Skull cleaning...

[LeverActionJunkie]

What is the best way y'all have found for cleaning bear skulls? I always have trouble getting all the brains out so lets hear it from some more experienced bear slayers:) Seems like appropriate timing to me.

[boxhitch]

Deja Vu......again....or did I say that yesterday?.....:)

[Schmaus]

I have the same problem or the other one is I boil the skull till it falls apart

[bighornbob]

Take a coat hanger or anything similar and put a J into it (like a fish hook). Use this to basically blend the brain. The hook can also be used to pull the bigger chunks out. I then use the tapand flush alot of the residu out. At the same time I remove all the other big meat chunks with a knife. I then boil for about 15 then take to a pressure washer. Stick the nozzle up the skull cavity and blast away. I would reccommmend wearing rain pants when doing this. The pressure washer is also used to get all the meat off. Works like a hot dam.

BHB

[Stone Sheep Steve]

The guys at the car wash usually love picking the brains out of the drains after you're done:roll: .

Hopefully, you've got a pressure washer at home:| .

SSS

[Wildman]

Dopem to the bottom of the ocean.......off a warf in a marina tied to a rope for a while. That will clean the scull up spotless.

[srupp]

Go to a taxidermist..or a tannery for a reasonable fee they will boil the skull, bleach the skull and re glue the teeth back in. Or if ya know of anyone with DERMADID????SPEELLING?? beetles they work good also.

steven

[pork n beans]

yup hang em off the dock

[CullenSkink]

I've heard ant hills do the trick as well, chain it up so that something bigger doesn't wander off with it.

[talver]

remove as much if the meat with a knife coat hanger in a fish hook shape the brain then boil it for a hour. then burry it in the ground for 30 days dig it up bleach it and glue in any teeth that have come loose.

[7mmWSM]

Bury it a foot below the surface in your garden, and presto one year later it'll come out clean as rain.

[BearSniper]

Skulls,

First get all the material and flesh off with your knife or an old spoon and some elbow grease.:x

Several options:

Bury it in ground, leave it in garden during spring and summer near ants,

Or boil it for several hours in an old canning pot on the campstove,

or soak it in a solution of water/bleach or water/hydrogen peroxide, then boil it.

If you have one of those fancy steamer cleaners, that'll work too.:lol:

Good luck

[3kills]

i agree with srupp on this one take it to the taxi and get it done up its not that much and if its a big bear or a nice color and u are gettin a rug they do it for free ;)

[Rainwater]

HELLO BC FARMER, he cleans the best skulls, hopefully he will post.

[LeverActionJunkie]

Thanks for the tips, i've never tried burying it. Since I'm a ways from the ocean I think I'll try it can't be too difficult. Last time the ol' lady got pretty mad when the smell of boiling brains wouldn't leave the house :) :)

[3kills]

eeewww never boil in the house lol...
if u bury it make sure u wrap it in chicken mesh and tie a rope to it and then tie the other end to a tree or something so that if another animals happens to find it they dont dig it up and pack off or wreck it....

[hunter1947]

Just get you stove cranked outside and start boiling the head in a big pot of water ,pull it out every so often a scrap the meat off of it, continue doing this till all is off. Keep in mind that the teeth will fall out when you are doing this ,i just use 5 minute epoxy to hold them in place after. hunter 1947.

[dana]

When you boil in the house throw some liquid laundry soap in. It keeps the smell nice and keeps the marrow from turning your skull yellow.

[lip_ripper00]

When you boil in the house throw some liquid laundry soap in. It keeps the smell nice and keeps the marrow from turning your skull yellow.
also helps brake down fat faster:wink:

[boxhitch]

Boil only enough to cook the meat, the bone doesn't have to be tender. Baking soda in the water eats things away cleaner.

[Rod]

I stick mine in a bucket of water, change the water every couple of weeks and in about 2 months it clean as a whistle and none of the internal structure inside the nasal cavity etc is damaged at all.

Still looking for someone working a fish plant as they aparently have access to some powerfull peroxide for bleaching, household bleach will damage the bone I am told and it will get quite brittle.

[bcfarmer]

if your not a patient person and dont like drinking beer all sunday afternoon then take the suggestion of taking it to the taxidermist.

DO THIS OUTSIDE

after removing as much meat as possible, cover base of horns with tinfoil then boil for about 1-1.5 hrs (add dish soap) then start cleaning off the cooked meat. be carefull around the nazal cavity there is some fragyle cartlige there that you will want to keep.
boil again...maybe half hour and repeat, scramble brains with hooked wire then wash skull with pressure washer or garden nozzle.

DONT THROW OUT WATER UNTIL AFTER CHECKING ALL TEETH ARE THERE

run a bead of crazy or hot glue on inside of teeth
use dentil or wood picks and needle nose pliers to remove any small hard to get peices.
when clean.....double up 2 good garbage bags and place skull inside... then fill with 34% peroxide (available at vetrinary) and leave for 24 hrs...will come out snow white.
you might have to do a little brushing on areas that peroxide doesnt get good enough...wear gloves using peroxide as it will burn your skin. also dont get any on horns if doing deer/moose etc.

dont use bleach...looks great initially but 3-5 years bones become brittle and flake.

to do this right, figure on 3-4 hrs min....and lots of beer!

[trapdawg]

Boil skull in o- so clean detergent antil meat lose on skull. Then take a pressure washer and blow out brain+ access meat. Then put peroxide on paper towel and lay on skull for two hours then rinse skull as peroxide will eat it. Skull should be peral white...

[elkguide]

I have personnaly done about 140 bear skulls.....the best way i know is to do what most of the guys are sayin and use a coat hanger to start......in a big pot boil your water and add 3 tablespoons of ( TSP ... household cleaner).....stay away from bleach as it breaks down the membrane of the skull and they don't last nearly as long after. boil the skull till most of the meat has seperated from the skull.......then wash it under pressure.....finally let it sit outside in the sun for a week or so....the sunlight will react with the TSP and bleach the skull for you.....break the nasal cavity up real good. this method I find I don't loose many teeth and get an over all nicer looking skull....not fake looking like when you over bleach them.

[Chuck]

Get a 10 gallon (depending on the skull size) plastic container with a lid. Put about 2" of damp sawdust in the bottom. Put the whole skull in - no need to skin, trim or anything else. Get a can with a lid and go to a farmer's field that has plenty of cattle. Wander around flipping over cow patties. Be quick, and every time you see one of those black beetles with the orange band on it, grab it up and put it in the can. These are "Dermestid" beetles and will eat just about anything, except bone. Collect as many as you can - at least a dozen or more. Bring them back home, and dump them in with the skull. Seal the lid, but have plenty of small vent holes the beetles can't escape from. Move the container away to a secluded place out of the weather cuz it will start to smell something awful. Flies will try get in, but if the holes are meshed over they won't. Check now and then, but in about a month and a half you should end up with a snow white skull and maybe a pile of fur or not. Dump the contents, bleach out the container and you're ready for next time. I forgot to mention that it isn't the beetles that clean the skull, it's their offspring - the larvae. Flies will do the same, but they're slower and must liquify the meat first, beetle larvae are cleaner. Bone might be stained a bit, especially on the bottom- hence the sawdust, so they can get everywhere.

[boxhitch]

Collect 500 adults, and in about a months time you should have enough larvae to eat a pound or two of flesh. It takes time to raise a colony.

[Gun Dog]

Very cool --

Adult:
http://www.life.uiuc.edu/ib/109/Insect%20rearing/photos/dermestid%20adult.JPG

Larva:
http://www.life.uiuc.edu/ib/109/Insect%20rearing/photos/dermestid.jpg

Dermestid Colony Specimen Preparation (http://cmsc.minotstateu.edu/museum/dermestidcolony.html)

It's important to freeze the specimen afterwards to kill the larva -- you don't want them loose in the house.

[LeverActionJunkie]

Thanks for the helpful info chuck I appreciate it. And thanks for the pics Gun Dog, always helps to know what ur looking for:)

[dana]

I've done a magot farm before on my buddy's 190 inch muley skull. Only took 3 days. Put the skull in a plastic tote box. Put a ton of scrap meat around the skull, wrapped it with some excess hide and got it nice and wet. Threw a black plastic bag over the top with tons of holes in it for flys to get in. It was a rather skinky process, and the magot grime left over will make ya wanna throw up, or at the very least throw the entire tote in the trash. ;)