I want to do a european mount. I don't want to do the boiling because I don't think my stomach or my neighbours could handle the smell. I have heard a few alternatives that I have never tried but sound like they may be worth a try. Reviews also say n

[bowhunter75richard]

Today I scrubbed them with an SOS pad and dishwasher soap. All the hairs came off. So now I need to glue up the cracks, varnish and glue on the horns and I’ll be done

Hair does not grow on bone. If there was still hair anywhere, it was because of tissue that was left remaining on the skull and was not completely removed ! If all tissue is removed, you should now be good to go ! Good luck !

[Ontario Honker Hunter]

Finishing up a mission impossible moose euro today. The guy stripped most of the meat off the skull and then threw it on top of a shed ... two years ago this fall! What a mess. All tissue is dried up to leather. Pulling the hair strips left around the antlers was not fun. Finally resorted to vice grips and peeled it loose that way. I bought a metal trash can, sealed up the handle pivots with hi-temp silicone, and cut notches so the skull would drop low enough that the lid could be replaced. Left the skull to soak for a week then put it on the propane burner and boiled it for at least an hour. Front half from antlers down to nose has cleaned up fairly well. Today I'll tackle the back half of skull and finish cleaning off some of the gristle around eye sockets. This has been an awful project and we were reluctant to take it on but client was willing to pay the extra bucks for us to give it a go. It's not a fantastic rack but an unusual one with some stray points hooked backwards. Not sure we can bleach the skull enough to cover up grease stains. May have to paint this one. We'll see. And yes, it was quite the smelly job but not anything the neighbours next door noticed. Pouring the goo down the toilet in the house was a real gagger. One tooth fell out during the boiling when I was scrubbing the skull with steel brush. Foolishly, I should have pulled the skull away from the pot. Tooth fell to the bottom. It cracked during the boiling and we lost part of it (disintigrated?). Chalk it up to learning curve. When the tooth is replaced and skull attached to plaque, the missing cap won't be noticeable.

Use plastic ties to pull the nose septum back together for gluing. We use super glue. Let it set overnight before removing the ties. You may need to clean/brush up excess with steel wool as the glue is quite shiny. Glue gun works well for putting the horns back on. Super glue is too thin and leaves too many gaps. Hard to get it to hold. The African taxidermist used window glazing putty to reattach most of my skulls' horns. Kinda messy though.

[IanS]

2 bison
3 goats
2 pigs

Finished 1 goat today.

[FirstBubba]

Looking good!

[IanS]

Finally done

[FirstBubba]

Finally done

Ian, finished product looks good mi amigo!
You never said. What state are you in?

[Ontario Honker Hunter]

Here's the moose euro completed.

[IanS]

Alberta Canada

[FirstBubba]

Alberta Canada

Far out and groovy, dude!
Are the skulls "finds" or "kills"?

[IanS]

They were all domestic raised. Friend saw the bear I did and asked me to do a few for him. The bear was road kill

[FirstBubba]

Looks as though you did about as good as can be done.
From my limited knowledge of Euro mounts, if the water gets too hot, the skulls separate.

This is the outfit my buddy loaned me to do my whitetail with.

https://www.cabelas.com/shop/en/the-...B&gclsrc=aw.ds

No reason you couldn't purchase a larger container and set it up with an adjustable thermostat heating coil.

Good job!

[IanS]

I did not boil mine or use water for the process at all. I drilled holes in a barrel and just put water in the bottom few inches to keep it humid. Flies got in and with that comes maggots. They are amazing skull cleaners.

[IanS]

One thing I’d add is that I did not skin the heads at all. The maggots removed everything. Brain, eyes, etc. The heads went into the barrel completely in tact.

[FirstBubba]

One thing I’d add is that I did not skin the heads at all. The maggots removed everything. Brain, eyes, etc. The heads went into the barrel completely in tact.

How long did it take?
With my deer head, I skinned the head out, removed the eyeballs and the tongue. The "boiling" (not really a boil) took about 24 to 36 hours. Then about $5 worth of quarters at the car wash.
I hung it to dry for a couple of days, then a long, skinny chisel and a set of forceps to remove cartilage.
Total time, maybe a week.

[IanS]

With the bear it was in July. Once the maggots showed up which took about a week it was meat free in 4 days. I hosed it off and put it back in the pail for about 1 more week. Maggots showed up and then drastically reduced after about a week.

Then I washed it in soapy water and left in water for a few days changing the water every day till maggots stopped floating to the top.

Then soaked in peroxide about 3 days. Then glued teeth in with crazy glue and glued up the cracks.