finished my euro mount

[JJ Overkill]

I finally finished working on my euro mount of the bull I shot this yr. I haven't finished making my skull hook yet, but that will be the easy part.

[Trophyhill]

wow that looks a helluva lot better than it did when I saw it. very nice!

[JJ Overkill]

1 more pic

[slim9300]

Looking good! I always thought about trying that on my own.

[>>>---WW---->]

It looks great! But I think they even look better if you glue the ivories back in.

You'll have to post how you did it. I'll bet a lot of guys would like to know the steps you used, including me. LOL! Looks like you did and awesome boil on it.

[cnelk]

Thats a great job!

My bull is done too.
My good buddy does 700-800 heads a year. [he put mine in front of many]
I remove the lower jaw tho

If you boil, just simmer. dont over-do it as it will fracture the skull
Its best to rot off the meat, using a tank heater, then degrease the skull using DAWN dish soap
You can get high % peroxide at most hair salons to get the bone nice and white

[JJ Overkill]

heres how I did everything. once I had the hide off I placed the head in large pot in water and dawn dish soap.( soap helps keep the oils out of the bone) I brought the water up to a low simmer. ( not a boil !) I had to take the head out of the water several times and cleaned the flesh off the skull. change out the water every time you pull the head out. note to self, do this outside. it will smell the garage up for some time. once I was happy with the cleaning I let the skull dry for about two weeks. when dumping out the water be on the look out for teeth and bones. the two nose bones will fall off. the bottom jaw will split and lose the front teeth.

I had to call around until I found the chems I was looking for. I ended up at a salon supply store. the lady there told me I needed developer 40% ( 4 gals) basically a strong peroxide and two tubes of whitener (bleach I guess) the lady said to pour the whitener into the developer and submerse the skull. ( apparently I wasn't the first guy to enter the store with an odd request ) it took around 6 hrs to get to the whiteness I wanted. it only took about 24hrs for it to dry after whitening.

I used my fletching glue to reconnect the nose bones, and to put the two jaw pieces back together.

the hard part of the lower jaw was getting the width right, getting the teeth to line up. I drilled holes into the jaw in four spots and glued pins into the holes.

one more thing, all the teeth got lose on me, I had to glue all of them into the socket. ( they didn't fall out, just loosened up).

feel free to ask for info if needed.

on a side note, ive never seen a mount with the lower jaw attached so I decided it would be neat to do.

[WapitiTalk1]

Looks great jeremy.

[Swede]

I like a European mount and have done several. Your is very attractive. Nice bull.

[Washington Wapiti]

Nice! Looks great! I've been working on mine all weekend along with cutting and wrapping meat. Ready to peroxide tomorrow!
I'm not really sure how to glue the ivories back in since there are no holes. I'm wondering if I lost some bone in the very front portion of the bottom jaw during the simmering process? In also wondering how long until the stank is totally out of the skull lol!

[WindedBowhunter]

Very nice work!

[Triplebhunters]

Looks good. I had my wife take mine into town to have head caped in the event I was going to have it mounted. And they cut antlers off only leaving enough skull to do mount, so European mount is out of the question for me. Again, looks good.

[BRazz]

Looks awesome - nice work!

[Washington Wapiti]

Oops, I meant the bottom teeth, not the ivories. I don't see any real way to glue these back on since there are no canals or anything left. Hard to tell from the photos . . . did you glue the bottom teeth back on yours jerinmn?

[JGH]

Very nice ... that's not easy work ... and especially not easy to do as well as you did!

[JJ Overkill]

Oops, I meant the bottom teeth, not the ivories. I don't see any real way to glue these back on since there are no canals or anything left. Hard to tell from the photos . . . did you glue the bottom teeth back on yours jerinmn?

I glued all the teeth, top and bottom. I glued them all on the inside of the mouth.

[cnelk]

Elmers glue works good.
Its dries clear and you can wipe off any excess

[Washington Wapiti]

I guess I should be more specific . . . the bottom FRONT teeth. My experience was the same as yours for the rest . . . they just loosened up, but did not fall out. I guess when I actually get ready to glue the bottom jaw all back together I will figure out how to get them on, if it makes sense to do so. Upon just giving it the once over though, since there is no gum tissue or canals at the front tip there was no obvious way to fit them back in. The gals at Sally's also had a good chuckle when the guy in the camo hat walked in saying, "Hello ladies, I need some beauty products!"

Thanks Brad, good to know! I was ready to go hardcore and bust out the 2-part epoxy LOL

[fenderhunt4]

looks great. i like how you left the lower jaw on too. i haven't seen that too much. nice job

[JJ Overkill]

sorry for the mix up. the bottom front teeth had the cannels left on it. they eroded away a bit but I was able to make it work. I used a lot of glue on them though

[Washington Wapiti]

No worries! Dang, lucky you . . . I simmered only and the front portion still eroded away too much. I will see what I can do, if not I will just leave them out. Again, nice mount! Thanks for sharing . . .