Best Way to Clean a Deer's Skull?

rideauwrangler

rideauwrangler

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Bagged my first buck last week and I can't afford mount but I'm going keep the skull and antlers. Can all the hunter's tell me the best tricks of the trade for cleaning off/cleaning out the skull and preping it for indoor display.
 
catnthehatt said:
Clean off as much as you can, then boil it over a low heat in water with washing soda - don't boil the antlers though!:eek:
Cat
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Others have told me to boil it but I guess I don't understand how boiling the head will get the brain and all the scrap inside the skull out.
 
If you use a bleach solution for finishing and it splashes on the antlers, dont worry as brown boot polish can work in very small quantities and I buy all sorts from STS in North Wales. I boil my skulls for an hour or so, and then jet wash the crud of them. I'm building up a small trophy room at home. European deer of course so I cut the skull unless its of to the taxidermist and mount on a shield.

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These are waiting shields.

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Freshly done on top of their pelts.

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Part of the old wall!
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This one had velvet on still!

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I must get a new camera as this one is dying!
 
I saw a guy on tv who used to preserve/display skulls for a living and he used to have buckets of soil with different insects (beetles, worms) that he would drop the skull (from a roadkill for example) into. The insects would clean it off pretty good. So if it was spring/summer, I'd say burry it in the backyard, give it a month or 2 and dig it up and then bleach it.
 
DEFINATELY the burying method is the easiest, albeit the one that takes the longest.

My aunt is an artist who specializes in painting skulls. She's tried every method under the sun, and burying it for about a year gets them VERY clean.
 
super7 said:
I saw a guy on tv who used to preserve/display skulls for a living and he used to have buckets of soil with different insects (beetles, worms) that he would drop the skull (from a roadkill for example) into. The insects would clean it off pretty good. So if it was spring/summer, I'd say burry it in the backyard, give it a month or 2 and dig it up and then bleach it.
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I'm also familiar with this; I think it's called "verma-compost" or something like that.
 
rideauwrangler said:
Others have told me to boil it but I guess I don't understand how boiling the head will get the brain and all the scrap inside the skull out.
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You have to love what you're doing to get all the crap out!:D

I see Davey put a link to the thread I did last week (thanks pal!;) )
If you skip through to the second last page you can see where I popped out the ear drums for much better access to the brain cavity:
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I used the Cascade dishwasher powder instead of baking soda as it does not froth. Three water changes (might be a bit anal) and a 15 minute boil to each water change gave me this result. No bleaching was done at all, this is how it came from the water the last time! By far the easiest and best result I've had in 10 years of monkeying with cleaning skulls.:cool:
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It was soaked in very cold water and scrapped very clean before the hot water sessions began.
 
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Noel said:
You have to love what you're doing to get all the crap out!:D
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I am glad to have a friend who does all my skulls for free, he is a skull cleaning nut case :runaway:

I always buy him something when he is finished and he is always happy. I even let him keep the brain soup, god I hate that smell!
 
"...don't understand how boiling..." Ever made chicken soup/stock from scratch? Same thing. Boiling, simmering for 8 + hours actually, takes all the meat, fats, etc, off the bones.
 
Not too much!!!!

sunray said:
"...don't understand how boiling..." Ever made chicken soup/stock from scratch? Same thing. Boiling, simmering for 8 + hours actually, takes all the meat, fats, etc, off the bones.
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Caution! Too much boiling will make the skull come apart at the seams, I've found that out the hard way.:(

Noel
 
Crazy skull cleaners....

crazy_davey said:
I am glad to have a friend who does all my skulls for free, he is a skull cleaning nut case :runaway:

I always buy him something when he is finished and he is always happy. I even let him keep the brain soup, god I hate that smell!
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Hold the press! You have found a great friend!:eek:

I bet that friend would do a couple skulls for you in trade for a double square bridge mauser action!:p


Noel
 
I saw a jig advertised in a German hunter's catalogue that was a vise for the antlers and a saw slot like a miter box. The idea was to clamp the head and saw off the 97% of the carcass you can't hang on the wall. When the season is as many as the huntmaster and landowner want killed, a fellow could have a lot of deer to shoot.
 
maple_leaf_eh said:
I saw a jig advertised in a German hunter's catalogue that was a vise for the antlers and a saw slot like a miter box. The idea was to clamp the head and saw off the 97% of the carcass you can't hang on the wall. When the season is as many as the huntmaster and landowner want killed, a fellow could have a lot of deer to shoot.
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We have those here plus skull clamps to help hold the skull at the right place for boiling out.

Ever since my wife came home and found me boiling out my first skull in our new kitchen I have done it out doors on a gas ring. Well she wanted it out of the freezer!
The company is jagersport, google it and the address is Petersfield in Hampshire, they are very good if expensive (a good note for quality) another is Attleborough Accessories!
 
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Friend of mine advised against the boiling, years ago. What he would do was skin the head, clean off as much meat as possible with knives, etc. He would pull the eyes out with needle nose pliers, clean the brain out thru the back of the skull where the spinal cord comes in.

Once he had as much as possible off he would set the head in the sun (and elements-preferably up on a building or suspended so cats , etc. wouldn't get at it) and let it 'dry' for a week, month, etc. Then every once in a while , esp. on a nice sunny day, he would set down with the skull, couple small knives , lite up a dubey and pick a way at what was left. Then back in the sun . Then lite up a dubey, pick away agin . Usually took about 3 dubeys :D .

I've used the same method, minus the dubeys.

Nicest , for an early deer, is simply peg it down in an anthill.
 
The carrion beetles work the best. Most biology departments at universities have one.
My room mate at university was studying field mice and used to put all his specimens in the beetle colony to clean them up. Works like a charm
 
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