Yeah...that's a nice job....My wife will fish, catch lobster, scallops, and eat venison....but she turns her head when I'm watching the hunting shows, whenever they get ready for the shot. No way she sits in a stand with me.
I have the same question as treefarmer, how did you do the job on the skull so quickly?.....looks great.
Nice buck Congratulations
Congrats!
Thanks guys. It was certainly an awesome experience. As requested, here is the story and the method I use for the skull.
Also, just a quick clarification. That's my real momma. Lol. Not my wife. Maybe she looks young or I look old I'm not sure but it happens all the time. My wife also hunts though. Here's a pic of her hunting with me too.
Story: Tuesday October 1st. In the stand by 5:30am. This double ladder stand is nestled in the edge of a cypress swamp over looking a transition area into the pines. It's a little open and scattered with palmettos and myrtles but the deer walk this edge constantly using it as a path of least resistance if you will. They will consistently follow the swamp edge all the way down to a spot in the swamp where they normally cross about 200 yards down.
About 915am a doe comes walking down the edge towards the stand, just as expected. In tow is this 8 pt. He had his head down and was right on her. Following her every move. They both hugged extremely close to the swamp edge and walked directly in front of the stand at 10 yards. No shot due to a few clumps of short myrtles they were hugging. As they eased down the trail there was a shot opportunity at 9-10 yards through a few small slash pine sprouts. The arrow made it's way through the pines splitting the 12 inch gap between them and found its mark.
The buck was quartering slightly towards the stand and the arrow hit him in the shoulder angled to come out just behind his far shoulder. The buck ran down the trail/swamp edge with the arrow sticking out of his shoulder. After 30 mins we decided to look at where the buck was hit and approximately 15 or so yards down the trail to see if we could spot blood and get a better read on how good he was hit. Zero blood. He even passed through a palmetto bush immediately after the shot and not a spec of blood to be found. 10 yards down the trail we found the broken arrow. We matched it up with the other ones and it looked as though he had roughly 6 inches of arrow and broadhead stuck in him.
We quietly backed out and went into town for lunch and to check a trail camera card I had pulled prior. We gave the buck every bit of 3 hours before trying to take up the trail. Got back to the scene and started down the trail silently. No a spec of blood and he turned into the pines from the tracks we found. When we hit the pines it was nearly impossible to see tracks and still zero blood. After 75 yards of looking for blood or any sign we split up and decided to continue down 2 well worn trails in the pines. I stayed on the trail that hugged the swamp edge in hopes that I would find a track of him headed into the swamp. Not that I wanted to try to track through the swamp but at least I would know his direction and I thought that he might heads toward water.
I was approximately 40 yards from mama when I hear her whistle. I whistle back and she is able to see me and waves me over with a huge grin on her face. I get close and she whispers that she has found blood and took another few steps and saw a white spot in the pines. She then points to where the white spot is and it's the buck laying at the base of a pine approximately 100 yards from the tree stand.
Skull mount: my wife is in school studying anesthesia where she has to intern at hospitals around the state. She was able to snag me a few scalpels for me to tinker with. An exacto knife would work just as well but it helps a ton if you have either one.
Wednesday night I pulled the deer head from the cooler and utilized my buck knife, replaceable razor blade folder, and buck knife to pull every bit of hide, skin, flesh, meat, ect from the skull. This took me about 2.5 hours to do a really good job. While I simmer the head and the flesh will fall off after time, I believe it's important to get every piece of meat/flesh off of the bones that you can. It will speed up the simmering process considerably and will decrease the chances of having to simmer for so long to clean the skull that you run the risk of decalcifying the bone and making it extremely porous and brittle.
Thursday morning I started the simmering process. I put the skull in a pot where the antlers would touch the sides of the pot thus suspending the skull in the pot. I then filled the pot full of water until the skull was submersed but the antler bases were only slightly under water. I added about a 2 Tbs of dish liquid and started her up. I was using my large double burner from camp chef outside on the back patio to keep this project outdoors. While this process doesn't stink to me, it definitely has a specific odor that is easily recognizable. I wouldn't recommend indoors.
I simmered for approximately 6 hours. Checking it periodically to add water that had evaporated and occasionally taking the skull out to manually pull off large chunks of flesh that were ready to come off. I also would occasionally add more dish liquid when most of the bubbles had subsided. I do this so it is basically doing two things at once. Removing the flesh and degreasing the bone.
When it is nearing completion I take a small toothbrush and brush the little nooks and cranies to remove the small stubborn flesh and I squirt it with a moderate pressure from the hose outside to help blow some of it out. I also use the hose to get the brain out. While simmering the brain will breakdown and the hose will pulverize it so that you can just pour it out. I do this until I am satisfied that I have removed all flesh. If you do not, it will stink to high heaven until the flesh eventually rots away.
One more note. Do not boil the water at any time. Always simmer. The boiling water will increase the odds of you decalcifying the bone and making it brittle.
I then gently pull any loose bones from the skull and set them aside. At this point the jaw will have dropped off and split. Pull that from the water as well. Carefully straining the water for any teeth or bones that came loose.
I then let it dry over night. The next morning I use a paint brush to paint on hydrogen peroxide. Not the brown bottle stuff from Wally World but the potent 40 percent stuff from the salon store that girls use to lighten their hair. I apply one coat and let it dry. Then repeat this process for approximately 20 coats. At this point the skull should be hyper white, odorless, and degreased.
Next step is carefully reassembling the little bones and teeth that came off. I use clear super glue to do this. After all is said and done the mount should be flawless. It's easy enough to do, saves money, and adds another aspect to the harvest.
Let me know if you have any questions.
