NV Buck

[Mckinnon]

Looks good! Picture doesn't do it justice though

 

[Becca]

Looks awesome! Way to go 270Win!

Care to tell us more about the process? I have a pile of horns and antlers in our garage waiting for me to learn to do my own mounts

 

[backcountryBOSS]

nice buck. cool 3x3!

 

[270Win]

Here's a run down of everything we did from start to finish to create this european mount:
1. On the same day as the kill we took the flesh and as much of the muscle as we could off the skull and detached the lower jaw. We used knives, pliers and a flat head screwdriver. A picture of this is shown in the first post on this page.
2. Next, I left the skull outside so hopefully maggots would work on some of the remaining meat but because I live in Nevada I only found 2 after leaving it a week.
3, I used a power washer to get the brain and nose cavity cleaned out. This worked very well.
4. We then boiled a huge pot of water and let the skull sit for about half an hour (making sure not to get the antlers in the water). Then using the same tools as before i would scrape, rip, and pull as much as I could get off and then boil again. This was an all day project because of the need to boil, scrape, and boil again over and over. Not to mention, pretty stinky!
5. Once I got everything off of the skull, I let it dry for a few days and them rubbed whatever else remained off.
6. To make the skull whiter, I used 40% Peroxide (from the beauty store for a few bucks). I just painted on the peroxide, waited a few days, repainted the darker areas, waited a few more days, and then washed it off until the water ran clear.
7. Now to the mounting! I used the biggest carriage bolt that would fit into the hole in the back of the head and put it with the head inside the skull. I then held up the board to see the angle that I wanted the bolt to be at so that the mount would look good on the board.
8. I used chopsticks to force bondo into the brain cavity with the bolt inside. This was pretty messy, but I had to do it fast because the bondo sets in half an hour. I filled up as much as possible.
9. Once bondo has set, I put the bolt through the board and used a washer and nut on the other side to secure.
10. All done!