Cleaning deer skull

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DH Driver

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Anyone have a good way to clean a deer skull for a euromount? I know I could boil and bleach it etc... I was reading about using mealworms from a bait store instead of flesh eating beatles, anyone tried this?

Thanks
 
cabelas has peroxide kits that work well... boiling will make the teeth loose. never tried the mealworms, I do know people who leave them out in the summer for the bugs to do the work, but you may loose color on the rack if left in the elements for any length of time.
 
Laundry detergent works well. Soak the skull in a bucket of water with a small scoop of detergent and leave it in a warm spot ( room temperature), replace the water daily and give the skull a brushing. This removes a lot of the grease as well.
 
No experience with using bugs but I have done a few in the past with OK results. I skinned, cut off as much meat as possible then boiled. Added laundry detergent after the first one as fat will stick to the skull\horns and is hard to remove after. Skim off fat as it rises. Tin foil around the horns wrapped tightly. It is easy to overcook, especially the nasal bones. To me the difference between OK and great is the finished condition of the nasal bones. If you watch it closely on a slow boil, carefully trying to pull out the cartilage as you go it will give better results. I used peroxice afterward to whiten and it worked well. Hope this helps.
 
I too am preparing to do this for the first time and have not yet started. I hope this doesn't sound to stupid but what about the brain. How do you get that out, is there a big enough hole where the spinal cord would attach or do you need to break open the back of the skull a bit.
 
that is a lot of work..if you are not in a hurry, i have put mine in an ants hill and checked each day. excellent results without a mess and even brains are gone, no smell and then sun bleached after puting the antlers in green garbage bags to protect the colour.
 
i skin them take what left of the spine off clean out the brain and eyes then boil whats left off

its worked so far on everything from coyote to deer

ive thought about beatles but its alot of upkeep
 
Lye or Draino. The real sodium hydroxide that is white milky colored crumbs or white/cloudy liquid. Sprinkle a little in your bucket and it will clean the bones right up. Fill a bucket with water and sit the skull in it (horns up) until just the base of the antlers are above water. Then add enough drain cleaner to turn the solution foggy while stirring from the side. Let it sit for two weeks. It will dissolve everything including the brain and eyes into a greasy gunk without rotting. Then you give it all a good rinse with a sprayer and repeat for another two weeks but this time add a quarter cup of bleach before adding any lye. You will have a nice white skull with the teeth still attached and all the fleshy bits removed. I would still suggest using a hypodermic needle and cyanoacrylate adhesive (krazy glue knockoff) to cement the teeth though.
 
ff33 said:
I too am preparing to do this for the first time and have not yet started. I hope this doesn't sound to stupid but what about the brain. How do you get that out, is there a big enough hole where the spinal cord would attach or do you need to break open the back of the skull a bit.
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Put a piece of heavyish wire (like coathanger) with a small bend in it through the spinal colunm hole and pretend you're bating eggs. Flush with water as you go or use a pressure washer to get the brain out, Carefull for backsplash as it can get messy.
 
I just throw mine in with the chickens, LOL.
Got to remove the hide but they get most of the bits. Obviously the brain need a little more work to get cleaned out.
 
Winnipeg Toymaker said:
that is a lot of work..if you are not in a hurry, i have put mine in an ants hill and checked each day. excellent results without a mess and even brains are gone, no smell and then sun bleached after puting the antlers in green garbage bags to protect the colour.
Click to expand...

Ants can do the best job of anything I have seen. No mechanical means will ever get into all the nooks and crannies that the ants can.
If you have access to an ant hill in the summer, just keep it in your freezer until spring. Wire the skinned head down good by an anthill, so an animal can't take it, then pull it up after two or three months, the ants will have it well burried, and you will be amazed at how clean and how white it is.
 
I've found getting the brains out is much easier with the ear canals and drums removed. Gives you access for a screwdriver/hook/whatever to remove the final membrane.

Have used dishwasher powder for the boiling to separate the grease. The laundry detergent sounds worth a try too.
 
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