Pot to boil deer head

[deer_hnter]

Tag

[WARHORSE]

Its an all day affair. Boil, pull out and pick at it, repeat. When you near the end it becomes very tedious. The more time you spend on it the better it will turn out. For me its about a 15 beer project

I must have done mine wrong it took me 16 beers

[coachcw]

bugs

[lastmk8]

I did this two years ago with a raghorn elk and the results were fantastic.  Like other have said, do not boil it, a prolonged simmer is all that is requried.  I also let mine simmer for much more than a few minutes at a time, a few hours probably, again, not boiling, just a mild simmer.  Borax does help with the grease being produced as you are "cooking away".  Will it stink.... yea, probably a little bit, not overpowering, but then again, it's just the neighbors right?  I think most of the "stink" will be the water you have to get rid of, so think of that beforehand. 

I probably did three good simmers over a couple days on the project, took my time, especially fishing out the remaining skull contents and nasal passage area.  In the end it came out great and I couldn't believe I had just done that myself.  After a few days drying out real good I then started applying the hair salon peroxide.  I think it was the Clairole +40 in a paste, it's really a thick liquid vice a paste.  Took care in doing that, again, probably three coatings of this stuff (don't forget the rubber gloves, this crap will do a number on "live human flesh".!!!  In the end it was a great project, first time I had ever done anything like it.  Can't wait to do it again, maybe a deer this time.  I had planned on doing that last year to a weird basket rack bent horn whitetail I shot, but before I got to it a varmit (probably a racoon) decided he wanted that head more than I did and ran off with it, tag and all still on it!!

Maybe if I find time this weekend I'll see if I can scrape up pics of the process and post them here.

[lewy]

  Here are a couple bt bucks, both boiled. Although not as perfect as some of the taxi's work on here, I think they turn out pretty darn good. Have never had an issue with them getting brittle. I am still fine tuning my de-greasing method.......

[Fletch]

Get together with your hunting friends...pay $50 on ebay for some bugs and start feeding the skulls to the bugs...Ive done the simmer and scrape thing for years...borax, pool grade peroxide etc....bugs are far easier...

[Blacktail Sniper]

Sorry to thread jack, but about how long does it take and how many bugs are needed to do a skull? 

I have a coyote skull in the freezer I'd like to do and wondering about which method to use.

[Kc_Kracker]

do bugs take care of the later creeping grease?

to the OP: a HUGE canning pot ot wally world is under $30, off CL prolly $20, its around 5 gallons but VERY wide

[sirmissalot]

Bugs don't help the degreasing process at all, macerating does help it along but degreasing is still needed.

I did the bug thing for a few years, not at all worth it to me. Macerating is simple and fairly quick, and you don't have to keep it heated year around to keep the bugs alive and feed them on a regular basis... Plus bugs stink. Macerating stinks but only for the week it takes to do a skull.

[lokidog]

Who would buy bugs?  Mother nature provides plenty.  None of my skulls seem greasy??

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I547 using Tapatalk 2

[SevenD]

Ive done three of mine and a couple of my buddies. Just kinda winged it, but they turned out all right. Ive tried the hair bleach before, but didnt seem to whiten them all the way. Thanks for the advice on the products mentioned, Ill have to try those to see if I can whitten them the rest of the way. Hopefully going to build some wall mounting plaques for them this weekend.

Any ideas on design???

[The Weazle]

I would think that a couple hour soak in some simple green would degrease it?     Not a complete skull under soak, but a good spray down and let it sit for a few hours? 

I put all of my skulls in a tree all winter...I skin them, pick as much as I can, then stick in the tree so it won't come out easily.  the antlers are kind of bleached, but a wipe down with varnish makes em look good, and kind of antique'ed...

[Muleyslyr]

Clearly you have got some good ideas from everyone. There's a lot of ways to do a euro. In my opinion why wait months for bugs or other things when you can do it in an afternoon while you're watching football? You can get a pot at Walmart or Target for $10-15. I use the side burner on my BBQ, outside of course. One suggestion if boiling it..wrap with tin foil the part of the antlers that are resting on the edge of the pot as they will sometimes blacken if over boiled. 20-30min max is all it takes boiling. The rest of the time is picking all the meat off. A scalpel works great btw.

[irishevox]

cabela's sells a kit online for like 59.99 check it out... all you do is set it in there plug it in leave it sit for 8 hours and done.

[Michelle_Nelson]

What some don't understand is, whether your boiling or simmering your degrading the bone of the skull as a result of the heat.  Especially the smaller more fragile bone, like the nasal bones.  Your also permeating the grease into the bone making it more difficult to get out.  The harsher the chemicals people use in the water to demeat and degrease aids in the degradation of the bone. 

Anyone ever wonder why there boiled/simmered skull has a chaulky surface? 

A quick spray down of any degreaser is not going to degrease any skull.  Your just going to degrease the surface.  You have to degrease deeper down into the bone.  That requires multiple soaks in a degreaser with regular changes. 

Bleach should never be used to whiten a skull.