TheCoachZed
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Hey guys,
I shot a yearling boar this spring and buried the skull in a flower bed. Three months later, bugs have pretty much picked the skull clean, but his lower jaw has split down the middle. It looks like maybe he had some cartilage there that had not developed into bone yet, or something? Is this normal?
Anyway, I dug it up (obviously) and cleaned it up a bit more. Now it's soaking in a big pail of salt water in my backyard. Does anyone have any other low-cost suggestions that might aid its preservation? It's not a very big skull, so I don't want to sink any more than minimal money into it, and it's almost picked clean already. All that's really left is the cartilage in the nose/sinuses, and I'm not sure if that's a concern or not.
Also, I froze the hide after I skinned the bear. It has a big hole where I put a slug through his spine, and the edges are sorta ragged (my cousin and I butchered it, and it was our first time).
I don't want to put this on my living room floor or anything, but I thought it might make something cool to stretch in a rack and hang on a wall at a camp or something, like this http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2232/1755879798_fe9b67c88b.jpg.
After scraping any leftover chunks of meat off the hide, what should I do with it? Just let it soak in a bathtub full of salt water? Again, I don't want to do anything fancy with it, because it's by no means a prize pelt. I have time to kill occasionally, but not money, so any low-cost ideas would be pretty cool.
I shot a yearling boar this spring and buried the skull in a flower bed. Three months later, bugs have pretty much picked the skull clean, but his lower jaw has split down the middle. It looks like maybe he had some cartilage there that had not developed into bone yet, or something? Is this normal?
Anyway, I dug it up (obviously) and cleaned it up a bit more. Now it's soaking in a big pail of salt water in my backyard. Does anyone have any other low-cost suggestions that might aid its preservation? It's not a very big skull, so I don't want to sink any more than minimal money into it, and it's almost picked clean already. All that's really left is the cartilage in the nose/sinuses, and I'm not sure if that's a concern or not.
Also, I froze the hide after I skinned the bear. It has a big hole where I put a slug through his spine, and the edges are sorta ragged (my cousin and I butchered it, and it was our first time).
I don't want to put this on my living room floor or anything, but I thought it might make something cool to stretch in a rack and hang on a wall at a camp or something, like this http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2232/1755879798_fe9b67c88b.jpg.
After scraping any leftover chunks of meat off the hide, what should I do with it? Just let it soak in a bathtub full of salt water? Again, I don't want to do anything fancy with it, because it's by no means a prize pelt. I have time to kill occasionally, but not money, so any low-cost ideas would be pretty cool.
