TOPIC: Deer Hunting

Hey Maya - man that was a nice one your friend got. They grow big up there, and looked like he was corn fed too.

All - I have made some decent progress on the Euro mount for Cole's 8 pt.

Cole has a cousin who's dad got into doing Euro mounts this year and he bought a device called a Buck Boiler and let me borrw it to do COle's buck.

It has been rather simple and easy.

It is basically just a black bucket with an electrode inside and cord that you plug in.

You have to put into the mix some Cascade (diswashing powder). About 1/2 teaspoon and you can add another 1/2 teaspoon per hour.

Other than that you just add some more water when it gets low, which I have found that about every other time I check it (about once every 2 hours) I needed to add a little water.

Remember that I skinned the head out first (which is optional, but does make it go faster).

Below is what it looks like up close (the label on the thing).

There is a web address at the bottom and I expect you could buy one there if you wanted.

TNhunter

I am not sure exactly how this thing works but if you don't put the Cascade in there it will not even hardly warm up. The Cascade (I think it may be the borax), creates some kind of chemical reaction, and it takes a little while but it will get quite hot and bubbly after a while.

Again if you don't put the Cascade in there, no action.

I found that out the hard way

My Brother in law said the instructions were in the box when he let me borrow it, but turned out he had mis placed them somewhere, so I was sort of on my own. Then I found my way to their website and got some help.

Anyway, after I got the Cascade in there, it worked great.

Here is what it looks like after it starts cooking...

Another pic of the cooking process underway...

PS - I work at home so I just got it started and set a timer and checked on it every hour.

Also if you are wondering why I have the rack tied off to that concrete planter - well I have a Australian Shephard and she would just love to get take it off somewhere gnaw on it for days.

After about 6 hours cooking time I took it out and checked it out.

Below is what it looked like.

PS - you definately want to do this outside somewhere (I was on the back porch).

A boiling deer head don't smell nothing like your wife's pot roast

After a few more hours I took it out again and set it down on the concrete slab outside the garage and used my hose and jet spray and washed it out good.

Most of the meat and gristle was off the skull and in the bottom of the pot, with just a few bits and pieces still hanging on. They all sprayed off real easy.

The brain was just mush and sprayed right out.

There were just a few bits of something tough on the back of the skull (where the head bone connects to the neck bone) that I had to scrape off with a flat head screwdriver.

It looked like this after that.

Getting there...

I put it back in the pot (with clean water and more Cascade) to let it cook just a little more.

Will spray it off good one more time and then the next step will be the bleach.

Will post more pics when I get more done.

TNhunter

Hey guys wanted to take a minute to show off my sons buck he killed on opening day of ky rifle season....He is 11 yrs old and this is his second buck ever and only his 3rd deer ever...

TNhunter

Not too bad for your first attempt at \"skull Boiling\".

I noticed that the skull appears to be all intact when you took it out of the boiling pot. But after spraying it off with the hose, it's missing the \"Premaxilla\"(Bone that should extend out past the Nasal Cavity).

After cleaning more than 400 skulls over the past 25 years, I found that when boiling skulls, if you add Too Much Sal Soda(in your case Cascade detergent), it softens up the tissue holding the Skull Plates together and some of the bones start to fall off. But they can be epoxied back on.

I remember my first boiled Deer Skull back 25 years ago looked alot like yours does.

Here's the Beetle Cleaned skull showing the \"Premaxilla Bone\" still intact.(The bone that extends past the nasal cavity).

classicfur

meadesanger

A Huge Congats to your son! That's a Beautiful Deer!

The Smile tells it all! Happy hunter!


Thanks

classicfur

Congrats to your son Meadesanger.