My question is prompted by the following quote written about kudu horns specifically:

"I sure wish they would rot the skull, whack the horns with a rubber mallot and pop them off, THEN boil the skulls!! We'd all have much nicer end products from our taxidermists."

Now, at PH school we were taught how to do field treatment of skulls. After various discussions with some South African taxidermists my field treatment now consists of the following basic steps:
1. Skin and cut off as much meat, eyes & tissue as possible. Twirl a forked wire in brain and spray and shake out all brain tissue with water pressure from hosepipe.
2. Soak a few hours in clean water, and ten change the water to soak some more in clean water to get most blood out.
3.Soak overnight in saturated salt solution.
4. Remove from salt solution let it drain for a bit in shade and liberally rub a fine grained salt on surface where possible plus fill brain cavity and sinus cavities as far as possible with salt.
5. Leave to dry in shade.

A skull reated like described above does not really smell and IMHO is ready for delivery to a taxidermist.

What is understood by "rot"-ting the skull? Who does it, the Hunting Outfitter or Taxidermist? What are the advantages? Disadvantages?

In good hunting.

Andrew McLaren

First off if you remove the horns the way some are asking you to do and don't put them back on the skull and core right away they will not easily go back on after drying.
Horn will shrink smaller than the diameter of the horn core.
Some will never come off because of the inner or outer curl or boss on them. Example: Hartebeeste, Cape Buff, Wildebeeste ect
If you don't boil the skull you most likley will not get it past your vet inspection or the USFW or USDA here in the states.
Just Boil them, but not for hours and hours.
30 minutes in boiling water will get all the meat cooked off and do little damage to the horn.
Maseration will take you weeks to get them clean enough to ship out of country.

You can get your kudu horns of the skull by getting the WHOLE horn in the water, you need to cook the core inside the horn all the way to the top then they will fall off. NO MALLET REQUIRED.

It's just my two cents and my opinon tho'

I would agree that simmering them for a short time (bring water to a boil, then cut back the heat) should do no damage. However, I think one of the problems is when the water is used over and over for multiple skulls. The water gets really greasy from all the melted tissue/oil from the skull. This oil soaks into the horns and stains them very dark.

Also, it could be that the skulls/horns may leave the hunting camp in perfect condition only to be re-boiled (or overboiled) by the dip/pack folks.

I would say some things to avoid are:

dirty/greasy water
excessive heat
too much time in the pot
too much time in the sun

Andrew, it sounds like your field treatment is fine. There could be several things going on at the dip/pack that could cause problems. I would think rough cleaning a skull and treating with salt is fine in order to get it to the dip and pack/taxidermist. It has to be cleaned/dipped much more than that in order to be shipped.

If I may add a few notes; steaming is a very viable option to remove horns but few foreign shops have the ability or desire to operate in this manner. That being said, as Dennis and Grafton mention, one must submerge the entire horn(s), reduce the heat to below boiling and DO NOT over boil. It won't take long for the horns to come off, and while the skull is being cleaned (even if it takes a little longer to simmer) the horns should be put into a separate container and covered with water that has been treated with a bactericide. Once the skull is clean, it can be allowed to dry along with the horns. Horn color in most animals will need to be restored by the Taxidermist, but I would never oil horns of any kind. Other products can restore natural luster, stain or satin finish.
LDK