I just recieved a set of caribou antlers. The client stated that they weren't frozen and there are maggots at bases and some scrapes in velvet. The tips are very soft and I tried pressure washing and removed some antler. Do the soft antler tips harden after drying? Would you use an epoxy to repair the area removed by the pressure washer( the tips are still in tack but some was removed from the inner antler). The velvet seemed to be pretty attached, but not dried out. Is it best to soak and then pressure wash being careful not to hit the tips? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
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They never harden to the hardness of a regular antler. They were still growing when the animal was shot and they were a labyrinth of blood vessels with bone tissue growing around them. They will now be spongy and brittle. Epoxy is the only solution for this one. Check the archives on stripping velvet or caribou velvet antlers. It should be in there.
George. I have been reading the archives about velvet removal and if I understand correctly soaking them to loosen velvet is the way to start this process. Now that I have the one side of this rack stripped I still see maggots crawling on skull cap. Should I soak them in a bleach water solution and then set them out in the sun?
Take a deep breath and dive in with your scalpel. Maggots only hatch where there's putrid meat or velvet scraps. You need to get rid of it and then liberally dust your antlers and skull plate with DP or borax.It stops all that mess dead in its tracks.