How to Field Prep a Skull for European Mount

BraidenR

Member
Joined
Aug 17, 2018
Messages
81
Location
Utah
Hello Everyone,

I have been scanning the forum for a year or so, but just recently felt I might have something to offer others, or had questions that weren't getting answered on other posts.

I have seen videos of many different guys who are taking the hide and meat off the skull of their bucks or bulls before packing it out. I have always hunted with horses so we took the buck out whole or often the whole head and cape of a bull. I would like to learn how to do this effectively and efficiently since I have began pursuing hunting in areas that are harder or impossible to get horses in and out. Does anybody have or know of a video, or complete instructions that shows how do this. Basically I am looking to remove hide, lower jaw, eyes, and anything else that just adds weight in the pack out.

Thanks in advance for the help
 
They love it when you bring rotten maggot filled oozing messes in their shop. I brought in one to my taxi last year that had been sitting behind my house for 2 years! Still came out good.

IMG_0163.jpg

Kidding aside it's like a high schools dissection project. Just take your time and who cares if you cut the hide since you are doing a euro. Great way to learn in case you ever have to do a mount where the cape has to be taken care of. The eyeballs can be a lot of fun!
 
Thanks for the help. I did watch a couple of those videos and it was great to see how he handled the jaw and things. I hope to get a buck down to try it out this year.

Thanks for the Advice
 
Couple Euros I just did. I like the look of the Euro mounts a lot. If you can get that lower jaw off before rigor mortis sets in, it seems a lot easier.



 
I should clarify. If you are backpacking out and want a euro mount, I would pop off the lower jaw to save weight. If you are not backpacking and just wanting to clean one, I would skin it and drop it whole into the rot bucket. The lower jaw will fall off of its own during the process.
 
This is more or less what I do in the field, the whole process including removing the skull from the neck with a havalon, if you are breaking blades you're doing it wrong and moving to fast.

It's a bit harder to remove the lower job on an elk than a deer, it helps to first remove/cut the muscles on the checks, the muscles behind the eyes below the antlers, the tongue all the way to the back mouth, and to remove the eyes and surrounding tissue. All of this tissue connects to the jaw and once remove it's pretty easy to pry the lower jaw off. Don't forget to take the ivories.

I'm not a professional taxidermist but I do clean heads for all of my family members and lots of friends and I refuse to clean a head that hasn't been skinned out in a timely manner and if left outside in warmer months heavily salted. I don't care what method the taxidermist is using if you give them a head that's frozen solid because you left it outside in the winter or that is rotting because you are making them do a lot more work and are kinda an a-hole.

Also it's a ton of excess weight if you are backcountry hunting, my brother-n-law gave me a head a couple of days ago that he had removed with a saw. He had just cut through the neck a couple of vertebra down, I weighed out all the hide/bone/tissue I removed to start the euro process (what I normally do in the field) and was 21lbs. That's just from a mule deer, you could easily be carrying an extra 35lbs on an elk.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMZOjQvN6Go

elkskull.jpg
 
Back
Top