Processing deer skull

Modern Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Modern Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

bowhunter523

Active Member
*
Joined
Aug 14, 2016
Messages
33
Reaction score
0
I'm wondering what a is a good way to process a deer skull for possibly doing a European mount

Sent from my SM-S820L using Tapatalk
 
I've done the very slow low boiling water method. Heat for a while then trim some meat off, then heat some more. Towards the end, I power washed the skull, being carefull of the nasal bones so you don't blast them away.

I did a slight whitening on this one with store bought hydrogen peroxide. My nephews have flesh eating beetles, I should get a nice 8 point back in a week or two, that's problably the easiest method if you can keep the beetles :D
835515ed-dec0-46f6-bf33-e01fc9d756b4_zpsazm6c4z9.jpg
 
I've done 2 deer skulls and a bear and they've turned out pretty good. First off if you live in town go over and apologize to your neighbors for the stench your about to release on the neighborhood. Devote basically an entire day to this. I find its a good day to organize the garage at the same time. Remove the hide and as much flesh as you can. Bring a large pot on a fish/turkey fryer to a low boil with a couple squirts of dawn. Put skull in there with the antlers out of the water. Then every hour or so pull it out and pic off more flesh. Use whatever tools you can. A piece of stiff wire with a loop on the end works to scoop the brains out. Also a garden hose works but sprays brains everywhere. This is very labor intensive and takes about 7 hours, but rewarding. Then when it's a 100% tissue free there is a bleaching powder you mix with peroxide that Mckenzie taxidermy supply sells that you coat the skull with. I found it works better if you apply while the skull is still wet. Wrap it with plastic of some sorts and let it sit. After about 8 hours rinse it completely with warm water.

There may be easier ways but this it what I do.
 
Boiling. This guy froze so I had to boil a bit first to remove the hide.


Before paste


The one on the right is the most recent one. One on the left was done about 7 years ago without the paste. And also took a fall and busted his nose up.



Both shot out of the same stand.
 
Kind of off beat, but I collect oyster shells for reef restoration. If you cover skull completely with them, I usually build wire box, by mid summer have a perfect, clean intact skull for bout 30 min work. If you can collect oyster shells from local restaurant..
 
Nice work guys. I've done a few with the simmering as well. I use Sal Soda and Dawn in the water. The Sal Soda you can get a taxidermy supply... makes for ALOT quicker job, probably half the time. I've not whitened any of mine with paste, might try that...they look super nice.
 
Delaware Dave said:
Kind of off beat, but I collect oyster shells for reef restoration. If you cover skull completely with them, I usually build wire box, by mid summer have a perfect, clean intact skull for bout 30 min work. If you can collect oyster shells from local restaurant..
Never heard of that. What's in the shells that do the cleaning or is it for the whitening. Do you have to break them up?

I've done the simmering and usually use Arm and Hammer soda in the water.
 
After researching Sal Soda, I had my wife pick up some Arm and Hammer super washing soda, it looks to be the same stuff. I'll hopefully get to try it out in a few weeks :D
 
It allows and encourages natural insect and bacterial breakdown of soft tissue. (Also snails seem to love shell piles?) but prevents rodents and ground contact from damaging skull or antlers.
If you are patient , needs couple months of warm weather.
I have not been disappointed with results, but they will still need whitening.
Personally kind of grossed out by manual removal process, and I do all my own meat processing
 
And just leave them whole, the shells are then reused in reef block and added to one of my sites to provide attachment areas for new generations of oysters.
 
Delaware Dave said:
It allows and encourages natural insect and bacterial breakdown of soft tissue. (Also snails seem to love shell piles?) but prevents rodents and ground contact from damaging skull or antlers.
If you are patient , needs couple months of warm weather.
I have not been disappointed with results, but they will still need whitening.
Personally kind of grossed out by manual removal process, and I do all my own meat processing
Thanks for the info.
 
BuckDoeHunter said:
After researching Sal Soda, I had my wife pick up some Arm and Hammer super washing soda, it looks to be the same stuff. I'll hopefully get to try it out in a few weeks :D

I couldn't say...might be, or might be close enough. I bought 5lb of it many moons ago from a taxidermist for like $10. Done quite a few skulls over the years, and have plenty of it left. I use about a cup and half in the pot of water. Sure makes the stuff roll off faster.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top