Need help with a deer head

[sumpnz]

I finally managed to connect on a deer this year. Only took me 7 years of hunting to do that (I did get 2 cow elk in the mean time though). It's just a fork horn blacktail, but I'm not going to complain. It eats just as well if not better than a deer with a bigger rack.

I need some help though in dealing with the head. I'm not one for shoulder mounts, but I do like the idea of a bare skull with the horns. So that's what I'd like to accomplish.

I have 1 week with SWMBO out of town to find a solution. She is requiring that it be out of site before she gets home. I was going to boil it (mind you it's still a recognizable deer head), but it won't fit into my largest stock pot (a 5-6 gallon steel one left over from my homebrewing daze).

What do the denizens of THR recommend I do? Should I scrape it as much as possible and hope it'll fit in the stock pot? Bury it (antlers and all) and let the bugs take care of it? Just cut out the antlers/skull plate and pitch the rest in the garbage? Something else?

 

[Art Eatman]

No washtub? No neighbor with an old washtub? No second-hand junk shop around town where you might find an old washtub?

I'd skin off all I could and just lower the head into a five-gallon iron bucket, if that's at all available, and boil it. I'd cut enough skull off the back to remove the brain, for sure.

Usually, all I do is take a carpenter's handsaw and make an angle cut and remove the front part of the skull. Scrape it a little and let it dry. Once it's all dried out it won't stink. I then mount it on one of these el-cheapo plaque thingies from WalMart.

Texas has these big "red ants" which are wonderful for cleaning meat off bones. Rattlesnake skulls, bobcat or coyote skulls, birds' heads, etc. I've never tried them for a deer's skull, though.

 

[GJgo]

I recommend a mounting kit complete with borax or whatever it is they use to boil it in from your favorite store that sells such things. Then, I recommend getting a turkey frying pot & a propane bottle. Clean the skull the best you can. Boil it in the turkey pot (outside of course) for a long time. Note- the antlers will discolor if left in the water. Then you can clean more of the stuff off the bone, plus scoop out the brains. Repeat as necessary, clean, dry, and mount!

 

[Rembrandt]

Not a difficult process, remove the hide and eyes, submerse into a pot of boiling water for about 4-6 hours and power-wash the loose meat away. Just like slow cooking a roast in a crock pot, longer it boils the easier the meat comes off.

 

[shaggy430]

An easy way is to flesh it out and pressure wash it. It will come clean easily.

 

[RockinU]

Rembrandt's method is correct, although I usually remove the lower jaw before boiling. A taxidermist buddy of mine recently told me that before boiling he now puts the head in a plastic garbage bag with the antlers sticking out and hangs them (far away from his shop) for about 10 days and lets a crop of maggots work on it a bit, then pressure washes it. He says it cuts way down on boiling time, thus reducing the leaching of color from the antlers. After boiling I whiten the skull with industrial strength hydrogen peroxide.

 

[1/4MOA]

Ill add a couple of pointers but Rembrandt and RockinU said it well. Skin out the head, remove the lower jaw bone and the last vertabre closest to the head then boil it as Rembrandt shows. I like to use a wire brush to aid in getting some of the meat of while boiling. As far as the brain goes the whole that you made from breaking off the last vertabre is where the brain stem enters the skull. You can use a wire coat hanger and make it into a J form to help pull some of that out. but really once you boil it down you can just shake a lot of it out. Rembrandt might want to try this too. ....... Add a little joy or dishwashing liquid to you pot of boiling water. It helps in getting some of the fat to loosen up quicker. Once it is clean you will want to bleach it. I like to use womens powdered hair bleach mixed with hydrogen peroxide. Mix it into a runny paste and use a small paint brush to apply it. BE SURE NOT TO GET IT ON THE HORNS, or theyll be white too. Give it about 2 or 3 coats. Let it dry and it will crust over. Once you give it about 8 to 10 hours to dry go back and wash it with a hose and brush off the residue thats left or even power washing might be easier. Once you do these steps and allow it to dry you shouldn have any problem with it smelling.

 

[flipajig]

I boil it, clean it as best you can, use a pressur washer (with little pressur as posible)
go to a hair salon and buy some high power paroxide to bleach the scull. when boiling the scull add some landry soap to help kill the smell. mount to a pice of drift wood and there you go one mounted set of horns..

 

[sumpnz]

Done everything recommended here except the bleaching. Just haven't had a chance to get the chemicals yet. Looks pretty decent. When SWMBO gets back I'll post some pictures (she has the digital camera).

 

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

What Rembrandt said, except that after boiling for a few hours just like in the pic, and then removing as much meat you can with a knife, etc., then put it back into the pot of water and add hydrogen peroxide - it will eat out the last remains of gunk inside the skull, and unlike bleach, won't hurt the skull itself.

You can also just skip the boiling part and let hydrogen peroxide do all the work, but it will take longer.

 

[sumpnz]

Whether for Dr. W's recommended purpose or the previously mentioned bleaching purpose, what strength H2O2 should I be looking for? Normal antiseptic strength as found at Walgreens/CVS/Rite Aid is around 3-4%. Pure is, of course, hypergolic with organic material, so that's out. I'm assuming that somewhere in between is what I'm looking for? And other than the suggestions to get women's hair bleaching products where would I find the higher strength H2O2?

 

[flipajig]

A beuty shop. I got mine at the local hair dresser for 20 bucks..