Euro mount made easy...

[Broomd]

So....wife and I both took bucks this season, no giants, but fine deer. We had seven bucks on the property per the trail cams and killed the two biggest.
We normally euro all the deer we kill except for the really special shoulder mounter..

I skinned the skulls on these two bucks and my neighbor pressure washed them. Voila! ...
I have a good pressure washer, but he has done this before and his washer has a special ceramic tip. I'm going to investigate further and will report if there's an interest in this. Sure beats the mess of scraping and boiling! These were done in ten minutes!

 

[bsnedeker]

I've started skinning and burying my euro mounts. I really like the look after a few months underground... antique finish.

Left is last years buck, right is the one I just buried... I'll pull it out in the spring.

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[Broomd]

Yeah, I've done the 'bury' method. It works! I like my skulls bright white and clean, just my preference.
Ten minutes with some water blast seems like the ticket unless a guy has dermestid beetles awaiting chowtime...

 

[flinginairos]

Never could get behind the burying method. I guess I’m just impatient lol. I normally boil them a few hours and most of the meat falls right off. Still a time consuming process tho! I will try the pressure washer next time. No boiling required at all with the pressure washer?


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[Squirrels]

20 minutes in a rolling boil, take the pressure washer to it. Pressure washing will take a few minutes becasue you have to get in every crack and crany. Let it dry over night. Mix up some 50v or 40v developer with a little basic white and apply with a cheap paint brush, wrap in aluminum foil or saran wrap for a few hours. Unwrap and rinse thourghly. Less than 3 hours invested total and you get this.

 

[Broomd]

Never could get behind the burying method. I guess I’m just impatient lol. I normally boil them a few hours and most of the meat falls right off. Still a time consuming process tho! I will try the pressure washer next time. No boiling required at all with the pressure washer?


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No, these two heads were ten minutes all-in with the washer. No boiling needed, and I loathe the 'boil'...just a gross gig all around.
One of my wife's pots is permanently disfigured-oval from my many heads in it.

This new method will be 'it' from now on.

 

[EastMT]

I’m def interested as I always boil also, that would be much easier without the boil mess.


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[danmayland]

Just for gee wiz. I’ve been doing euros for 20+ years. I exclusively use the pressure washer method but only after at least a 30 minute boil with a degreaser. It’s important not to skip this step especially with bear and antelope skulls. Try to remove as much of the brain as possible with the pressure washer before the boil. Boiling can bring out the oils in the skulls which will give you whiter skulls that won’t turn yellow over time. The majority of those oils come from the brain.

Also be careful pressure washing out the nose cavity not to destroy the delicate nostrils. After pressure washing and completely removing all the meat/cartilage then submerge the skull in warm water and prepare a peroxide bath of 80% peroxide. Place the skull submerged in the peroxide/water solution. Leave it in the bath for as long as you like. Up to 3-4 days if you want ultra white. You can wrap paper towels under the antlers/horns to draw the peroxide solution up around the bases. I use small plastic totes for my skull baths in smaller animals and a larger tote for elk/moose/buffalo. You can use the paste method mentioned above also but make sure to keep the skulls wet until you apply the paste or bath.


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[MuleyFever]

I am a euro guy all the way but hate that long boil. Have used the pressure washer at the car wash to get the nostril clean. I couldn’t care less about the fine bones in there. I will have to try the short boil/pressure wash method.

I have also been considering a pressure washer purchase. Anything I should look for in one?

 

[Squirrels]

I am a euro guy all the way but hate that long boil. Have used the pressure washer at the car wash to get the nostril clean. I couldn’t care less about the fine bones in there. I will have to try the short boil/pressure wash method.

I have also been considering a pressure washer purchase. Anything I should look for in one?

I have tried several methods, from boil all day and widdle away a little all day, simmer several hours and then pressure wash, to the short rolling boil and then pressure wash. I have had by far the best results from short rolling boiling then pressure wash. Dan mentioned getting the brains out prior to boiling and that is a good idea. Go to the hardware store and get brass fittings for your standard garden hose. Get whatever you need to get from the standard water hose down to a nipple that you can attach a 6" piece of 1/4" clear vinyl hose to. Put that on your garden hose and stick it in the cavity at the back of the skull. It creates enough pressure to get those brains out and won't blow it all over you like the doing it with the pressure washer will.

 

[MuleyFever]

I saw a video of a guy blow the brain out with an air compressor. He put a bag over skull and stuck the air thing through the bag into the cavity . Blew the brain back into the bag. Worked well with no mess.

 

[Squirrels]

I saw a video of a guy blow the brain out with an air compressor. He put a bag over skull and stuck the air thing through the bag into the cavity . Blew the brain back into the bag. Worked well with no mess.

That will work too

 

[danmayland]

I saw a video of a guy blow the brain out with an air compressor. He put a bag over skull and stuck the air thing through the bag into the cavity . Blew the brain back into the bag. Worked well with no mess.

That’s a good idea. I never thought of that!!


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[EastMT]

I really don’t like the peroxide bleached style, I like a little color. When the bears teeth are bleached so white you can’t see them, that’s too much. I’ll just lightly boil, blast, then scrape a few hard places loose, call it good. I will try the no boil method, I have a small bear skull in the freezer that I haven’t messed with as it’s pretty small, good experiment


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[30338]

I've got about an hour in this one. No boiling.

 

[El_fuego]

I like that look of the bury method, never seen that. Gonna have to try it.

 

[Fitzwho]

I’ve switched to a rolling boil then pressure wash. Bought a $100 Ryobi pressure washer that fits in a cabinet.

The Raptorazor guys sell a fitting for a drill that you insert weed eater string in to blend up and remove the brain. It works really well and saves a lot of mess in the boil.

For antelope, or if you tape off a deer’s antlers a scoop or two of Oxy-clean helps pull the flesh away from the skull and makes pressure washing easier.

With all the above I can skin and have a skull down and ready for peroxide/whitener paste in about and hour and a half. I usually keep the water boiling and switch back and forth between the boil and pressure washer as I need a break from getting brain matter splashed in my face.

 

[Loebs]

I have been doing a low boil and blast off with then hose for the last few skulls. It works well, but I would like to get one of the small electric power washers. Our gas one has too much pressure. I did these three from this year in just a few hours. I also coat them with mop 'n glow to protect them. No yellowing at all and it really firms up the skulls.

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[Ruttin bux]

Marked

 

[NUKE]

We have heads in the ground year round. Takes about a year for the critters to work and replace the ones we pull out in the fall with the new ones. Gives them a cool look and they come out pretty clean. I don’t paint them. I like the rougher look. Leave the antlers above ground and cover with a water trough or some 5-gallon buckets if they’ll fit.