Now this is a first for me. I have mounted hundreds of deer but never had this happen before.
I have a huge 200 class whitetail to do this year. I caped it out the day after it was killed and it was plenty cold enough to hang a day.
The skull cap was then cleaned and set aside. The client came by to pick them up to keep for a couple months to have scored. He brought them back the other day and I took them in the house (where any deer over 200" spend thier time waiting to be mounted). We were out of the house for a few hours and when we returned...something in the living room just didnt smell quite right, but I couldnt put my finger on it. Later we tracked the faint smell to the massive antlers laying at the end of the couch.
The skull cap has no smell, it is all coming directly from the antlers themselves. It has an odor that just reminds me of raw hamburger that has sat out too long. Not really rotten or rancid....just smelly.
Anyone else ever had this?
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Just the antlers that some one handle with stinky hand from who knows where.
Rub them down with a mild ammonia solution and a rag.
And Ill be willing to bet that if you thought about it for awhile, youd guess, too. The antlers have some residual blood inside. Lots of big or massive antlers do that. Sometimes caribou antlers drain even after hardening. Big whitetails do so, Ive seen it first hand!
Yep, that's what I was thinking too. There is alot of blood in the velvet but it's not the only blood.
I have a buck skull where the base of the antlers are so large they look as though they are one horn. Skull is prefectly clean, but the antlers still stink, but after several months this odor has gone away.
of elk antlers from an old bull I killed, that were still dripping blood from the broken points. Had the same smell. Now they are fine. I just let them dry in the garage for a couple of months
That was exactly my reasoning for what it might be, I was just nervous to venture that guess for fear of being ridiculed.
Thanks for the input everyone.