2020 European mount

[Deleted member 107796]

Hey all,
Just completed the european mount from the buck I harvested last Saturday. There was a great writeup in F&S a long time ago, on how to do this and it's a snap. Nothing fancy, he's rather right lopsided but has nice width. Cheers, mike

 

[DJ Fergus]

You did a great job. I like doing Euro mounts. It's cheap & I get the satisfaction of doing the work myself.

 

[Deleted member 107796]

Thanks! We did our first ones back in 2004 when my wife did most of the initial scraping work on 2 caribou bulls, which as you know, is the messy part. They can come out as nice as any pro would offer IMO and I like to use the Skull Hooker products for mounting.

 

[DJ Fergus]

I know there's a couple of different ways to do a euro mount. I dedicated an old gas turkey fryer to doing them. I fill it up to just below the antlers. Then put borax & arm & hammer washing soda in the water. Bring it to a boil and immediately back it down to a simmer. I let it simmer for about 4 hours. Pull the head out & scrub with stiff bristle brushes & tooth brush. Let it dry & keep reaplying hair bleaching gel over the course of several days until it's bleached white. It works pretty good and can have the mount done with in 3-5 days of harvesting the animal.

 

[OG10]

I have had really good luck cleaning the skull as best as possible soaking it in a 5 gallon bucket with Rid X septic cleaner 10 to 14 days pull out hose it off turns everything to mush and then repeat until spotlessly clean rinse then I'll sun dry done usually try to do it in the summertime when the RidX will stay nice and warm

 

[Deleted member 107796]

OG10, did you do any finish treatment? I see a bit of a shine on the skull.

 

[KurtB]

I use maceration on skulls. No heat, no chemicals. Just a 7 day soak in 90 degree water. Take horn sheaths off after 48 hours and then put those in borax powder to eliminate odor. After rot, soak skull in warm dawn water to degrease. Just did this one for my son. No need for scraping and picking meat, just let the water do it all.

 

[KurtB]

Few others I just wrapped up. Ordered some gel peroxide to use vs the thinner version. Should work easier.

 

[cynjon]

I have a buddy who does mine. He uses the hair bleaching products after boiling the skulls and they turn out great. One tip I read somewhere was to use some Mop-n-Glo on the horns...it gives them a nice shine, but more importantly, seals them up and they have almost no odor. I've had antelope horn sheaths that smelled terrible and sealing them up does a good job of eliminating the smell. Just be sure to pour some inside the sheath and slosh it around good before you reattach to the bleached skull. Here's my goat from 2019.

 

[KurtB]

Good looking skull. I like that mop-n-glo look on horns too.

 

[Deleted member 107796]

+1 on the mop-n-glo!

 

[manitou]

Just finished this up of my 2020 mule deer. Boiled in water/oxyclean/Dawn, pressure washed, then in hydrogen peroxide. Mop-n-Glow fan here too.

 

[flyguy1]

Very very nice. Much prefer these to full mounts.

 

[nmbarta]

Cheap electric pressure washer changes the game!!
Simmer for 2 hours, wash....repeat....done.
Pressure around 1000 and some care will keep the nose bones in perfect shape and actually clean them. Brains are easy to remove as well. ( don't ear cloths you care about, and wear a face shield)

Then 40 percent peroxide gel from your local beauty shop. The trick here is to buy the whitening powder and mix it in the peroxide gel. Paint it on and wrap it in saranwrap, leave it for 12 hours and then rinse. It only takes one treatment overnight and they are done.