I've never done a european mount, so I decided to practice on a young doe whitetail I shot last week. It was a young animal, probably 9 months or so. I scraped off as much from the skull as I could, got most of the brains out, and boiled. Basically, the skull came apart, getting rubbery, etc. and then breaking off the snout. What happened here? Thanks

cengel, I am by no means a pro at doing european mounts but I just finished 3 and they came out very nice.
How long did you boil the skull?
I had mine at a simmer for around 1 hour and they cleaned up nicely. I would think if you cooked a skull too long it might do as you described.
HTH

"boiling" should only be used to kill the bacteria. It's very distructive to the skulls.
I recommend sending skulls to professional cleaners that use dermesties beetles. An average whitetail buck will run under $100, including your shipping. Check out Skulls Unlimited on the web.
If you REALLY want to do it yourself, trim the flesh, pull the eyes and wip the brain with a bent wire in a drill motor and wash it out. Fill a 5 gallon bucket with water and set the skull in it. Every couple of days,.... take a deap breath and hold it..... and pour the water off, rinse the skull with your garden hose on full blast,......dont breath yet......and fill the bucket again, and place the skull back in. You can breath now..... Continue the process until all the flesh is gone.
Now you can boil for a few minutes.....then rinse. Place the skull in some bleach water for an hour or so, and rinse again.
From the beauty supply store, by some powdered whiting and liguid bleach that the gals use on their air when the bleach it. Mix up some paste and brush it on the skull. Let it set for an hour or two and ......yep....rinse it again. Now set it in the sun and let it dry.
Good luck...... and dont forget to hold your breath!

Cengel,

This is why I'm a big fan of burying the skull in the garden and taking it out in the spring. It takes longer, but you normally don't run into problems unless something makes off with the skull. I don't have that problem.

Your problem was probably a combination of boiling too long and this being a young deer.

The way I do the mount is to skin the head so that I can see what I'm doing. Next, I cut off the lower portion of the skull. What you want to do is look at or imagine the skull in profile to get a picture. I run my cut at an angle that takes off the back teeth and the back of the skull, leaving approximately a 1/4" gap in the orbital bone (I wish that I could draw a picture, or had a picture, sorry). The object is to get everything to sit flat on the backing. From here, I flesh the skull, remove the little bit of brain in the top part of the skull, and remove the eyes. Then I bury it in the garden and cover the antlers to prevent them from sunbleaching or getting gnawed on by squirrels.

When I dig it up in the spring, the wee beasties have picked the skull clean. I hose it off, brush the skull, disinfect it, make sure that my cut is even by sanding on a flat surface, and then cut out my backing to affix it to.

Here's what I have done with hogs and such. Fill a porous bushel basket about half full of soil and really soak the soil to maintain moisture levels in the contraption. Place the skull in the basket on top of the soil and tie or wire another basket on top of the other to keep various neighborhood cats or other vermin from smelling and messing with your trophy. Let nature take its course. I try to moisten up the mix every day or so with the hose (don't get too close as it will stink) and in about a week or so, the skull will be completely clean. Yes, you will have a stink and plenty of flies and maggots to contend with for a week but if you have a big yard or really hate your neighbors, you should have no problems

Regards,

JohnTheGreek

Thanks guys.... I realize now I probably had it cooking too long... Also, like I said it was a very young deer. (Tasty tasty tasty ) I think that had a lot to do with it, too. I've still got a pronghorn head in the freezer and wanted to get some practice......

Pronghorn?????? Now you have a new and different challenge ahead of you.
The "horns" will have to pulled and the "stuff" between them and the pedicals will have to be cleaned.
You might try placing the skull, after skinning and cleaning, in a plastic bag for a few days. A black bag in the sun will take less time.
Now....take a breath and open the bag and pull the horns off. Try a twisting motion if they wont pull off. Hopefully the "stuff" will stay on the skull, but make sure you clean the inside of the horn. 20 Mule Team Borax works well to help bug proof them.
Now clean the skull they way you pick from the above posts. I would boil the skull and horns for a bit to sterilize. Bleach the skull.
After the horns and skull are very dry....glue the horns back on to the skull.
Epoxy type is best, but hot glue will work. Bondo is a good thing to use also.
Before you attach the horns, spray the outside with WD-40 with several light coats, letting it soak in between coats. Wipe of the exess.
Good luck and have fun!

GAHHHHHH!!!! All you folks do your own skulls???? My husband have some out being done right now, never occurred to me to attempt ourselves, thank goodness. Don't you worry about the neighbors dropping in whilst you have a skull a brewing on the stove?

~Judy

Good luck!

Judy, I'd have to say that boiling the skulls would definatly be an outdoor project,,, it does create an odor I'd not want in the house..

dogcatcher,

I agree that boiling will work if done properly but you underestimate my laziness. I am in academia so actually working is not high on priority list. I would much rather let nature clean a skull for me rather than actaully clean it myself.
Further, I boiled a badger skull once in my aunt's house. She was NOT happy with the smell that hung around that place for about a week.

Johan,

Yes, the method is perfect. It works well with the skulls and keeps neighbors somewhat afraid of you.

Regards,

JohnTheGreek