Burying a Skull

[alabjr]

3 hours ago, Recurve hntr said:

Yup super glue works fine. Every now and then when I do one the nose bones come off. I put a little super glue and push nose bones back on. 

Thanks, what do you think about me hanging it in a tree for a couple weeks for the flies/maggots to finish it off? Does that sound like the right thing or is it unnecessary? Or should I have done something else entirely?

[Recurve hntr]

I can honestly say I’m not sure. I did two skull mounts for a buddy that left the whole heads outside for months. They were partly eaten away by maggots. I boiled them like I normally do a skull after I’ve skinned it. Than used 40 grade peroxide on them and put them in the sun. They came out really nice.  It probably wouldn’t hurt anything. They way bushden explained on here is pretty much the way I do mine.

[LittleM]

On 5/20/2021 at 8:00 PM, Kype said:

these are two i did. the noses are only broken from moving twice and my daughter accidently knock it off the wall.

I've replaced broken nose bones from other deer I've shot and even from found skulls.  They all fit together pretty closely 

[Zone50BugNerd]

45 minutes ago, alabjr said:

Thanks, what do you think about me hanging it in a tree for a couple weeks for the flies/maggots to finish it off?

Google “cold water maceration,” it’s how I finish mine.  I let them all rot out in a covered garbage can filled with dirt and leaves all winter, spring and usually well into summer; then I pull them and soak them in the garage can.  Sure as hell isn’t the quickest,  but I’ve never been in a rush and this method always seems to get everything off and ready to be cleaned and bleached.  

[alabjr]

45 minutes ago, Zone50BugNerd said:

this method always seems to get everything off and ready to be cleaned and bleached.  

How do you go about cleaning and bleaching? I was thinking about doing white spray paint but I’m kind of nervous about the paint running and looking terrible. Maybe bleaching would be the better option. 

[Zone50BugNerd]

Just now, alabjr said:

How do you go about cleaning and bleaching

Dawn dish soap, just give it a good cleaning and scrubbing and that seems to do it.  As for bleach, I just get hair bleach from Walmart and brush the paste on, throw it in the sun for an hour and I’m done.  It doesn’t get stark white, close, but still some patina on it.  I don’t mind it, although I know some do.  My method is not for impatient folks, but it is likely the least labor intensive; just let time and nature do the work.  

[alabjr]

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone! Ultimately I wound up doing the following with the skull of my first deer kill ever (a doe back in December on opening day of the 6 day):

-buried the whole head (with hide on and everything) for almost 7 months

-dug it up and cut away a bunch of residual tongue and whatever else was hanging off, then hosed it down the best I could (don’t own a power washer)

-felt like there was still some “cheese” caked on, so I hung it in a tree for a couple weeks in a plastic bag with some holes for the flies to get at it

-took it down, hosed it off again, and scrubbed it with a brush and dish soap the best I could. also scraped away some harder to get areas with a razor blade especially after using a screwdriver to crack off the ear canal bones

-bought a gallon of saloncare 20volume 8% peroxide clear (liquid, not cream) bleach and submerged half of the skull in the only pot my wife would let me use lol, and brought it to a slight boil 

-kept an eye on it, flipping it every half hour or so for the other half to get submerged. did this for about 3hrs until it looked like the pics in whiteness

-hosed it down one last time and left it in the sun for a few hours to dry

-mounted it on a discarded piece of wood I grabbed a few weeks back from a neighbor who put it out for the town’s bulk day. Used a white zip tie as a loop (that I threaded through openings just under where the spine connects to the skull) to hang on a screw I put in the wood. Simple and very discreet.

I have to admit I don’t know if I will ever go through all of this again. Since I won’t be keeping any more doe skulls as trophies (only did this one because it was my first deer ever), I’m thinking of just capping the top of the skull that connects the antlers when I hopefully harvest some bucks in the future. But who knows, when I walk up on that first dead buck I might feel very different and reach out to @bushden for a euro mount or @JerseyJaysTaxidermy for a shoulder mount, who knows! Lol thanks again everyone for all the info and help on this. 

[Buckeyes11]

^^^^looks good! 

[Rusty]

That came out real nice!!   

[MightyOak]

Well done congrats

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[Nanuk]

Looks great but you definitely went the long route . I do a few each year for myself and friends . I follow similar procedure as Bushden, 2 days and your done .  

Edited July 11, 2021 by Nanuk

[alabjr]

12 hours ago, Nanuk said:

Looks great but you definitely went the long route . I do a few each year for myself and friends . I follow similar procedure as Bushden, 2 days and your done .  

Honestly, I would’ve went that route but my wife was 40 weeks pregnant with a scheduled c-section just a couple days after I shot the doe. I wasn’t confident enough that she wouldn’t go into labor by the time I was done dealing with it. Also, it being my first time I wasn’t sure if I’d require more time to figure it out, fix any mistakes, etc. so I figured just bury it and I can worry about it well after my daughter was born and the craziness of life that came along with that! lol

Another fear was that boiling can make the bones very brittle (or so I’ve read), and I wasn’t confident in my ability to handle it correctly since it was my first time. 

Yours look great btw!

[Tuck]

Looks good to me.  Well done.  Another way you can mount is just using a log with diagonal cut to mount to.  Can sit on any flat surface and 10 secs with chainsaw!!

[alabjr]

8 minutes ago, Tuck said:

Looks good to me.  Well done.  Another way you can mount is just using a log with diagonal cut to mount to.  Can sit on any flat surface and 10 secs with chainsaw!!

That looks really awesome and unique thanks!

[hemlock]

Looks really good!