Bleaching your own skulls.........

[badkarma]

I might have missed it, but if doing maceration with a whitetail skull, can the antlers be in the water without any damage or discoloration or should they be kept out of the water?

[Richard M.]

Badkarma, Yes I believe they are ok to soak in water, just not in the peroxide step.

[rhouston]

I'm fixing to bleach a hog skull....does leaving it in the 20% peroxide for a couple of days or week, as suggested, make the skull brittle?

[rhendrix]

A couple of questions...

First, how do you initially go about stripping the flesh and skin off the skull? Do you just leave it on and let it soak and have it fall off naturally, or so you pull as much of it as you can off beforehand?

If you have to pull it off, how do you so without damaging the skull?

Once you've let it soak and the remaining flesh and what have you has fallen off, how do you get the brains out? Power washing, wire coat hanger?

Once I get down to the skull seems like a straight forward process, just don't want any deer brain stinking up the house, my wife would kick my butt if that happened.

[rhouston]

A couple of questions...

First, how do you initially go about stripping the flesh and skin off the skull? Do you just leave it on and let it soak and have it fall off naturally, or so you pull as much of it as you can off beforehand?

If you have to pull it off, how do you so without damaging the skull?

Once you've let it soak and the remaining flesh and what have you has fallen off, how do you get the brains out? Power washing, wire coat hanger?

Once I get down to the skull seems like a straight forward process, just don't want any deer brain stinking up the house, my wife would kick my butt if that happened.

I just got done with a hog skull and found the process to be pretty easy. First cut off all that you can. I started between the eyes and started pilling the skin back and skining it no differently than you would the body. Once you get everything off, I put it in a 5 gallon bucket and filled it with water with a litlle dishwashing soap. I then covered it with a lid that I had drilled a few holes in and then put in the sun. I let it sit for a month and then changed out the water. I did this for a few months, changing the water each month and putting soap in it.

Everything will turn to slush and fall off/out, including the brains. When you pour out the water just make sure to keep the teeth. Each time I changed the water I would try to scrap off any "meat" I could with an old screwdriver and get down in the holes.

After three or four months the skull was perfect! Nothing was left on it. I could have gone with a quicker method, but it was just a hog skull and I wasn't in a big hurry. I'll try to post some pics later. Hope this helps.

[BowTech 4 life]

thanks

[SWilson]

Ive been paying $100 to have mine gone with bugs and peroxide. very informative thread. after reading I think $100 is fair, especially if your doing 2=3 a year

[DorothyNotKeegan]

I put my Kansas buck in the ground back in December when I got back. I took it out in mid July. I didn't have to cut off any skin or mess with the nasty water. It turned out really nice and I didn't have to pay anything. I'm just waiting to dip it in peroxide one of these days.

Here's a pic after I took it out of the ground.

[Marine1]

I put my Kansas buck in the ground back in December when I got back. I took it out in mid July. I didn't have to cut off any skin or mess with the nasty water. It turned out really nice and I didn't have to pay anything. I'm just waiting to dip it in peroxide one of these days.

Here's a pic after I took it out of the ground.

I did this same thing it takes about 5 mo. Then just hose the mud off. I put foil on the antlers to prevent sun bleaching.

[griffbowhunter]

nice to know

[Blue Tick]

How bads the smell?

[OPC Patrick]

I did a hog skull in a bucket of water last summer. Only took about 3 weeks. I did used a pressure washer to get the bits off. The smell was nasty when you were close. Do not spill it on you. I bet you could do it in two weeks with this heat. I also had a friend place a head on the ground with a milk crate staked over The flys and magets had it cleaned in about the same time as the water, but it worked and smelled too.

[Bucksaw]

The basic same steps apply for the deer skull, with a few exceptions. You need to wrap the horns with a plastic trash bag taping them off at the base of the horns so none of the peroxide can get on them. You will also need a gallon bottle of the highest peroxide paste you can get. I think it is either 30% or 40%. After degreasing, set the skull in the plastic container with the horns resting on the sides of the container. Add the 20% liquid peroxide to the container and allow it to fill up just under where the base of the horns are. If you go past that you will end up bleaching the horns. This is where the paste peroxide comes in handy along with a squirt bottle. Fill the squirt bottle up with the paste and then spray on any bone that is left exposed out of the liquid peroxide. I do this once a day until the skull is as bright white as I want it to be.

I do these as a demonstration for my Wildlife and Recreation Managment class, and one thing that I have had good luck with is using the 3% peroxide solution that you can get at any drug store or Wal-Mart or wherever. This is a good bit safer to work with, which is great for high school aged kids. After 3 days of soaking in the 3% solution it comes out just as white as a professional mount.

Just make sure you keep the soaking skull in a cool dark place while the peroxide works. My wife is the biology/chemistry teacher at the high school I work at, so I just use her chemical storage room since its cold and dark. I do wrap the horns in Aluminum foil. Its supposed to reduce the bleaching by changing the chemical reaction from the antlers to the foil. I dunno though because the bases still bleach where the solution touches them.

I remedy this by taking a picture of the antlers before even skinning the head, and after bleaching I use wood stain that matches the natural color of the bucks antler bases. Dab on a good bit of stain on the bases and about half way through the drying process, wipe the antlers with a clean rag from the base toward the tines. This will remove the stain from the high points but leave it in all the crevases. Wiping toward the tines will also give a natural fade to the antlers like the sun will do on a live animal.

Here's the last one I did.

[ArcheryAddict]

Nice job.

[White Falcon]

Very nice!