Euro Mount Question

[lonewolf93]

Shot a buck this past season but it was guts/liver and it is a real thick and nasty area. Long story short I found him 3 months later and started my first euro mount this past weekend.

I soaked in water for about a week, then went with boil and dawn soap method. I have 90% meat off skull but the stubborn areas in back of skull have a meat left that I have been picking at. Not sure if that meat is just really stuck in there since it sat outside for 3 months or what.

My question is - should I re boil for another hour or so and hit with pressure washer again or let it soak for a few weeks/months?

Would appreciate any advice!

 

[philos]

I would boil again with some powdered detergent. I would do a slow boil-not too hot-and let it set for a few hours then scrape off what you can, then pressure wash if needed.

 

[Ramem7mm]

Pressure washer should work. just be careful not to go to crazy with the pressure washer as it will blow small bones to pieces or cut through bone too. You can get hair style bleach from a salon supply store and it will bleach the skull white

 

[aftriathlete]

Not an expert, but I've done an axis buck skull and a billy goat skull in the last year. Billy goat skull was brutal to get the base of the skull clean. IMO, extra simmer time plus pressure washer is a combo made to lose. If it were me and I really wanted to be careful, I'd simmer (not boil) for another 30 min at a time with some powdered detergent in the water, then take it out after every 30 min and check it. By check it, I would use a pick and wire brush to clean up the back of the skull you said is the issue. If there's still tissue on there that won't come off with a pick and wire brush, give it another 30 min in the pot.

 

[Joseph2186]

Youd be better off just macerating the skull.

 

[Caseknife]

Add a box of baking soda to the dawn dish soap and simmer 3-4 hours. The baking soda turns stuff to jell.

 

[MallardSX2]

Put the head in a slow cooker with water filled up to the burls. Add a cup of 20 mule team borax soap.

Anything attached to that bone will be gone in 24 hours.

Then, tape off at the burls and spray paint it white. I spray paint all of my euros. They look great.

 

[WCB]

If it is just the stuff around the ridges on the back of the skull...put it into the "boiling" pot for 10-15minutes then get after it with the power washer. That part of the skull is thick and you should be able to slowly move in the nozzle until you blow the soft tissue off. I had a skill hanging for about 9 months never scraped a piece of meat on it. The stuff on the back of the skull was like a rock...30min on a simmery boil and power washer cleaned it right up.

 

[30338]

In future I'd macerate those as long as it took to rot it all off. After the hide is soft, put on gloves and cut that all off. Then back in the rot bucket till its clean. Might take a month but it'll clean. Then soak in warm dawn water for a few weeks. Then peroxide.

Where you are now, I think the advice of boiling till the remaining meat softens and pressure washing is your best bet. Once you soak in dawn water its hard to get the maceration going again. Only do that once skull is clean and you need to degrease on future stuff. Then break out the peroxide and whiten.

 

[Coopsdaddy]

I cut most of the hide off mine and put head in bucket of water for the last couple months changing the water every 3/4 weeks.Took out and buried up to antlers.
Will report back in a month.

 

[mathews8pt]

I would try to keep it closer to a simmer than a boil in my experiences. I use dawn to help get the fat/oil out of it. Pressure wash every 30-45 min. Once clean you can coat in Mop&Glo to whiten

 

[wapitiwilly]

I use a cheap electric pressure washer before the boil, in-between and after the boil. They are a lot lower pressure than the gas powered ones, so you don't destroy the skull.

 

[wapitiwilly]

I would try to keep it closer to a simmer than a boil in my experiences. I use dawn to help get the fat/oil out of it. Pressure wash every 30-45 min. Once clean you can coat in Mop&Glo to whiten

I agree! Make sure to simmer it. A boil will weaken the bone and make it chalky.

 

[Ramem7mm]

Boil/ Simmer and then pressure wash is the easiest thing to do. Waiting for rotting is a long and stinky process, and this will also allow more of the fats to absorb into the skull which creates more of the yellow greasy hue as opposed to the whiter cleaner look. Last season I shot a buck brought it home, next day cleaned the skull, boiled, pressure washed and whitened and was done is just over 24 hours. Its super easy and doesn't stink with no maggots.

 

[caseybratten]

We have always boiled, but next year we're thinking about waiting till everyone is done killing and go in on some beetles together. The museum of Osteology in OKC uses beetles to clean and it works great, but they charge 180 bucks a skull.

 

[Rich M]

Pressure wash it?

We have so many ants down here, put a trimmed skull on top of an ant mound and they do the work for us.

 

[mattflipper]

I’ve found that the pics that dentist use to clean you teeth work really well to get those are to deal with pieces. Wife brush as someone mentioned helps.

 

[Sitkaspruce]

Use a cheap sous vide off Amazon, unless your wife is ok with you using the house one....

Set it 155-165 deg and simmer away. Add some Oxi-clean and dawn and check every few house; remove any loose stuff and repeat until clean.

Then turn down to 130-140 and degrease with the same stuff.

Once it is clean and degreased, I set it is sun to whiten. I have gone to this method and leave the skull natural, no whitening. I prefer the natural look over the "plastic white" that some turn out like.

Cheers

SS

 

[30338]

This one had dried leather all over it but was surprisingly intact. Soaked 9 days, skinned it, soaked another 10 days. Degreased in dawn water for a week. Then hit it with peroxide. No boiling, no simmering, just patience and 90-100 degree water.

 

[mi650]

I have one buried up to the antler bases right now, since mid-October. I'm gonna give it until August or September and see what I've got.