Deer Hunting

European skull mounting

A very good way to save money, yet have a cool mount for your wall is a European Mount.You'll need-
-A skull of an animal of your choice ( I did deer)
-Bucket/keddle/ something to put it in when you boil/bleach it
-Skinning knife/utility knife, screwdriver to dig out brain/eyes, pliers
-Bleach/ mabye 20 mule team borax
-A pedestal or something to hang the skull on when your finished

-If I left anything out feel free to tell me.

Start out by cleaning the skull with a utility knife, pliers and a flat screwdriver. Wear leather gloves.Get all the skin off the skull and as much flesh as possible. The eyeballs will be very difficult. Depending on your decision, the brain could pose a challenge as well. When removing the head, if you decide to cut through the center of the skull (hacksaw), it'll make cleaning out the brain much easier.
Then, using water and a just a dash of household bleach, boil the skull for awhile. Bleach isn't necessary. Water alone works fine but a tablespoon or so of bleach can help to start the sterilization process. Be very careful not to use too much bleach. You do not want compromise the bone structure of the skull. Excessive amounts of bleach will actually will start to eat away at the thin bones around the nostrils, sinuses, nose plate and eye sockets. Also, this is a hands-on project. It requires full attention at all times. You'll want to be very careful not to submerge the antler bases into the liquid. EVER! Even water will start to discolor the bases. Also, I always try to leave as much bark material and foliage around the bases. This gives the buck character. With a big spoon, slowly ladle the liquid around the top of the skull and other parts that aren't fully submerged.
After boiling, start picking away at it with your tools. After you feel like you've made some headway, fill up the kettle with pure hydrogen peroxide. You can buy this very reasonably at Target or Walmart. Get about 7 or 8 bottles, totalling about 3 gallons or so. Let the skull soak in this for an hour or so, ladling the liquid around the skull. Take it out of the bath and start picking at it again. This part takes the longest.
Then, it's back into the bucket or whatever your using for another round. This time, heat up the H2O2 and bring it to a boil. You won't be able to fully submerge the skull in the liquid so, as it heats, you'll need to continually splash the skull with spoonfuls of the liquid. Not just a few times, count to about 500. This is the most important step, as you'll see the skull get very nice and bone white. Make sure to constantly swish the liquid around the different parts of the skull, taking extra care not to get ANY on the antlers. If you do, spritz it off with some water. It's not the end of the world. Keep an eye on the burner; you don't want this to boil over.

After a couple days, you should have a pretty darn cool looking mount. You can choose the color and type of wood you want to display or if your going to paint or stain it. It took me about 10 hours probably to finish mine. It looks great in my room beside the other mounts.

Hope this tip helped.