European Style Deer Skull

[poutpro]

Has anyone done a european style deer mount? I shot a little buck and tried on this last season just to try it. How do i mount the skull onto a board? How did you get the brain out completely?

[Tuckered]

I did it this past year and it worked out great. The brains get real mushy and fall out while boiling, but also used a small wire and moved it around inside ot get it clean then blast some water in it. then boil some more. get as much meat of the skull as you can. My lower jaw fell off so that isnt on my skull. I actually made a plaque for my with 2 platforms and a connection between, then used small drywall anchors( the ones that are metal and spring out after being put through the hole) 1 in the nose cavity and then 1 in the brain cavity and snugged them down to the plaque. it worked good for me but be careful. Good Luck

[poutpro]

i sat and dug out the brains for at least 2 hours when doing mine. even after boiling it they wouldnt come out too easy. next time i think i will cut a bigger hole in the back of the brain cavity. do you have you skully angled, or is it flat against the board?

[JEV]

I did my first European style mount this fall. I was really pleased with how it turned out. When I cut the head off I took a little bit extra off the back of the skull so the brains were actually exposed. They scooped right out. I then skun the head and boiled it in water with dawn soap for like 4 hours. I checked it every hour and scraped out/off any extra meat. When it was done boiling I used compressed air and blew out the nasal cavity to get any extra "goo" out of the skull. I then soaked it in a hydrogen peroxide and water solution for a couple days. The peroxide wasn't the full strength stuff so I let it soak a little longer. I hung mine without a board. I'll snap a photo this evening and post it up....

JEV

[Tuckered]

On mine the teeth and 2 bone pieces i think help the lower jaw hold mine tight to the board after the screws are tighted down. If I can get a pict. posted I will but not sure how to do it. The brain goo in mine came out real easy, the hole in the back of the head were the spine started was about a 1" so it was relatively easy after boiling for awhile.

[JEV]

Here is a couple of pics of my Euro mount. As I stated earlier I didn't use a board. I just looped a piece of welding wire through a couple of small holes in the back of the skull and hung it by a nail...

[poutpro]

did you make holes or what holes did you use?

[JEV]

Nope, didn't have to make any holes. There were a couple of natural holes already located in the skull. I just looped some wire from my Mig welder through the holes and hung it on the wall...

[Cooter]

I found out last fall that if you let elk skull and brains intact too long that you will get the nastiest mixture of peanut butter looking dripping brains and tiny lively maggots you have ever dreamnt possible

[Cooter]

Hey poutpro, I got some pics coming for ya soon.

[poutpro]

I was thinking about making a mounting board so that the skull would kind of sit at an angle from the wall. It would be looking out and down from the wall then. I just dont know how to make it stay. I dont want to drill right into the skull with screws. I might try to get something to just stick up into the hole going into the brain.

[BLACKJACK]

Jev, how did you get the white color like that?

pout, be prepared for the nastiest mess you ever saw. I did one this fall, outside on my grill, boiled for 5-6 hours, scraping it every once in awhile. The bottom jaw fell off, by the time it was done cooking, with a little scraping, it was clean. Then what to do with the stew? With my two labs around, dumping it was not an option, so I poked holes in a dog food bag, dumped it in, then burnt it. Then there was the pot to clean. Like I said, be prepared for a mess. It was so much fun that the eight point that I got during gun season got the traditional partial skull cutoff/mount.

[JEV]

I used just plain old hydrogen peroxide. The OTC stuff. I used like 4 or 5 bottles and filled the rest of a container with water till the skull was covered. I left it in there for a couple days. When I thought it was white enough I took it out...

[Dave]

I'm not sure the exact steps involved but, I do know that my taxidermy brother took quite a bit of time to do a mount like this. Here's mine.

[poutpro]

I've already done the entire skull it only needs to be mounted on a board. It wasn't too bad of a mess i didnt think. I just got the kit from Cabela's to get mine bright white. It turned out great. I left my teeth yellow and stained though. Thought that looked kinda cool.

[Dave]

ON my mount, he used one screw to hold the skull to the board. In a couple other places, a dab of silcone to keep it from spinning on the board.

[Anthony]

There are ready made boards for mounting the skull onto that hold the mount out a bit from the wall. I am in the midst of mounting one of these right now. do it as a hobby business.There is a complete kit that will do three skulls that can be bought through Van Dykes Taxidermy Supply that has chemicals that help get the meat off the skull during boiling as well as all the right materials for bleaching the skull. Buying 4-5 bottles of peroxide can get expensive. The kit creates a paste that you brush onto the bone and it bleaches it in less than a day. This kit runs about $50 and has one set of the board. It is item #01007504 at vandykestaxidermy.com. There are probably other sources for this as well.

You are very right, it is not a project for the squeamish.

[Nels]

My dad has done a couple of these.

He first tried the boiling pot and it wasn't real pleasant.

He now prefers to bury the skull in the garden and let beatles/maggots do their thing. You have to be patient and leave it buried for quite a while (several months to a year). Cover the antlers with cloth so that they don't get sun-bleached.

Once nature has taken its course, wash it off and bleach the skull with peroxide or dilute bleach.

[poutpro]

I debated on just letting the head sit on an ant hill or put it out for maggots, but what happens if a squirrel comes around and decides that he deserves the horns more than you?

[koWALLEYEski]

Then you go squirel hunting

[poutpro]

koWALLEYEski - how is you dad doing on getting that skully of mine mounted. I know he does good work, so I don't want to rush him. I know I'll be pleased when it's all over.

[koWALLEYEski]

Dont think he has touched it yet. He has been busy with work and whatnot. Im sure when he gets some down time he'll give it a look. I know he made some new boards for antler mounts. They are a really dark stain and it would look good with your skuller.

[poutpro]

I guess I'll just have to patiently wait.