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How To Get (the) Head - 11/29/2007 4:52:17 PM

camille65

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Joined: 7/11/2007
From: Austin Texas
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Okay friends, strangers and friendly strangers I have a question that may squick some of you out but I hope to get an answer that works. If you get squicked over dead nature then please read no further, I don't want to be responsible for anyones creepy dreams. I have a dead deer in my yard. I didn't see it in time for possible processing but! but! most of it is intact and I want the skull.

Looking at it I am pretty sure I can remove the head with some messy neck damage (snow shovel) but my question is, once I remove the head um, how do I get it to the pretty shiny clean skull stage? It still has hair and stuff, I cannot bring myself to boil it clean. I just can't do that but yes I can decapitate it (I think) lol. If it were summer I would bury it and have the insects clean it but it is snowy outside.

Help me, help me get my head.

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RE: How To Get (the) Head - 11/29/2007 4:58:37 PM

seeksfemslave

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You are a braver man than me Gunga Din.

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RE: How To Get (the) Head - 11/29/2007 5:00:09 PM

MissMagnolia

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I have no idea, but ICK!!!

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RE: How To Get (the) Head - 11/29/2007 5:02:00 PM

camille65

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Joined: 7/11/2007
From: Austin Texas
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Hey I did warn ya MissM lol. What can I say? I really like bones. But I can't figure out how to get it to that stage all on its own during the wintertime lol.Jeez you react like I'm asking something weird.

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RE: How To Get (the) Head - 11/29/2007 5:02:22 PM

slaveboyforyou

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From: Arkansas, U.S.A.
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You're going to have to boil it or use some sort of acid to get the thing clean. Even if it were summer, I wouldn't advise burying it in your yard. That smell still comes up out of the ground, unless you bury it really deep. That's why they embalm corpses just to be on the safe side. You could always give it to your dog I guess and let him/her clean it *lol*.

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RE: How To Get (the) Head - 11/29/2007 5:03:55 PM

handlewithcare

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Joined: 5/31/2005
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To remove the brains from the skull you first need to cut away the skin that covers the area between the eyes and the back of the antlers (on Does just go to where the antlers would be). Then use a hacksaw to make a V shaped cut into the skull. The antlers can be used as a lever to remove the cut bone. A messier but equally effective alternative is to smash this section of skull with a stone. Be careful not to cut yourself on bone shards. Once the skull is open use a spoon, fingers or straw to remove all of the brains.

Boiling it is much easier. You can always load it up and take it somewhere. Let them do it for you. Good luck!

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RE: How To Get (the) Head - 11/29/2007 5:06:47 PM

camille65

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From: Austin Texas
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I really want to find another way dang it. I've buried smaller with success, using a five gallon bucket over it (upside down and weighted) but this winter stuff complicates the whole thing. I'd rather not touch it if I don't have to until it is free of bits.Do you think, if I left it alone that the critters would clean it but NOT take the head? Last year something stole the head of a huge dead turtle (roadkill) that a friend brought me.

I got some really really cool claws, teeth and bones of unknown type though.

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RE: How To Get (the) Head - 11/29/2007 5:08:53 PM

camille65

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From: Austin Texas
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Hey thanks handlewithcare! She was a doe or at least there aren't antlers. I hadn't realised I could take it somewhere, I guess a taxidermist? Or would a processor do it?A carcass this size is new to me! And to think it just landed in my yard in time for it to be a Christmas present!

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RE: How To Get (the) Head - 11/29/2007 5:10:26 PM

MissMagnolia

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I searched it and came up with this:

http://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071116204043AAROxvr

I still think you're a sick little girlie

ICK!!! LOL.

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RE: How To Get (the) Head - 11/29/2007 5:12:13 PM

handlewithcare

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The head will more than likely get dragged off by another critter. Your best bet is to boil it. If you know someone that tans their own hides, they will more than likely clean it for you. The brains are used in tanning.

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RE: How To Get (the) Head - 11/29/2007 5:13:25 PM

camille65

Posts: 5746
Joined: 7/11/2007
From: Austin Texas
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: MissMagnolia

I searched it and came up with this:

http://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071116204043AAROxvr

I still think you're a sick little girlie ICK!!! LOL.

But ya do love me right??Thankies for that link, it looks like I'm going to have to do the dirty work after all. Omg I just realised ............... maybe I can convince my dom to do it when he gets here on Sunday! Whoooohooooooo he was an Eagle Scout! I can ask for a demo on getting head hahahahaha.

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RE: How To Get (the) Head - 11/29/2007 5:13:28 PM

handlewithcare

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Joined: 5/31/2005
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Yes, a taxidermist can do it for you.

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RE: How To Get (the) Head - 11/29/2007 5:15:03 PM

camille65

Posts: 5746
Joined: 7/11/2007
From: Austin Texas
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: handlewithcare

The head will more than likely get dragged off by another critter. Your best bet is to boil it. If you know someone that tans their own hides, they will more than likely clean it for you. The brains are used in tanning.

Sounds like an outdoor use the grill thingie and not an indoor using the kitchen stove thingie. Gotta admit that part really does gross me out. But I really want the skull to go with my collection.

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RE: How To Get (the) Head - 11/29/2007 5:25:48 PM

DominicsJoy

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In Oklahoma City there is a place... I used to laughingly refer to it as "skulls are us"... They make a living processing carcasses. They deal in all types of skeletons, human and animal. They even have some dinosaur remains and replicas. They do use different agents to clean the bones and when they are done they are lovely (if you can see loveliness in the way bones look and work). The name is Skulls Unlimited, and they are on S. Sunnylane. I have been to their showroom and have purchased things like porcupine quills, Black Buck Horns and various skulls. They ship internationally and have a catalog as well.
If you do not feel like mutilating the carcass, you may want to investigate ordering a skull with or without antlers intact from them direct. They are great people and you will not be disappointed.

Master's girl- joy

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RE: How To Get (the) Head - 11/29/2007 5:28:41 PM

DominicsJoy

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Joined: 8/28/2004
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One last bit... boiling will not work. I have tried myself with a smaller skull. It only weakens the bones. A deer has a fine bone structure, and it's skull and jaw are realitively weak when compared to a carnivore. If you try boiling it.... your house will smell hideous and you will get muck.

Master's girl- joy

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Post #: 15

RE: How To Get (the) Head - 11/29/2007 5:39:15 PM

camille65

Posts: 5746
Joined: 7/11/2007
From: Austin Texas
Status: offline

Yuck @ muck. Thanks for the information on the store, ohyes I can see beauty in things like that. I always have but not in a creepy way or at least I don't think it's creepy lol. I've bones, snake skins and the like scattered around my house.A fully mounted skull bothers me but bones never have. I think I'm going to skip trying to boil it, I may try putting a snow fence around the body. There are a lot of hawks and other birds that aren't big enough to carry 'my' bones off. Yanno what's funny... I looked at my 'who is looking at me' thingie and I got a ton of hits since posting this hahaha. Now that is creepy

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RE: How To Get (the) Head - 11/29/2007 5:54:36 PM

Gwynvyd

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I love bones and all that stuff too so I am right there with ya. Here is a guide on how to get it exactly how you want it. You can't be squeamish... but just honor the spirit of the dead animal.. and you will be fine. As they say be upwind from a neighbor you dislike. LOL

http://www.simpsontaxidermy.com/Skullclean.htm

If you dont want to get up close and personal give it to a pro.

Gwyn

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Come for the boobs, stay for the brains.

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Post #: 17

RE: How To Get (the) Head - 11/29/2007 5:57:55 PM

Sanity

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From: Nampa, Idaho USA
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Can't you just hoist it up high, onto a tree branch or up to the top of an outbuilding or something and just let the birds peck it clean? Crows and magpies would love it, and they could probably get a lot of the brains out through the eye sockets. Flies and maggots would take care of the rest eventually. That's how I would do it, I'd just leave it up on my barn. No one would see it or smell it out there!

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RE: How To Get (the) Head - 11/29/2007 5:59:38 PM

batshalom

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Joined: 9/17/2007
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I can appreciate your appreciation of bones. What strikes me as ... interesting ... is that you can decapitate it but you can't bring yourself to boil it (prior to the muck post). You could cut off a deer's head ... but you couldn't boil it. You chould chop its neck in two with a snow shovel but you couldn't boil it.

~tickled~

Girl. We need to go out sometime.

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RE: How To Get (the) Head - 11/29/2007 6:36:10 PM

bipolarber

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Not so much taking it to a meat processor, or taxidermist, but a tannery should be able to help you out. (At least, that's who I went to for my goat, cow and bobcat skulls.)

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Post #: 20

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