Okay, so I killed a nice buck on November 18th. If I wasn't a poor military veteran/ college student, with a baby, I probably would have done a shoulder mount. However, that is not the case and so I needed to do this mount on the cheap. That is how I decided to do a European skull mount. Plus I just like how they look. I literally had no clue how to do this, nor have I ever done it before... but, country boys can usually figure stuff out one way or another, so I said what the heck and gave it a shot....
First: I cut the head off of the deer. I had no idea where to cut initially, so this was a fairly intimidating task. Let me tell you, it is not tough at all. Find the base of the skull as close to where it meets the spine as possible, trim back all the fur, meat etc., and cut the head off. Simple as that. Time: About 5 minutes.
Second: I placed the fully fur covered head on a table in my back yard and completely skinned it. Then, I removed the eyes with a small knife, and cut out as much of the meat behind the eyes as possible. Then I cut off as much meat as possible from the rest of the head, and kept cutting off meat and cartilage until I could remove the lower jaw. Finally, I scrambled the brains with a small paring knife and a toothbrush, and sprayed the brain cavity out with my garden hose. The brains actually came out fairly easily, and were the consistency of snot. By this point I pretty much feel like Jeffrey Dahmer, and I am counting my blessings that I do not have any close neighbors. Time: 1.5 - 2 hours.
Third: I got a large 5 gallon or so crock pot out of the kitchen that my wife never uses. I filled it up about 4/5 of the way to the top and added a capful of free and clear laundry detergent. This stuff is free of dyes and perfumes. I do not know if it matters either way, but this is the kind of detergent we have so it is what I used. (Let me add that free and clear detergent has given me the SAME EXACT, if not better results than the expensive hunter scent-killer detergent stuff, and it is wayyy cheaper.) Time: 5 minutes.
Fourth: I put the pot on my propane grill out back, situated evenely between 2 of the burners. I read that I should not 'boil' the skull, but rather cook it at an extremely hot simmer. I placed the skull into the water and submerged it completely, including about the bottom 1/4' of the antlers. I know people say not to let the antlers touch the mixture, but I had to get that hard to cut off skin and meat from around the base of the antlers to soften up, so that I could cut it off. Letting the water touch the antlers does not appear to have hurt them at ALL.
Fifth: Here comes the fun part. I let the skull simmer from 11 a.m. until 10 p.m the first day. I would take the skull out every 2 or 3 hours and scrape off more meat with a wire brush, paring knife, and toothbrush. After about 11 hours I ran out of propane. The tank was only about halfway full to start with. This essentially ended my escapades for the evening, and at this point I would say about 80% of the meat was off of the skull. Time: 11 hours.
Day 2: I headed down to the small gas station down the road and swapped out my old tank of propane for a fresh one. I dumped out the water from the day before, which was filled with deteriroated meat, and put fresh water in. This time I did not add any laundry detergent. I began cooking the skull again around 11 a.m. Just like the day before I would take the skull out every 2 or 3 hours and remove as much meat as possible. By about 10 p.m. I had all of the meat removed from the skull. Time: 11 hours.
Sixth: With all of the meat removed from the skull, it was time to degrease. I read several places that you can use Dawn dish detergent and hot water to degrease the skull. Well, all I had was "Ajax Super Degreaser". So, I filled the pot with another 5 gallons of clean water, about 1/4 of the bottom of Ajax, and placed the skull in it. After about 3 days of sitting in the Ajax I did not notice that any grease was coming out of the skull. I read that placing some heat on the skull will help with the degreasing process. So, I brough the operation inside to my wifes stove (SHHHH) and cooked the skull at a hot simmer for another 8-10 hours. Time: 3 days of waiting, and about 8-10 hours of doing.
Seventh: I purchased a bleaching kit from Cabela's for $19.95 as it had good review. The kit claims to come with enough to bleach 3 skulls, however I think you could realistically use it for 5 or 6 deer sized skulls. I mixed the bleaching agent and 40 volume peroxide provided into a paste, and painted this onto the skull. I allowed the skull to sit with the paste on it for the next 24 hours. Time: About 20 minutes.
Last: I decided that I did not want to mount the skull on a simple piece of wood as I see so often. Therefore I began searching and searching for the right piece of unique wood. I could not find anything on line that appealed to me, so I grabbed an old piece of drift wood that I have and mounted the skull onto it. I had a "wood pedestal" left over from the "Iron Buck" mount that I used for my 10 pointer last year. I simply drilled a 1/4" hole in the skull, approximately a half inch below the opening for the brain cavity. I then fixed the flat wooden part of the pedestal to the back of the skull, and affixed that to the 'slanted' part of the wood pedestal. From there I simply ran a wood screw through the back of the driftwood into this piece and it all tied together. I wish I could explain it better, but if you are doing it yourself it is really straight forward. Just look at it, and it will make sense. Time: 20 minutes.
Anyhow, here is the finished product:
Total Cost: About $50. (Propane, bleaching kit.)
Topic: My European Skull Mount DIY Project (Pics) (Read 1435 times)
