Watch: DIY European Skull Trophy Mount

“If you’re not into watching the long-term preservation of animals, please turn it off now. Don’t be nasty, don’t make a dirty comment, this is how it works–and it’s fantastic and beautiful when it’s done.”

The above is part of the intro to this video, which shows how to clean everything off (and out) of a skull and make it bright white.

It’s a pretty good tutorial, but I personally think he goes too far with the whitening. They look less natural when they’re that bright, and in the last scene it’s evident that his method may remove some of the natural brown color from the bases of antlers–and that’s no bueno.

All in all, it does a good job of showing how to get rid of all the excess tissue. I’ve cleaned up many deer skull plates, some deer skulls, and an alligator skull, so I know they can be quite troublesome.

He mentions your local taxidermist, and it’s worth knowing that you can often take a caped buck head to a taxidermist, who will clean up your skull for a European mount in exchange for the cape. So anytime I get a buck I’m not going to mount, I cape it out anyhow and bring it to my buddy the taxidermist.

Enjoy.

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.