I recently had a friend bring me a head off a buck he shot last year, and he wants a european mount. I have cleaned many skulls before, but they were all fresh or at least soft. This one was just cut off and hung in a barn. It has all the hide and meat still attached, and it is hard as a rock. Some bugs have worked on it, but not much. I searched and found a lot of info on cleaning fresh skulls, but not something like this. I was thinking about setting it in a bucket of water outside in my shed and letting it rehydrate then cutting off chunks and cleaning as normal (but maybe with a gas mask:). Any ideas anyone?
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The way you are thinking is the very best way to do it in my opinion. It's as good as maceration and yes it's gonna stink.
i'm on the beetle kick today, so i'll continue to praise the little suckers. get some of these dermisted beetles, you don't need many, throw them in one of those big rubbermaid tubs with some sawdust and let 'em eat. I'm not a beetle expert, but i got some to try out on an old skull that had some dry hard skin and meat on it and within a month or so, my beetles multiplied by 4 times and the skull was completly clean. To me they are very low maintenance and do a hell of a job. Give em a try, they're pretty cool, just don get them wet, or too cold, and give them a light mist every other day or so with water. good luck.
at least not in the present state at which the skull is in. Even beetles have their limits. And on mummified flesh, maceration may not be sufficient just yet either. The only way to get that flesh off is to loosen it up, and bugs or water isn't going to do that. Make an ammonia solution with water. The ammonia will cause the flesh to swell tremendously. You can then cut off these pieces and repeat. A good soaking will loosen the flesh enough to clean it by hand. If you're going to use bugs, rinse it of the ammonia first. I wouldn't recommend the bugs though. No need to waste that kind of money on a deer skull, especially since you will need plenty of hungry bugs to clean a skull of that size.