william schmaltz
WKR
Maceration will take care of everything from nasal cavity to the tough cartilage on the posterior side of the skull. I finally picked up an electric roaster a couple years ago. Set it and forget in the garage at about 150 degrees for about a week. No reason to add anything to the water initially. I will usually change out the water every couple of days. After about day 3 most of the large chunks will fall off. After a week the skull will be clean including the inside of the nasal cavity. Just run it under the faucet and everything will wash out.
You can be done at that step or degrease it next. Degreasing is the same way. I do add some dawn to the water in the roaster and let it sit in warm water for several weeks. Change water weekly. I’ve also just set them in dawn water in 5 gallon buckets if the temperature is warm. All the grease is removed from the skull when no more oil is visible on top of the water after a week of soaking.
I just started this way a couple year ago and have had no problem with grizz, black bears, mtn. goat, and caribou. The caribou was tricky. Need to tie the antlers up to the ceiling but it worked. Obviously would need something different for elk and moose. Moose are such a pain that I just took my most recent to a guy in town to do it for a few hundred bucks.
I no longer boil skulls. It worked OK for when I used to do whitetails and mulies that I just hung in the shop. I still have shoe boxes with mt. lion, fisher, and bobcat skulls that I need to put together after ruining in boiling water. I’ve also boiled a moose to the point of somehow calcifying the nasal cartilage. All very disappointing lessons.
None of this is gospel and try at your own risk, its just what works for me. There are numerous better ways. One day I will have a large enough shop to start a beetle colony. I still think that this the ideal method.
You can be done at that step or degrease it next. Degreasing is the same way. I do add some dawn to the water in the roaster and let it sit in warm water for several weeks. Change water weekly. I’ve also just set them in dawn water in 5 gallon buckets if the temperature is warm. All the grease is removed from the skull when no more oil is visible on top of the water after a week of soaking.
I just started this way a couple year ago and have had no problem with grizz, black bears, mtn. goat, and caribou. The caribou was tricky. Need to tie the antlers up to the ceiling but it worked. Obviously would need something different for elk and moose. Moose are such a pain that I just took my most recent to a guy in town to do it for a few hundred bucks.
I no longer boil skulls. It worked OK for when I used to do whitetails and mulies that I just hung in the shop. I still have shoe boxes with mt. lion, fisher, and bobcat skulls that I need to put together after ruining in boiling water. I’ve also boiled a moose to the point of somehow calcifying the nasal cartilage. All very disappointing lessons.
None of this is gospel and try at your own risk, its just what works for me. There are numerous better ways. One day I will have a large enough shop to start a beetle colony. I still think that this the ideal method.
