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Euro mount maceration thread

cville_bowhunter

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 26, 2022
Messages
272
I did quite a bit of internet reading on DIY euro mounts, and I decided that the maceration method was the best for my situation: relatively low-maintenance, keeps the skull completely intact (nasal bones), and I had almost all of the gear to do it (save the aquarium tank heater). So, now I have a deer head in a heated 5-gallon bucket that is itself inside of a plastic bin. It's day 8 or 9, and I just changed the water. It smells terrible, of course, but almost exactly like a few-days old baited crab pot, weirdly enough. There is still a decent amount of flesh on there, so I am think it'll need another week or two at least. Whenever it gets done, I'll post some pics here.

Who else has used maceration to do a euro mount? Would you do it again?
 
I did quite a bit of internet reading on DIY euro mounts, and I decided that the maceration method was the best for my situation: relatively low-maintenance, keeps the skull completely intact (nasal bones), and I had almost all of the gear to do it (save the aquarium tank heater). So, now I have a deer head in a heated 5-gallon bucket that is itself inside of a plastic bin. It's day 8 or 9, and I just changed the water. It smells terrible, of course, but almost exactly like a few-days old baited crab pot, weirdly enough. There is still a decent amount of flesh on there, so I am think it'll need another week or two at least. Whenever it gets done, I'll post some pics here.

Who else has used maceration to do a euro mount? Would you do it again?

This is the best approach outside of proper work with beetles. Yes.
 
interested in the photos and a break down on the how-tos of it
I'll post the photos whenever it is done. Like @Plebe said, the bacteria does all the work. You are essentially making a giant petri dish out of a 5-gallon bucket and a cheapo aquarium tank heater. If you have a few minutes, this video does an awesome job explaining everything:
 
I haven't taken the time to watch the video but if folks are going to do this and the video doesn't touch on it...

Wear protective gloves or something like a small unobtrusive cut can turn into a big problem, amongst other things.
 
If you were doing a buck with a rack, I wonder if you would just use a bigger bucket and submerge the rack or just submerge up above the bases. I wonder if the bacteria would degrade the horns.
 
If you were doing a buck with a rack, I wonder if you would just use a bigger bucket and submerge the rack or just submerge up above the bases. I wonder if the bacteria would degrade the horns.
One of my primary concerns with doing the boil or bury method was screwing up the rack. The rack on this deer is a unique color that I wanted to preserve. That said, my bucket is set up so the antlers are 99 percent out of the water. A 5-gallon bucket's shape and depth turns out to be ideal for this. I don't see how the bacteria would degrade the horns, but I also don't see a reason to submerge them beyond testing it for giggles
 
If you were doing a buck with a rack, I wonder if you would just use a bigger bucket and submerge the rack or just submerge up above the bases. I wonder if the bacteria would degrade the horns.
I don't think the bacteria would do anything to the antlers (just like it doesn't do anything to the bone) but the water soak could theoretically lighten the antlers according to a bunch of AT and processor.com threads I read a while ago. Also some chances of dark stuff getting on them but that seems to be more from not changing the water frequently enough to remove the gross soup than the overall process
 
2.5 week update: there is still a fair amount of flesh on the skull, especially on the sides and rear just behind the eye sockets. I am thinking that the nightly temps in the mid 20s are stressing the little heater to the point where it us unable to maintain a water temp high enough for consistent bacteria growth. It's still working, just not as fast as it supposedly can work. I have no way of bringing it inside, so I am thinking of either dropping another heater in the water or trying to better insulate the bucket.
 
2.5 week update: there is still a fair amount of flesh on the skull, especially on the sides and rear just behind the eye sockets. I am thinking that the nightly temps in the mid 20s are stressing the little heater to the point where it us unable to maintain a water temp high enough for consistent bacteria growth. It's still working, just not as fast as it supposedly can work. I have no way of bringing it inside, so I am thinking of either dropping another heater in the water or trying to better insulate the bucket.

Insulating the bucket and bin is pretty standard. When it really gets cold, bucket heaters or heating elements connected to thermostats have more thermal capacity.

You don't want to bring it inside.
 
I’ve done 5 or 6 using my sous vide instead of boiling. Works pretty good but I have been wanting to try maceration… some of my buddies have great results you just have to hide the bucket from your wife
 
I haven't started do anything to my deer head yet. It's still in the garage (non-heated) just sitting on a bucket, the entire head. I checked it the other day and the eyes are just gone. But even in our colder temps. Its starting to "stink" a little bit. Would you still boil it? I'm not planning on the maceration method.
 
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