TOPIC: Deer Hunting

That's one excited 11 year old in the pic! Congrats to both or you!

Hey thanks guys...He had a smile just like that all week long....He got up close and personal with that buck. We sat downwind of a nice scrapeline and grunted a couple times...this buck got less than 20 yrds of us.I thought he made a good shot, but we backed out and waited two hours..so when we found him he was very excited....He says he beat me this year...when I came in with my buck he kinda laughed and said he wouldn't tell anyone!!!

Meadesanger - Congrats to both you and your boy. That's a very nice buck! Nothing quite like sharing outdoor activities like this with your children.

meadesanger congrats to the boy hes a beautiful buck and the little guy is all smiles and joy awsome photo and way to teach the little guy looks good on ya man

Billy.

TNHunter- \"Doesen't smell like your wife's pot roast\" LOL!!

I am drinking coffee, attempting to get motivated to go out and hunt this am. It's 0440, I'm on my 2nd cup of the go juice. Looks colder outside than the weather channel says it is. Gotta drive 45 minutes to my buddy's 7 acre home/land, where I have a stand already hung. It was a long week at work this week... and my warm bed is, well, sleeping more has it's allure this am. When I got up, my dog Klaus just raised his head and looked at me \"Really? YOu're getting up this early? NOt me\" and went back to sleep. Wife hasn't moved a muscle.

However the more I write this the awaker I am, so thanks wildgrown.com for providing good motivation! LOL. Will post result later, am hoping to get the buck that is damaging rubs on to my buddy's young fruit trees!

Coffee is a good thing.... on to cup #3.

Whitjr,

If you drink 3 cups of coffee and then go deer hunting.

Better have you a \"P\" bottle, you'r going to need it !

Neither my son or daughter asked to go hunting this mornign, but it looks like a nice morning, around 30 degrees here and a nice frost on.

I have been awake since around 5:15, wishing I had some more stratified seed. Since the wife and kids are sleeping in, and I have no one to take hunting I would sure like to get out there and poke some more seed in the ground.

Oh well - after Christmas, I expect my urge to do more of that will overtake me

Good Luck on your Hunting Trip !

Classicfur,

On those missing nasel bones...

I think I may have cooked the head a little longer than you should, not sure.

Like I said - had no instructions to go by so sort of winged it.

When I took the head out of the pot those little bones were missing already (down in the bottom of the pot I expect) with all of that other mush.

I poured that out over in the edge of the woods and after you mentioned those little bones being missing I went over there and looked around and found one of them, but not the other.

The bottom jaw bones and teeth were there too.

And of course my Australian Shephard \"Lady\" had already been chewing on those bones. I expect she may have eaten the one that I could not find.

Anyway - yep - they are missing, but it still looks quite cool.

I have it hung up in the garage now, just letting it dry out good and air out.

There is hardly any smell to it now and the skull parts are all very clean, even inside all of those nooks are clean.

Got started on the whitening yesteday and it's looking nice.

We have a \"Hobby Lobby\" store over in the next County and you can get kits there for mounting your deer horns, you know plaque with name tag, etc. I will see what they have that might work for a euro style mounting plaque.

TNhunter

TNhunter

Yes, it will be quite a trophy once it's finished.

I think the term \"boiling a skull\" is misleading. The water in the pot should never come to a boil. It should be at a very low simmer. Deer skulls usually require about 5 hrs in the pot. And it helps if you take it out after about three hours and remove the big chunks of flesh, then return it to the pot.

Also, the teeth always fall out no matter what method of cleaning you use. But they can be glued back in.

Once you have the skull bleached, sit it in direct sunlight for a few days. That will make the bones more white. Then seal the skull with something like Krylon Flat or Matte clear finish spray. It's best not to use a high gloss spray. Two to three coats should be sufficient.

If you attach the skull to a panel, it's best to put one screw through the panel, into the heavy bone just in front of where the spine connected to the base of the skull. Then place two screws through the panel, side by side between the teeth so that the screws are hidden. The bone is thin in this area, so dont over tighten the screws. Pre drill the screw holes in the bone through the holes you pre drilled in the panel.

Kept out of the weather, the skull should last for a very long time.

Good luck!

classicfur

Classicfur,

Thanks for the tips.

PS - wanted to clarify one thing.

All of the teeth actually stayed in the jaw bones (upper attached to skull and lower that detached and was in all that muck in the bottom of the pot) - did not lose any of those.

I did notice when cleaning them a little (the ones attached to the skull) that they were very lose and wiggly but none have just fallen out.

I probably cooked my head for more like 9 hours - I am bad about overdoing things, when I'm not sure

It is nice and clean though - almost looked like it did not need bleaching.

I found some nice examples of european mount plaques online (just a yahoo search) turned up several and some look really nice.

images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?_a...uropean+mount+plaque

TNhunter

TNhunter

If the teeth are loose, I usually just put a little Super Glue Gel along the edge of the tooth socket and press it down. If they are just a little loose, I leave them alone.

For me, I have to have the skull that is in excellent condition when the customer picks it up.

I charge $170 for cleaning a Deer Skull with beetles. That includes a oak or walnut pedestal panel(see link below). But I Only spend 3 hrs of labor on a deer skull(skinning, washing, bleaching, glueing teeth, sealing and mounting). The beetles do most of the work. I figure I make about $40-45 an hour for this service.

This pedestal panel can sit on a desk or swivel the panel top and mount on the wall.

www.walnutcreekhardwood.com/shop/product...amp;cftoken=70658217

Moose skulls are a real big thing up here. I get $480 for cleaning with beetles. On these I make about $65-75 per hour for my labor. And Moose are almost impossible to boil in a pot. One moose skull I got in this year came from an animal that weighed 930 lbs. A monster skull. The beetles cleaned this skull in about 8 1/2 days.

There is definately good money in skull cleaning. And the best part is , I can be busy working on other mounts and don't have to worry about checking on the skull all the time.

Here one of the biggest Skull Cleaning company in the USA. They use beetles for their skulls.

Skulls unlimited:

www.skullcleaning.com/

They do excellent work!

classicfur