Antelope Skull Maceration

[treillw]

Want to macerate an antelope skull for my first time. At what point do the antelope horns usually fall off? It would be a lot easier to macerate if you could throw the whole skull in a bucket.

Any tips?

Thanks!

 

[MuleyFever]

My last ones pulled off after about an hour of boiling if I remember right. Could you boil it until they pull off first?

 

[treillw]

My last ones pulled off after about an hour of boiling if I remember right. Could you boil it until they pull off first?

I've heard that boiling kills the bacteria that makes maceration work, but I'm no expert.......

 

[treillw]

Anyone know of a decent cheap souvide machine?

 

[ElDiablito]

I don’t macerate - I boil (not quite boil - 200 degrees or so). Way easier. Yeah, you should be able to twist the sheaths off after maybe 30-40 min if the head is fresh.

 

[ElDiablito]

Anyone know of a decent cheap souvide machine?

You could use a crock pot if you want to really speed up the maceration.

 

[ericacymcdonald]

Anyone know of a decent cheap souvide machine?

Not sure what a sous vide machine cost but I'm doing a deer skull right now using a fish tank heater and a 5 gallon bucket.

 

[cnelk]

If you put the antelope skull in a black plastic bag and set it out in the sun a few hours, they will sweat and pop right off.

 

[Carlin59]

Had an interesting learning experience this year. Did the black bag trick to get the sheaths to pop off. But, I didn’t have the time to sous vide then skull so just left it in the bag for a month. This was unskinned, lower jaw on, no prep work done beside pulling sheaths. It stunk bad for a few weeks but then the smell died down. I checked it after a little less than a month, and the fly larvae had it almost perfectly down to the bone. Basically like beetles do, except no burying. Just neglected it in a black trash bag in the sun for a month. Really saved a lot of time on skinning/picking away at the back of the skull during the sous vide process