NV Muley

falloutwest

Active Member
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249
Killed this buck in northern NV on a solo rifle hunt. No monster but decent none the less. Spotted him from about a half mile away throught the spotting scope and only was able to look at him for about a minute in heat waves before he bedded in brush and boulders at the base of a 150 foot cliff. Figured I'd go over there and get him up and make a decision. Jumped him out of his bed at 30 yards in shoulder high brush (I know, the tallest brush in the photo is 8 inches but he dropped off the hill quite a ways before dying) and had about 20 seconds to decide whether to take him or keep hunting, I chose the first option. Not quite a wall hanger so I boiled and cleaned the skull myself, then had my taxidermist buid me a synthetic rock to put him on that matched the rocks where I killed him. I usually hunt with friends and greatly enjoy that, but spotting, killing, cleaning, and packing out this buck all by myself was a pretty rewarding experience. Especially since I was about 20 miles from the nearest civilization.

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LAST EDITED ON Nov-14-09 AT 07:11PM (MST)[p]that is a great buck and the rock completes the mount. if you dont mind me asking was it expensive??
 
I did all the skull work myself so no, the rock was not that expensive. This buck went head over heals in the rocks when I shot him and busted his third point off on the right side. So, my taxi had to repair the horn and build the rock and all said it was around $130.
 
thats pretty reasonable. did you do the skull work by boiling it in water with baking soda? this last one i did was the first time trying it with bakeing soda. it was so much easyer the flesh turns to like a almost jelly and nearly falls off. it made the nasal cavity a breese with out busting it up too bad like i normaly do.
 
I simmered it in water with a little dish soap, about 4 different times (a couple hours each time). It was alright that way, lots of picking and scraping as usual. Then after it was clean, I simmered it in a water/peroxide bath to bring out some white. Never tried baking soda, will have to keep that in mind next time.
 
ill start my skinning and scraping what i can then boil for about 45 min with about a cup of baking soda. then scrap then boil for 20min with more baking soda i repeated about 3 times. every thing turns like a jelly and almost falls off. then i soak in peroxide over night put in the sun to dry for a few days.

i cant take my eyes off of your mount. it looks really good.
 
you guys need to save yourselves some time and use a powerwasher on it as soon as your done boiling. Takes 99% off in a couple seconds. don't spray in the nasal cavity though. really helps for the back underside of the skull


"blaming guns for violence is like blaming spoons for Rosie O'donnell being fat."
 
West, what type of nozzle do you use? Have you had any problems with damaging the thin bones? I have a pressure washer but that thing has some serious power and I would think it would be easy to damage a freshly boiled skull.
 
you want a spray similiar to what you would find at a do it yourself car wash. The spray that fans out. Actually i know a couple guys that go to the car wash. As you know most of what you have to widdle on is on the back of the skull i stick the sprayer darn near directly on the bone in this area. I'm sure ive done close to 2 dozen skulls this way and never had and issue. If i have anything hanging out around the nose and inner eye socket area i do quick angled blasts at it. Never broken a bone.



"blaming guns for violence is like blaming spoons for Rosie O'donnell being fat."
 

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