Hi Twanger,
You and I have shared many good tips on the How-To's covering many of the aspects of our crossbows customizations and too many other topics to recall, but I thought I'd offer a new one on an easy way to do the European Mounts that my brother and i have used several times.
If you want to take a couple of minutes and do your own Euro Mount try the following methods.
1. Using either an 18 Volt Cordless Sawzall or a manual Hacksawcut the deers
head off below the skull near the top of the neck vertebra.
2. Using a sharp knife cut up the back of the deers neck and around the base
of each horn removing the hide and skin from around the horns and over the
face.
3. Once all hide has been removed use your sawzall with a metal cutting blade
to make a single cut angling from the base of the back of the skull forward
to the back of the Jawbone. Remove the lower jawbone and then proceed
to use your knife to remove as much of the remaining tongue or other fleshy
parts as can easily be removed.
4. Take the remaining antlers and upper skull plate to an area where you can
safely dig a shallow hole and place the antlers skull down in the hole. It
should be deep so that when you place it in the hole and cover it with soil
you only have half of the brow tines and the remainder of the rack showing
above the ground.
5. This will now stay buried underground for the next 90 - 100 days. You are
allowing mother nature to perform the cleaning and whiting process of the
skull for you.
After the specified period of time you can dig up your trophy and either bond it or screw it onto whatever mounting plate you choose.
This is the traditional method used in Europe to perform the process.
6. If when you remove the rack from the ground it's not as white as you'd like,
simply mix in a bucket a solution of Clorox and water. Two cups of Clorox
should be plenty to the remainder of warm water. Allow to soak for a day
and then remove and rinse with water repeatedly to remove all Clorox.
You'll notice immediately that the skull is a bright white and the antlers are
very clean.
For those in a hurry; you can use steps 1 thru 3 and then you will require a large enough pot or container to hold the rack and enough water to cover the skull and rack.
Step 4 will require that you can bring the water temperature to a very low boil for 8 to 10 consecutive hours. This will boil off any and all remaining flesh and it will also whiten the skull and rack.
Step 5 will be to remove the rack after boiling has been completed. Examine and remove any remaining pieces of anything still attached and your trophy is again ready for mounting to your chosen mounting plate.
Hope this saves you a few bucks with the Taxidermist so maybe you can buy a few more good broadheads...LOL!
Jon
