skinning out a skull.

[cmc]

I shot a dink this year and wanted to skin out the skull and do an European mount. Anyone have a writeup on an easy way to go about this?

I figured I wanted to practice skinning the hide off as if I was going to take it to get mounted so I don't just want to hack it off.

thanks in advance.

cmc

 

[Blacktail boy]

Hey buddy,
I just finished a few european skulls from this year, Most taxidermists prefer a tube skinned neck with a Y incision just big enough to get the horns and skull through the hole. basically just skin the face, but good tips to remember are use a screwdriver to pry the skin from below the burrs of the antlers, I file a slight edge on mine, this way the taxidermist doesnt have to sew any cuts you might make doing this with a knife. Poke your finger into the eye and cut deeply around it so you dont cut the eyelid, (most common mistake) and if your finger is in there you surely wont cut it. I cut the nose off when I start to reach the cartlidge , leave the skinning of the nose to the pro. And then cut the lips all the way to the teeth , leave all that fat lip for the taxi man , he needs it to tuck into the manican.
Now the fun part , boil the whole skull for half hour, pull the bottom jaw off, you dont need that , it rips right off after boiling. fire up the pressure washer and blast off whats cooked. boil again for half hour or so this time with some simple green or sodium carbonate , these hel[p degrease it , pressure wash again, use the 45 degree tip for the outside of skull and use the extreme tip or pencil tip to blast out nasal cavities and brain , try to hit the antlers as little as possible with the solid stream tip. Be careful of the fine bones at the ends of the nose, if they come off use super glue to put them back in place.
and you must apply the bleaching agent while the skull is still saturated from pressure washing it really gets it alot whiter that way. You can order the bleaching kit from cabelas , its very easy to use and explanatory . I would order the plack from research mannikins, they are beautiful, 1-800-826-0654,they are from lebanon oregon , I love the P-800 size 9x13 $12.95 it works perfect for blacktail sized deer . Mounting it to the plack takes some figuring but after the first one youll have it figured out. good luck ,Jon
also a pistol cleaning rod with all sizes of brass cleaning brushes work really well on getting the dried bleaching agent off the skull , set up a vaccuum cleaner to suck that dust up while your brushing it off, you dont want to breathe that in your lungs . and wear safety glasses and rain gear while pressure washing, the water will blast back into your eyes and make your vision foggy for the rest of the day.

 

[twister50]

Thanks for the advise, need to do the same for the deer i shot this year.