Moose Down 778m

[Broz]

Thanks for all the feedback from everyon. Am going to work up a Retumbo/215 hybrid load over the winter for the 300 WM.

In most 300 win brass I have tested I have found H-1000 to be hard to beat with heavy bullets and 26"+ barrels. There are a few quirks with Retumbo I have experienced over the years I prefer to avoid. Just tossing this out there for what it's worth.

Jeff

 

[.284]

I use hydrogen peroxide to whiten the skull for a European mount

 

[Scrubbit]

Thanks 284. I've heard that.

 

[Scrubbit]

In most 300 win brass I have tested I have found H-1000 to be hard to beat with heavy bullets and 26"+ barrels. There are a few quirks with Retumbo I have experienced over the years I prefer to avoid. Just tossing this out there for what it's worth.

Jeff

Hi Jeff, I'd love to be able to test both, but where I live, I have to pay a couple hundred $ shipping on every order of powder so I went with a bulk buy of Retumbo as it gave max velocity. Still have 3 1/2 lbs of 4831SC left as well. One drawback to living in the middle of nowhere. What sort of quirks have you had with Retumbo?

Eli

 

[MontanaRifleman]

I use hydrogen peroxide to whiten the skull for a European mount

That sounds interesting. I soak mine in Borax and it cleans the flesh off. I usually let it soak for a few days or so then change out the solution to finish it off with another day of soaking. Then let it dry and oil it with a tongue oil or similar oil.

Here's a little whitetail and antelope buck I did a while back.

Color is washed out a little on the antelope, actual color is a little more natural yellow. The Whitetail is not quite that yellow

 

[MontanaRifleman]

Hi Jeff, I'd love to be able to test both, but where I live, I have to pay a couple hundred $ shipping on every order of powder so I went with a bulk buy of Retumbo as it gave max velocity. Still have 3 1/2 lbs of 4831SC left as well. One drawback to living in the middle of nowhere. What sort of quirks have you had with Retumbo?

Eli

I know Jeff has had a couple issues with Retumbo but my experience has been good so far. Only issue I had was changing lots and saw about a 50 fps swing in velocity for same charge in my 300 RUM frrom 3400 to about 3350 shooting 180 E-Tips

 

[Scrubbit]

Hi Mark,

I like the way you took out the fine sinus bones and mounted it on an oval. I didn't even skin the head, just boiled the hell out of it for a day and peeled everything off. The ravens went nuts! They're big as hawks up here. Left the head out back for a couple of days after boiling it, and between them and the camp robbers it was nice and clean. Should have put borax in the water to make it whiter. Others here do it with dishwasher detergent. Good to hear about Retumbo. I'm curious what Jeff has run into.

Eli

 

[.284]

That sounds interesting. I soak mine in Borax and it cleans the flesh off. I usually let it soak for a few days or so then change out the solution to finish it off with another day of soaking. Then let it dry and oil it with a tongue oil or similar oil.

Here's a little whitetail and antelope buck I did a while back.

Color is washed out a little on the antelope, actual color is a little more natural yellow. The Whitetail is not quite that yellow

My taxidermist told me that's what he does. I boil the skull to get the meat off then soak it in the hydrogen peroxide. Tricky part is getting around the base of the antlers without touching them

 

[MontanaRifleman]

Hi Mark,

I like the way you took out the fine sinus bones and mounted it on an oval. I didn't even skin the head, just boiled the hell out of it for a day and peeled everything off. The ravens went nuts! They're big as hawks up here. Left the head out back for a couple of days after boiling it, and between them and the camp robbers it was nice and clean. Should have put borax in the water to make it whiter. Others here do it with dishwasher detergent. Good to hear about Retumbo. I'm curious what Jeff has run into.

Eli

My taxidermist told me that's what he does. I boil the skull to get the meat off then soak it in the hydrogen peroxide. Tricky part is getting around the base of the antlers without touching them

No boiling for me, just soaking. A taxidermist told me about this method. I used to soak them in a bleach solution but it would sometime eat away at the bone. And yeah, got to be careful soaking around the bases but usually cant help it getting the bases soaked a little. I have redone all my antlers for one reason or anther anyway with a product another taxidermist recommended.

When I tried to clean the blood off the antlers of my 326 bull elk, it washed off the dark rubbed in dirt and resin and I ended up redoing to whole big set. I went back to the area to get the soil which was darker than most and rubbed it in with this stain product. looks perfect. The bulls in this particular area have much darker antlers than most other elk because of the very dark, almost black soil. Turned out so good I redid all my antlers including pick ups.

 

[Broz]

Hi Jeff, I'd love to be able to test both, but where I live, I have to pay a couple hundred $ shipping on every order of powder so I went with a bulk buy of Retumbo as it gave max velocity. Still have 3 1/2 lbs of 4831SC left as well. One drawback to living in the middle of nowhere. What sort of quirks have you had with Retumbo?

Eli

I understand. The issue I had with it was pressure spikes. If I loaded it up to max to get that little extra velocity, what was fine today would be too hot with a stiff bolt next week. Even in the same lot. It just seemed to have pressure spikes when running close to max. I preferred H-1000 as it seemed to be the same powder all the time, every time, if you use the same lot.

jeff

 

[Scrubbit]

Thanks. I'll keep an eye on things approaching max. We have big temp swings here as well, so will have to have 2 to 3 different loads to keep the velocity/pressure in the right range. I'm not going to try for the 3050 that you get with your custom action/barrel. Will aim for just below 3000 and see how it shoots. I know the guys at ATRS are shooting the 210s right around 3000, although they have custom barrels/chambers. Am tempted to re-barrel to 338 Edge after this next season. Will see.

Eli

 

[Broz]

Thanks. I'll keep an eye on things approaching max. We have big temp swings here as well, so will have to have 2 to 3 different loads to keep the velocity/pressure in the right range. I'm not going to try for the 3050 that you get with your custom action/barrel. Will aim for just below 3000 and see how it shoots. I know the guys at ATRS are shooting the 210s right around 3000, although they have custom barrels/chambers. Am tempted to re-barrel to 338 Edge after this next season. Will see.

Eli

The last two 300 wins I set up got high 2900's with 26" barrels and H-1000 with the 215's. The short bearing surface of this bullet makes for some easy velocity. I think you will get there.

Jeff

 

[WildRose]

I call him Drybones. My wife says he can't live inside yet as he still smells just a touch, so he'll live in the garage and get bleached every few days. Will mount him along with the bullet that went through his heart once he's certified non-smelly! Got the 215 hybrids in. Crazy long bullets. Can't wait for next year.

Be careful with the bleaching, it will cause the bone to break down and get powdery.

What I used to do when preparing specimens for our biology department collection was to boil the skull for ten minutes in a 50/50 water/pinesol solution, then rinse well and let it soak in just plain tap water for a few days to leech out the rest of the pine sol.

Once finished with that and having it completely clean boil up a saturated salt solution using sea salt or rock salt, cut the heat, set the skull in it and let it just sit there for 24 hours.

Once finished with that it'll be the prettiest, cleanest, brightest white skull you can imagine and will last literally for centuries because the salt will prevent any bacterial activity.

 

[WildRose]

I found that Borax worked very well to clean skulls and is not as harsh on them as bleach.

Yep, Borax works very well.