hang in the shop for a couple of weeks to dry.

I do several a year, heck, I usually have 3-4 in the pot at the same time.

The dishwashing detergent helps break down the flesh and also helps remove the oil from the bone to give a nice white look. If it's not white enough after dry, tape off the horns and paint the skull with flat white paint.

Good Luck

Reloader7RM

Congrats on the buck Shaman!

that is for sure!! Outside job for sure & stay up wind of the pot.

the brain extraction is my least fav part of the job, eyeballs are my second least fav part, the rest is all equally disgusting.

I have no doubt that this buck was shot for illegally immigrating from Ohio into Kentucky. Not so much for being ugly.
You know......

Yep, it's a s*&^y job, but somebody has to do it

I have a large deep freeze in the garage that I throw the heads in until I get a few to boil. Right now, I have two whitetails, 1 'lope, and a nice boar to do. I save them for a day after the season when not much is going on.

Another valuable lesson I learned this last spring is to not pour the nasty water on good grass. Our centipede sod didn't care for it and I had a nasty dead spot for a while

loder

Good thing I clicked on the link, I was going to say you looked fine for bein just shot. I think I would have taken him myself thinking he had to have been shot at one point earlier in his life.

Well, the garbage man was coming, and I got to thinking how bad I wanted this European mount, and I finally just sawed off the antlers and threw the rest out.

I figure when I get flush again, I'll have the taxi-man do up a mount using a cape and have him fashion the lower jaw to the picture.

Thanks for all the advice/warnings. In the end, I just was not into yuck. Maybe some other time.

Someone else in KY seems to have harvested a doe with a similar syndrome to the buck I shot:



KYHunting.Net