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Whole New Kind Of Stink

Northern Rancher

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 10, 2005
Messages
12,247
Location
saskatchewan
I picked up some horns at the taxidermist to get measured-he uses beetles to clean them off for european mounts. I could smell something funny so i held them up close and took a whiff-it wasn't a life altering moment but it was close lol.
 
Northern Rancher said:
Breakfast at 11'30 A'M must be nice lol. Sorry I gave you the flip flops lol.

Yeah I know..... But I just can not get up out of bed and eat... Never could do that.. But I do come in after chores and have a snack.... I know, I know there is no hope..... :roll:
 
I've never heard of using beetles, you can usally smell it if taxidemist cut corners. I do it myself all you need is a pot big enough to submerge the whole skull in and some sort of burner. Use "Arm & Hammer" super wash baking soda laundry soap. Bring water and soap to a roiling boil and throw it in, don't rest the antlers on the pot edge put something to insulate from the heat. Pull it out and start peeling of the junk when it softens up, will take several times. Gotta fish out the brain with a peice of wire or something. When you get it pretty clean start powerwashing it when you pull it out. dont overheat it or leave it in to long the skull will come apart then. Thats how I do it, it stinks bad doing it but the end result doesn't and saves you some money.
 
When we get a set of antlers worth keeping, we boil the head off in the big old cast iron kettle outside over the fire pit. Son did one last Saturday for my BIL, cold west wind made it take twice as long as usual even with pallets surrounding the fire for a windbreak.

He hangs the head into the water by the antlers tied from the bar holding the kettle. The antlers themselves don't get boiled.

But it's done, no stinky beetles and no mess in the house. :gag: BIL gives it one more boil in bleach water to give it a nice white appearance and then sprays something shiny on it.
 
Sea Lice do the best job I have ever seen. I butchered a Longhorn bull for a guy in Bella Coola a few years back and he wanted to keep the head. They tied the unskinned head to a buoy and dropped it into 100 feet of water for 4 days. When it came out it looked like it had been bleached.
 

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