Skull cleaning afield?

[WannabeHunter]

Diving west for elk this year. If successesful, would be planning for euro mount. Can't cut the skull plate, so wuuld need to clean the skull before transporting cross country. Best way to accomplish cleaning the skull afield or with limited boiling supplies? Pressure washer at a car wash?

 

[Gunnersdad49]

skin it asap, then car wash

 

[dieNqvrs]

Skin and take as much meat off as possible around back and sides of skull. Pop out eyes and lower jaw off. Then take a stick and scramble the brains and shake it out. The brain is what starts to stink and get rotten. After that is done it can be dried and it won’t bleed or really stink any skull taxi can deal with it like that.

 

[hammerguy]

Car wash, absolutely. Spray, spray some more, and then spray again.

 

[WannabeHunter]

skin it asap, then car wash

Confirmed my thoughts

Skin and take as much meat off as possible around back and sides of skull. Pop out eyes and lower jaw off. Then take a stick and scramble the brains and shake it out. The brain is what starts to stink and get rotten. After that is done it can be dried and it won’t bleed or really stink any skull taxi can deal with it like that.

I was really looking to comply with CWD laws crossing multiple states.

 

[dieNqvrs]

Confirmed my thoughts




I was really looking to comply with CWD laws crossing multiple states.

Not sure how CWD regs read for transportation across state line. But... The brain removal via car wash nozzle or stick stir and shake out accomplishes the same thing and would be the same from a regulatory perspective. Brain stem and brain-Out is out. Now if regs reads high temp or some other method of removal defined then you are bound by that.

 

[Felix40]

Regs generally read “clean” skull.

 

[jspradley]

Be careful in NM, they are pretty strict.

http://www.wildlife.state.nm.us/conservation/invasive-species-and-diseases/chronic-wasting-disease/


Department rules allows hunters who take a deer or elk within a control area to transport only certain portions of the carcass outside the boundaries of the Game Management Unit from which it was taken. Those portions include:

• Meat that is cut and wrapped, either commercially or privately.
• Quarters or other portions of meat with no part of the spinal column or head attached.
• Meat that has been boned out.
• Hides with no heads attached.
• Clean skull plates with antlers attached. Clean is defined as having been immersed in a bath of at least one part chlorine bleach and two parts water, with no meat or tissue attached.
• Antlers, with or without velvet, attached to skull plate with no meat or tissue attached.
• Upper canine teeth, also known as “buglers,” whistlers,” or “ivories.”
• Finished taxidermied heads.

 

[WannabeHunter]

Those NM regs are quite extensive! I've checked all states I'm planning on traveling through. Most read similarly to SC regs. The trick is how tightly states enforce it and which person is inspecting. I've read where several midwest states are very serious about CWD and will nab hunters on their way back east. Planning on making it as clean as possible to avoid any questions.

It is illegal to import into South Carolina or possess in South Carolina a whole cervid carcass or carcass part from an infected state (see list below), except the following may be imported:
-Quarters or other portions of meat with no part of the spinal column or head attached
-Meat that has been boned out
-Hides with no heads attached
-Clean (no meat or tissue attached) skulls or skull plates with antlers attached; antlers (detached from the skull plate)
-Clean upper canine teeth from elk, also called “buglers,” “whistlers,” or “ivories;” and finished taxidermy heads.

 

[muddydogs]

Taking a fresh skull to a car wash and trying to get the meat removed is an expensive messy waste of time unless you simmer the skull for an hour or so to get the meat loose. Heck after an hour simmer there is no car wash required as the meat is fairly easy to get off.

 

[FLAK]

I been wondering the same. Got a Dec. Coues hunt coming up in SW NM. I really don't want to skull cap one.