In order to get the freezer cleared out in time to get the venison from the processor, I needed to get started on a couple of projects this weekend.
Started with by fleshing two deer hides for making buck skin. This always wears me out. This year the one of the buck was especially a task because it's super heavy. Scrapped the extra meat and fat off the flesh side of both skins and have then soaking in a water and lye solution now to get them ready for graining (removes the hair and upper skin layer). According to my directions they need to soak 3-4 days but can soak longer as the lye and water solution is near sterile so they should rot or start stinking. I'll let you know how that goes, as I won't be able to pick up that stage until next weekend.
As the buck was a decent 9 pointer, the rack was big enough to want to do something with, but not so awesome as to spend the money on a taxidermist mount. So I went and bought a turkey fryer and am trying a European mount. Started boiling the flesh off the skull today. Definitely not something you want to try indoors. Not a horrible make you gag smell, but strong. Kind of a gamey meat, eyeball and brain soup. Have the skull with most of the meat removed in the back yard. Will have to boil it some more next weekend. Should be fairly rank by then. Not sure how the week in between will affect the process. I'll let you know.
Deer Projects - Redneck arts and crafts
When I did a European mount I buried the skull and put buckets over the racks to keep squirrels from chewing on them.
I dug it up in the summer and by then the worms had picked it clean.
I bleached it and it looks fine. I'd have thought that the dirt would have stained it more.
I've heard of people tying skulls to cords and tossing them into rivers so that the crayfish and stuff would clean the bones, but I don't have a safe spot to try that at my house.
I've heard that some people bleach them, then put white glue (diluted with water) on the skull. The glue dries clear and makes keeping them clean easier.
This year my friend's son wanted to learn to hunt so I mentored him and he got an ok 9 pointer.
I skull capped it.
I cut off most of the hide but it it clung to the antlers so I left that part on and stuck it into my crock pot.
I use slow cooker liners, and put foil over the top (because a lid obviously couldn't go on), and put a towel on top so the antlers didn't touch the pot directly (I didn't want them to discolor).
When I got back from work there was hardly any smell, and the remaining hide and flesh came right off. They requested that I not bleach it, as they wanted a more natural look.
Boiling eyeballs and brains would probably stink though.
I know that skull stank before I buried it.
I dug it up in the summer and by then the worms had picked it clean.
I bleached it and it looks fine. I'd have thought that the dirt would have stained it more.
I've heard of people tying skulls to cords and tossing them into rivers so that the crayfish and stuff would clean the bones, but I don't have a safe spot to try that at my house.
I've heard that some people bleach them, then put white glue (diluted with water) on the skull. The glue dries clear and makes keeping them clean easier.
This year my friend's son wanted to learn to hunt so I mentored him and he got an ok 9 pointer.
I skull capped it.
I cut off most of the hide but it it clung to the antlers so I left that part on and stuck it into my crock pot.
I use slow cooker liners, and put foil over the top (because a lid obviously couldn't go on), and put a towel on top so the antlers didn't touch the pot directly (I didn't want them to discolor).
When I got back from work there was hardly any smell, and the remaining hide and flesh came right off. They requested that I not bleach it, as they wanted a more natural look.
Boiling eyeballs and brains would probably stink though.
I know that skull stank before I buried it.