What to do with the skull

[Scooter90254]

What do you folks do with the skull and antlers when you still have a week or so to hunt.

We got one first day of our Hunt last year and took the meat into town. Had the skull and antlers skinned and put it in the back of the truck. It was a giant mess to say the least when we got back to the truck 6 days later.

Just wondering if anyone had a trick or two for keeping the skull.

 

[Indian Summer]

Take the time to clean it up in camp. It’s not that hard. Skin it completely which means lips off and remove the tongue. Get the eyeballs out. Take the wire coat hanger that you remembered to bring and bend an L on one end. Insert it through the hole in the back of the skull to the brain cavity and spin it around to slice up the brain. Remove it and then grab the bull by the antlers and swing the skull with the hole away from you to fling the brains out of the hole. Keep repeating that until ALL of the brains are out because that’s key to being able to legally transport it out of state. If you want to get the last remaining flesh off then also skin out the roof of the mouth. That’s it.

 

[Wapiti1]

That about covers it. If you get the eyes palate, and brain out, with the meat scraped off, it will dry out and not by much of a mess later. Takes an hour or so to get one cleaned up.

Another option is to take the skull with the meat and have them freeze it with the meat.

Jeremy

 

[nphunter]

I agree with the above.

This is what mine look like when I pack them out. I’d rather leave as much as possible in the woods and not have to pack it, lower jaw, skin and eyes out, it’s amazing how much weight you save doing so and the extra 30min is well worth it.



You can easily boil the skull and clean it at a car wash if you are near a town or just pick it clean at camp. Some states don’t allow you to bring any spine or brain matter back home so it needs done before leaving anyway. I always haul the turkey cooker and bucket with me when I hunt out of state, it doesn’t take up much room and i normally already have propane anyway.

 

[wytx]

Hang it in a tree by camp after you get the tissues removed. Shade would have helped with that smell .

 

[wind gypsy]

Clean it up best you can before packing it out is the preferred method. It's getting to be that regulations mandate you boil it before transporting in a lot of places now anyway..

 

[Northpark]

I skin mine all out, take out the eyes, take off the lower jaw, cut as much meat off as I can, put it in a shady place to dry. The downside to this is that by letting things dry the skull will get stained and won’t be perfectly white once your euro mount is done no matter how good your taxidermist is. If you want a really good euro mount leave the skin on and freeze it with the meat at the meat locker.

 

[Elkchaser54]

What's the best way to get the head down to just the skull with lower jaw removed?

 

[Wapiti1]

Hit Youtube up on a video showing caping out a skull and you'll get the gist of it.

You need a knife, a comfy place to sit and some time. Other than using a wire to get the brain out, there aren't any tricks or best ways.

Jeremy

 

[Scooter90254]

Thanks. I did everything but the brain out trick and that’s what melted into the truck. At least it was my buddies truck. Haha

I hope we have that problem again next year.