I skull mounted a couple of the bucks from this year and had one from a couple years ago so threw em together on an old cedar plank that used to be part of our loading shoot back before the lightning killed all our cows. Nothing special but not bad for some stuff just layin around. Gonna try to use more of those planks for random stuff just my grandpa hand cut all of it years back so since he's gone now I like using stuff that he had his hands on.
My daughter's bf wants to do something like that with the big turtle heads. Is the process complicated? Boil, polyur?
nah theres nothing to it. cut away all the meat/skin etc you can. then low boil with some dawn dish soap in the water to cut more of the grease from the skull for about 4 or 5 hours till its easy to scrape/spray all the remaining stuff off. Biggest thing is let it low boil and just leave it alone but dont let it come to a rolling hard boil that can make the bones to brittle. Once its clean you can either paint it, dip it, or bleach it with peroxide. If you bleach it use the strong peroxide stuff they day hair with. If you are going to paint it or dip it then let it sit for a die to get totally dry first. Vast majority of the work is just sitting and watching it boil.
Taxidermists and forensic pathologists often use the larvae of Dermestes beetles,which will clean every bit of flesh from a skull without damaging any of the bones. Boiling will make some bones shrink and crack. You can buy beetle kits from taxidermy supply houses.
If you get beetles you better be committed. They are not cheap and they STINK 24/7. You also either have to do a lot of skulls or commit to feeding them a significant amount of meat throughout the year. Just doing a few skulls for yourself occasionally won't be enough for them. Have a very good taxidermist friend who uses the beetles and he keeps them about 500 yards from his shop bc of the smell. If you are gonna start doing skulls for a side job or something and expect to have a few skulls a week to put in for them then it's worth it to set up a colony but if you are just gonna do a few skulls for yourself def not worth it. Just keep you temp at a low boil more like a simmer and you don't have to worry about the bones. Here's a couple more pics of the process. Skinned out skulls prior to boiling The majority of the job Post boil pre whitening
