• The SH Membership has gone live. Only SH Members have access to post in the classifieds. All members can view the classifieds. Starting in 2020 only SH Members will be admitted to the annual hunting contest. Current members will need to follow these steps to upgrade: 1. Click on your username 2. Click on Account upgrades 3. Choose SH Member and purchase.
  • We've been working hard the past few weeks to come up with some big changes to our vendor policies to meet the changing needs of our community. Please see the new vendor rules here: Vendor Access Area Rules

I Try The Maceration Method Euro Mount

Can any provide a link to a comprehensive explanation of this method? I’m very curious, though wonder if it’s reasonable in my climate.
 
gcr0003 said:
Change #4 let’s call it day 12? With a little poke and pulling the eyes, brain, neck, and tongue came out. I thought it smelled awfully bad today but I realized I had just stepped in dog poop. The head barely smells now. Here we go. View attachment 81080View attachment 81081View attachment 81082View attachment 81083View attachment 81084
Click to expand...
Nice job man! Looking good already. This both gives me hope for trying it again and reinforces the notion that I screwed something up the first go-round. I took out the tongue and eyeballs and had the lower jaw separated before starting the maceration process...I'm wondering if starting with more flesh is paradoxically better? I'm going to try it the same way you did next season just to compare
 
The skull is feeling quite brittle at this point, I decided to lower the temp a little and probably going to let this be the last round in the water before I go to Dawn dish soap for degreasing. When pouring out the water the nose piece came off. It did come off clean so I suppose I glue it back on later but I’m not sure I will or not. It looked like it had a seam that it came off of but I’m not sure. It was looking really good in my mind up until this point. 543EDB34-EEE6-4B48-BADA-0F383DAE60AC.jpeg3177091A-E296-49F6-88E5-82D6731B3287.jpeg
 
You can also see the skull splitting at the seams. This might be a fail.
 
You can always cut off the scull cap and mount it to a board to memorialize the hunt and the experiment of maceration.
 
gcr0003 said:
You can also see the skull splitting at the seams. This might be a fail.
Click to expand...
How hot was the temp? Also, I wonder if this has anything to do with the age of the deer? I have seen some posts on other websites talking about the same issue and they hypothesized that it was due to it being a younger animal and the bones had not totally fused together yet...I'm not sure what constitutes a "younger" vice an "older" deer, when it comes to bone fusion
 
The skull bones will be fine. They won't come apart because of how they interlock. The nose bones can be glued in. I don't see any fail, other than next time you want to stop the process as the nose plate starts to soften and wiggle.

I've done a dozen or so euros. I've found the best way to do them is:

1. skin, remove eyes, lower jaw, and brains. The right size Allen wrench chucked in a bit does a good job at making brain smoothie.

2. Pop in a crock pot set all the way on low. Dump 4-5 scoops of oxyclean (bicarb) in the water.

3. Simmer until it's pulling off the bone. Spray with regular old garden hose to get most of meat off. Shove a screwdriver into the ear canal and pry to Pop loose a bone that will hide a lot of meat and tissue.

4. Clean water and more oxyclean and one more cycle.

5. Spray. Should be clean now.

I don't bleach them anymore. Too much work and too little reward. I like the natural look and can do this in a half day.

Screenshot_20230208_194927_Gallery.jpgScreenshot_20230208_194914_Gallery.jpgScreenshot_20230208_194906_Gallery.jpg
 
Nutterbuster said:
The skull bones will be fine. They won't come apart because of how they interlock. The nose bones can be glued in. I don't see any fail, other than next time you want to stop the process as the nose plate starts to soften and wiggle.

I've done a dozen or so euros. I've found the best way to do them is:

1. skin, remove eyes, lower jaw, and brains. The right size Allen wrench chucked in a bit does a good job at making brain smoothie.

2. Pop in a crock pot set all the way on low. Dump 4-5 scoops of oxyclean (bicarb) in the water.

3. Simmer until it's pulling off the bone. Spray with regular old garden hose to get most of meat off. Shove a screwdriver into the ear canal and pry to Pop loose a bone that will hide a lot of meat and tissue.

4. Clean water and more oxyclean and one more cycle.

5. Spray. Should be clean now.

I don't bleach them anymore. Too much work and too little reward. I like the natural look and can do this in a half day.

View attachment 81454View attachment 81455View attachment 81456
Click to expand...
Forget the allen key brain method. Make one of these for a few bucks, connect to garden sprayer with threads and blast them out. Trust me....there is no quicker amd cleaner way.


92709d1f3c02d7c81c3faf14c7292bcc.jpg
 
I went to school for taxidermy and ran a shop for several years. A lot of great info already said so Ill just add a few suggestions.

1. Remove as much meat and fat as you can without damaging (maring the skull). You cant clean enough off to stop the bacteria from growing. However, leaving the fat on will cause your skull to absorb the grease leached out when it liquifies - whoch will yellow your skull over time. Most of the grease comes from the braim and behind the eyes, so get those out for sure, and anything white as well.

2. Maceration temperature is extremely important. I ran my setups at 95 degrees farenheit. This is consistent with literature available from muesems.

3. I never changed out the water unless the skull was stubborn. I also didnt check on them or pull them out during the process as it also affected how long it took. If your using a bucket, insulation around it will really help here (unless ambient temps are well above freezing, then you can go without).

4. If done correctly, you will have teeth fall out, the nose bones fall off, and the skull will have movement across the plate sutures (squiggly lines where two sections of skull connect) this is normal as you've removed the tissue and muscle that held them tight. You wont need to glue the main skull connections, they will tighted up as the skull dries. You will need to glue the nose bones and teeth back in. I used regular old elmers glue. Its stronger than you think.

5. After your done maceration you need to degrease. There are a few different methods on this, but I always preferred a water and dawn dish soap solution at 110 to 120 deg F. Length here varies on age of animal. A 6 year old buck could take 4 weeks. A black bear will take way longer. If the grease is stubborn I would switch over to an acetone tank to get after it. (Acetone is expensive and toxic, so well ventilated area is a must.).

Let me know if you have any questions.

Some finished results attached.

22e8e37781ea87d7d18f88bf095ff6c1.jpg


9962ca7cda00255ba2930f1ebf914954.jpg
 
Nutterbuster said:
The skull bones will be fine. They won't come apart because of how they interlock. The nose bones can be glued in. I don't see any fail, other than next time you want to stop the process as the nose plate starts to soften and wiggle.

I've done a dozen or so euros. I've found the best way to do them is:

1. skin, remove eyes, lower jaw, and brains. The right size Allen wrench chucked in a bit does a good job at making brain smoothie.

2. Pop in a crock pot set all the way on low. Dump 4-5 scoops of oxyclean (bicarb) in the water.

3. Simmer until it's pulling off the bone. Spray with regular old garden hose to get most of meat off. Shove a screwdriver into the ear canal and pry to Pop loose a bone that will hide a lot of meat and tissue.

4. Clean water and more oxyclean and one more cycle.

5. Spray. Should be clean now.

I don't bleach them anymore. Too much work and too little reward. I like the natural look and can do this in a half day.

View attachment 81454View attachment 81455View attachment 81456
Click to expand...
Gonna have to hit the yard sales and find me a head crock pot.
 
Nutterbuster said:
It's the way. Doesn't get too hot or need to be baby sat. And the one I have looks like it was made to hold a head
Click to expand...
I much prefer that natural look as well and your approach sounds like something I wouldnt mind tackling. The whole fish cooker w/ turkey pot or the stank bucket routes just not really going to work for me.
 
gcr0003 said:
You can also see the skull splitting at the seams. This might be a fail.
Click to expand...
I have had this happen when I overboiled some skulls. Some careful epoxy work will fix it all right up. I wouldn't be too worried as long as the bone itself doesnt erode away. Those cartilage joints on the nose and fissures are fixable
 
I guess I was just disappointed when I first saw the nose and the skull separating but the more I thought about it it makes sense to me. The bacteria eats away the organic matter and those seams are held together but organic matter. The skull looks pretty clean so I’m starting it in a few Dawn baths for degreasing. I may keep the lower jaw with this one and glue the nose back in too. I am please with the progress and lack of effort up to this point. 2536CEE9-2192-40E6-A3C3-FCBBBDE7AA7A.jpeg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top