Ok, so I get this longhorn to mount last fall, and I CANNOT get the horns off that beast. It is 63 inches from tip to tip, so its rather large, I have had it in a tank 3 different times for periods of about two weeks, followed by summer heat in black garbage bags. They wont even budge! I didnt really wanna try to boil them off, cuz i was afraid they might get deformed, plus im not sure what i would use to boil a 33 inch horn in. I tried a rubber mallet but dont want to break them, plus ive heard it said that "You cant always beat the horns off a cow head with a rubber mallet". Anywho, if anyone has any ideas a response would be greatly appreciated. Someone on the archives here mentioned something about steaming them off, not quite sure how that would work out, but if you have any info on that, drop a line.
Thanx Branden
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I had a longhorn which I soaked for nearly a year and did just about everything on it you did. It never came off. I also had that happen with an aoudad before and a mouflon. Once in a while you will run into a horned animal which will not release the horns, either both of them or just one.
In a case like this I just lay out the skull in the sun for a couple of days and let it dry real good. After that I spray highly concentrated bug poisioning (you can get it at the local feed store) all around the horncore, into crevices and around anything that looks like a crack or chip. That's pretty much all you can do.
I have a gemsbok I treated this way about 9 years ago and never had a problem with bugs getting into the horns. They also never released in all these years.
Branden: boiling is the best way and the fastest,less bacteria.
The reason the horns are not coming off,is the animals horns have come to maturity and will not grow any more,all the tuisue in the horns dye and dry up and the horn core will not come off,or sometimes the horn is damaged and stops growing and boiling will not take them off, nothing will.