I am new at this field so bear with me.. But in my few experiences I have found that when I boil the antlers down, I get a darker finish on the pedicle area of my antlers. I know that the resort for this is to start hitting it with some elbow grease and just flesh it out. But the stuff is really hard and I think the boiling method is my best option. I have read to that if you soak it in an ammonia mixture it will revive it to an easier to flesh form. How long does this take, and what kinda recommendation could you give me. I would like to keep the natural color and finish on the antlers but I am thinking that with that being the case cooking them may not be my best option. Or could it be i have been doing something wrong... Any help is appreciated.
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If you consider the amount of time you or another hunter took in the woods to harvest their prized set of antlers, anhour or two to clean them properly seems of little consequence. Why harm the most prized part of the deer we chase?
I just scrape off the flesh and then coat the skull cap with dry preservatives. Before I mount I brush of the dry preservatives and go over them with a dremel with grinder bit and remove anything I may have missed. I put less than 15 minutes of labor into antler/skullcap prep.
Take a knife and get as much off as you can and then use a small propane torch to burn the rest off. works great with no time.