Horns [Archive] - Hunt Chat

gspsonny03

12-28-2006, 07:25 PM

I'm not real sure about your question. If you're talking about antlers with a partial skull cap, or like a European mount with the whole skull or just the antlers themselves?
There are a lot of methods and most of them are hard work especially if the animals has been dead a while. First off you need to get the hide off which means skinning every thing you can and then trying to get as much flesh off as you can. If you let it dry on the skull you may have to boil it. Making sure you don't get the horns in the water, because they will fade to white. Don't want that. You could buy beetles and let them eat any flesh that's left on. That takes a while, but less work for you. Even with this method my son and I still skin and flesh the skull. Don't know if this helped or even answer your question. Hope it helped.

Dom

12-29-2006, 09:05 AM

I'm not sure I understand the question either, but if you want to know how I prepare skulls, this will give you an idea of what's involved for what is commonly known as the European mount. Sounds like you only have a small piece of skull left, so if you peel the hide off (use an exacto knife w/pointed nose pliars, and keep your fingers clear -- lot of grisle and tough hide on top) boil that keeping antlers out of the boiling water should be a very simple procedure, Waidmannsheil, Dom.

First cut head off exactly where it connects to neck – a general cut around hide at this point (just behind ears) into the crack and twist it off. Remove hide, eyes (needle nose pliers and exacto knife), lower jaw (swings out down and back), scrape any large pieces of meat (tongue, esophagus, etc), and ‘fish’ out brain with bent wire.
Place in a bucket of cold water for a day – drain and replace water at least once. This takes some of the blood out and will help eliminate ‘dark’ spots on the skull.
Next day place in pot large enough to submerse; use wire around antler bases to hold just at water line (I use a couple of vise grips which clamp the wire to the edge of the pot). Fill with water and a little dish soap, and boil for 30 to 60 minutes depending on size and how hard you boil it. Replace evaporated water to keep at base of antlers.
Once this is done, rinse off good, let cool to the touch and then scrape off all remaining gristle, gum lines, cooked meat, brain casing, etc as best you can. Also, cut out the soft bone (cartilage) in the nasal passage, then let dry for a day or two, or until you have other skulls to bleach. I usually save them up and do 3 or 4 at a clip.
Last step is hydrogen peroxide – I use a 30% solution, and like has been previously stated, wear rubber gloves because it will turn your skin white and burn. Cover entire skull with dry cotton – hold in place with rubber bands. Place the skull in a shallow aluminum pan (like a small cake pan) and pour 30% over cotton – spoon works good to do area near antlers because you don’t want to bleach them. With 30% a couple 2-3 hours is good, then take all the cotton off. If the sun is out, it works great in making it really white, but it will be white even without it.
There is one step you can do after skinning and removing lower jaw, and that is to take a saw and make an angle cut just under nose bone to base of skull (sideways, but don’t cut to high or it will look ‘funny’ mounted on a flat trophy board because the angle will be wrong). What I usually do is make the cut after they are completely done – I take the skulls to a shop where they have a band saw and belt sander. Makes it easy, nice straight cut – especially since you’ll be cutting through the top of the upper teeth. The belt sander works great for getting the bottom really flat. There will then be a point under the inside where brain and nasal bone meets – this is where you want to put one screw through the plaque and into this solid point to hold it on the board.