Stinky deer head

[MontanaHunter222]

Hey friends, looking for a bit of advice. I got a fairly nice buck this year and intended to euro mount it. Unfortunately, a friend died right around that time and my wife also had a baby. With all of that stress, I never got around to prepping the head to do a euro mount. I just stuffed it in a plastic bag and set outside. It’s been frozen most of the time, but not always, so it’s pretty gross now. The hide is still on.

If any of you have any great advice for how to make the process less awful now that everything is stinky, I’d love to hear it. (I’ve done several euro mounts before, but I have always gotten the hide off immediately.) I’m guessing that I’ll just have tough it out.

 

[jpcoll01]

Maybe you could just bury it? We had some antelope one year that we left sit in the heat for longer than we should have but it really helped the meat come off the skull easy. Know anyone with beetles?

 

[Harri Cane]

Bury them with the antlers sticking out of the ground and make sure they are covered to stop them being bleached. Near an ants nest works well. If you can find one.

 

[mtmuley]

Hey friends, looking for a bit of advice. I got a fairly nice buck this year and intended to euro mount it. Unfortunately, a friend died right around that time and my wife also had a baby. With all of that stress, I never got around to prepping the head to do a euro mount. I just stuffed it in a plastic bag and set outside. It’s been frozen most of the time, but not always, so it’s pretty gross now. The hide is still on.

If any of you have any great advice for how to make the process less awful now that everything is stinky, I’d love to hear it. (I’ve done several euro mounts before, but I have always gotten the hide off immediately.) I’m guessing that I’ll just have tough it out.

Get some dust masks. Smear the mask with Vicks. Dig in. mtmuley

 

[ccc23454]

Either cook it or hang it in a tree away from people, ground is frozen till spring at this point so burying is out of question. Whatever you do get that bag off the head, keep horns covered if your worried about whitening horns in sun.

 

[Mallardsx2]

Step 1 - Get the hide off of the head (not necessary but it speeds up the process) and bury it in the dirt where it gets sunlight all day long.
Step 2 - Take your chainsaw and cut 55 gallon drum in half and try to not cut your leg off.
Step 3- Place a drum over it.
Step 4 - Put Block on top of drum.
Step 5 - Drink a beer..
Step 6 - Come back in 6-8 months months.
Step 7 - Spray off with garden hose and clean all the mud off of it.
Step 8 - Let dry in the sun for a week.
Step 9 - Get you some cheap while spray-paint and tape the horns off and spray paint it white.
Step 10 - Drink a beer while you're hanging it up on the wall.

I do several every year.

Some people prefer to not paint them. I don't like the rotting skull look. So, I paint mine white.

 

[Flatbrimmer]

Here’s one sat in a hot garage for a year and a half. It was so rancid when I got it.
I was always told to leave the hide on to prevent staining on the bone, until you’re ready to do the euro. I think you’re okay!

Just do the process as usual, and try not to lose your nose in the process

 

[OntarioHunter]

Watch out for rodents chewing on the horns if you bury it outside.

We get a couple of these every year. Very gross and it costs clients more. Remove the skin and start cooking it outside in a pot on a propane turkey cooker. Add a lot of Dawn dish soap and change water frequently. Simmer, don't boil. And watch for teeth falling out. Good luck.

 

[MontanaHunter222]

Get some dust masks. Smear the mask with Vicks. Dig in. mtmuley

Oh, this may be the advice I needed! Thanks.

 

[HiMtnHntr]

Get the hide off and simmer it 6-8 hours. Put dish soap and borax in the water.

 

[Butcher]

For you guy’s burying the heads, how are keeping mice from chewing on the antlers?

 

[OntarioHunter]

For you guy’s burying the heads, how are keeping mice from chewing on the antlers?

Mostly lucky. We had a fantastic whitetail come in a couple years ago that client threw in a tree ... eight years earlier. Nothing touched it. Amazing. My daughter stained the horns and bleached the skull. Turned out beautiful. My neighbor across the street had a HUGE moose cap stored in the rafters of his enclosed back porch. Mice or chipmunk did a number on that one. He was ready to send it to the dump. Daughter restored it so you'd never know it had been damaged. I mounted it on a walnut plaque that another client rejected for oak. He was very impressed. Don't think she charged him anything. He keeps an eye on my place when I'm gone hunting and I watch his when he's working out of town. Good neighbor. The best kind.

 

[Butcher]

I’ve heard dryer sheets in campers over the winter months keep mice out. Not sure if that would work? Maybe wrapping the antlers in foil would prevent them from chewing? I will try it once I can dig in the ground.

 

[OntarioHunter]

I’ve heard dryer sheets in campers over the winter months keep mice out. Not sure if that would work? Maybe wrapping the antlers in foil would prevent them from chewing? I will try it once I can dig in the ground.

Cover it with a metal tub and stack a couple of concrete blocks on top. Maybe hang a sock with mothballs inside the tub to keep rodents from digging their way in. Don't set the mothballs on the ground as chemicals will leach into soil and kill critters and bacteria you want to eat away the flesh.