I have a deer head in my garage that i just killed last night. is a european mount hard to do by urself?

Question

how long can i keep the head in the garage

Answer 1

Before the Deer head starts to smell you need to cut out the skull cap & rack.Soak the skull portion ONLY, in liquid Chlorine Bleach for at least 2-3 days.The bleach will take care of the smell and then you must scrape off any remaining tissue..(A wire brush will help remove any remaining tissue), and re-soak in more bleach for a few more days. Once ALL remaining tissue is off, rinse the skull thoroughly with water and let dry. The skull portion should be clean and white in color after you are done. Mount it as you wish once it is cleaned and dry.....

Answer 2

It's classic 1500 year old European decor. The classics never die. Castles, Manors and Great Halls would have been remiss had they not included mounts as decoration. It really is an honorable thing. It's actually a way of continuing to not let a piece of the animal go to waste, even if all it's good for is decoration. If you are not too enthused by hunting, look at it this way. Purchasing a used mount may save the life of a deer!

Answer 3

A Europen mount is just the skull cap and the antlers. No skin. The easiest way is to first saw off the skull cap and clean as much skin and meat off the skull cap as you can. Then put the skull cap in an ant mound for a few days. They will clean it of all meat, and leave it clean as a whilstle. Once they have it cleaned off, you can dip it in some bleach water to remove any residual odor and to whiten up the bone. Let it dry and then it is ready to mount.

As for how long you can keep it in your garage, your nose will soon tell you when it has been there too long. If you can stand the smell, you can leave it there for several days because you won't be saving the skin anyway.

Answer 4

I'm assuming when you say European mount that you are talking about the skull and antlers. There are a few different ways to get the skull cleaned off, and the easiest would probably be to find someone who has a colony of those beetles that eat all of the stuff off. You can also hand it in a tree, and have the birds pick all of the flesh off, but then you have to worry about it falling out of the tree. I did a buffalo skull, a couple years ago, and it was buried, but totally picked clean when it was dug up. If you bury it, you need to remember where you buried it at.

Answer 5

The horns and 'cap' is not hard but time consuming because the horns need to thoroughly dry which takes about 2 months. Doing the entire head mount is very tricky & best done by a professional; check around for pricing.

As long as it is freezing, it will keep. Anything above freezing and it will start to deteriate (and smell). I wouldn't wait longer than the weekend to get it attended to.

Answer 6

You want the flesh and meat to break down on the skull for easy removal. This will stink to high heaven unless your temperature in there stays near or below freezing. The directions on the link below is how I have done mine and it works just fine. And far less smelly.

http://www.minnesotabucks.com/tips%20cleaning%20skulls.htm



And here is a link for a kit to make a European mount.
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0022126226094a&type=product&cmCat=search&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&No=20&noImage=0&Ntt=taxidermy&Ntk=Products&QueryText=taxidermy&Ntx=matchall&N=4887&Nty=1
Have fun!
Oh and JD is right too. Got to admit the guy knows his stuff!
Just remember to remove the brain or things will get real stinky later on. :)

Answer 7

My father did a buffalo scull and we boiled it then left the head in the back yard so the neighborhood cats could pick at it.

Answer 8

Good info so far-you can also use a pressure washer (or car wash wand?) to remove some of the meat/skin, etc.

Answer 9

It needs to be frozen within a day or so of dying