Hunting with Mike

For those with sqeemish stomachs, please turn your head.  Oh it’s really not that bad!  Hunters deal with this sort of biological reality all the time.

Recently my son-in-law had his deer (6-pointer) made into a European skull mount.  The taxidermist, that did it, charged him $80.00!  It looked real unique, but I wasn’t about to give that kind of money up, without a fight!

I decided to do the mount myself, and as you see in the picture there is a little work involved.  I had to skin the head out, saw of the neck, clean out the brain cavity, and remove the tongue and excess meat.  I also removed the eyes from their socket, and this might of been the hardest part of the process.  The lower jaw still needs to be removed, but I may just include that in the boiling of the skull.  I have a propane burner and a large stainless steel pot for that particular step.

It’s too cold today (high of +6) to work in my unheated garage, but in a few days it’s supposed to warm up.  During the boiling process you need to make sure the antlers aren’t submerged in the water.  Also you need to add some liquid laundry detergent to help remove the fat.  About every 1/2 hour, remove the skull, let it cool somewhat, and remove everything that is loose from the skull.  Also the skull can be scraped with a hard bristle brush during this time.  Repeat this step until the skull is completely clean and ready for whitening.

Once I’m able to take the next steps, Ill report on my progress, and let you know if it was worth saving $80.00 bucks or not!  Just a side note.  I plan on using the hide, meat, and fat for coyote bait later on this winter.  I’m due to connect with one of those varmits this year!“

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 15th, 2009 at 11:05 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.