Euro Mount for a Friend

[Penny_Plinker]

Friend of ours got a 13 point and he was going to get it mounted but the cost was rather high. *(13 pt, there's little ring hangers at the bottom) He was going to just cut the antlers off, but i offered to do him a Euro mount. *Now i know why they call ticks deer ticks. *When i was skinning the head at the kitchen sink ticks started to crawl all over me. *But i got it skinned and then boiled the head in a big pot of water to get the meat off. *It barely fit under my kitchen range hood.



http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-7/1047863/RobertsEuro.jpg



I delivered it on Christmas day.

I'm also working on my first real cape mount, this year's 9 point, will post a pic in a day or two.

Penny

[DM]

Looks great Penny... Did you put anything on the skull to preserve it?

What i've always done is to mix water and white Elmers glue 50/50, and paint in on the skull... It may take more than one coat...

It will keep the skull from drying out and cracking...

DM

[Penny_Plinker]

Thanks DM! I sprayed Krylon satin clear on the skull is all. I can see how the Elmer's white glue would help hold the fragile bones. I did put some dabs of wood glue inside he skull against the teeth and along the underside of the bone structure. It was yellow glue, but it doesn't show. Didn't have any white, something else good to have around.

Penny

[chickenfried]

Looks great. I do mine the lazy man way. I put in a cage and let the bugs eat all the gunk off it. It always seemed like it would be a lot of trouble to keep a colony of beetles so I just let the wild ones do it. Now it takes longer and I have to keep my head in the freezer until later on in spring when the weather warms up but it works for me.

[Penny_Plinker]

I tried that wild beetle way once. Pretty neat you just stick it out and the bugs just find it. They're flat things and they skamper away when they see light. Maybe they dont' even have eyes? But they move fast and disappear when you move the dead meat. I think you have a smart and easy method, to freeze the heads till the weather warms and not have to bother keeping a colony.

Penny

[MooseToo]

had a friend try the "beetle" method a while back - he enclosed the head too loosely and the mice got in and pretty much ruined the skull and antlers -

[Penny_Plinker]

Bummer. Hope it wasn't a real good rack, but it probably was.

Penny

[flatwater]

Now thats what I call a great looking mount. I love the euro mounts because on the contrast between horn and scull. Interesting rack also

[Penny_Plinker]

Thank you Flatwater, glad you found the rack interesting. I like skulls, too. When i was little, we had a turnip patch back in the holler. There was a horse skeletin there, and i had such high hopes of putting the horse back together. ...just the first of many unfinished projects...oh well.

Penny

[flatwater]

And all the kings men couldn't put penny's horse back together again :'(