Cleaning a skullcap without boiling it

[Guinness82]

Im trying to find out how to clean a skull cap for mounting but all i can find is ppl saying to boil it.  im not a pro here just want to start doing the stuff i get so any help on how to do this would be great.  just remember i dont want to boil it an i dont want to wait months for it to sit outside an let bugs do it for me

[Matt]

Here is what I do with all my skull plates. After removing them from the skull, I remove all the heavy meat with a knife. I then salt them and let them sit until I am ready to mount them. For me, it is alittle while before I get to them and they dry up. I then take a dremel with a med sized cutting bit and clean them up in a few minutes. Then you can wash the blood and dirt off the antlers with warm water and dawn, just be sure to wash lightly as you don't want to lose any of the natural color in the antlers.

[michael p.]

Trim all the meat off & rub dry preservative on it

[Hoosiertaxman]

same as Matt & Michael, but I use borax....it dries the meat and tissue that's not cleaned off, plus it keeps the bugs away. When I'm ready to use them, I hit the cap with a brass brush  --bill

[Redwolf]

Same here, Borax or DP.

[psycho]

When it is fresh pop the brain out and the membrane with a flat screwdriver.  Remove the majority of the meat and then just salt and let dry.  Come back with the dremel later and clean up.  The skull plate will be bone white and clean.  There will be no meat or membrane left on it and you won't have to dry pres or borax it.  There is nothing left but bone....  and no need to boil it.  Simple, quick and easy.

[RATTRAP]

power wash - a 1 minute job!

[Wildside]

When it is fresh pop the brain out and the membrane with a flat screwdriver.  Remove the majority of the meat and then just salt and let dry.  Come back with the dremel later and clean up.  The skull plate will be bone white and clean.  There will be no meat or membrane left on it and you won't have to dry pres or borax it.  There is nothing left but bone....  and no need to boil it.  Simple, quick and easy.

Same here.  You can even grind in a little bit of a groove under the antler bur to help when mounting.

[Rooster]

Trim all the meat off & rub dry preservative on it

yup

[RoyalOaksTaxidermy]

I clean off the meat and place it in a tub of borax for a few days.. then I hang it up til I need it... If there is any dried meat on it I just use the dremel and wallaaa ready to mount

[3maytaxidermy]

Trim the meat off and borax and mount them up

[wetandwild02]

Joe Meder mentions in his McKenzie video 'Commercial Whitetail Techniques' that you can carefully cook the flesh with propane torch then the dremel. I've tried it on 3 different ones works pretty well. He does add that you can overheat the skull cap too. So be gentle.