Cleaning up a Bear Head

[lostbowman]

Looking for help on how the best way to clean up a head bear head to get it scored . At this time it looks like it rough scores 20 1/16 so i do not want it loss anything Thankyou :lol:

[scooter]

Sir_huntsalot is our resident taxidermy expert...He should be able to tell ya....OH SIRHUNTSALOT!!

[BlueNorther]

I boiled the skulls of my bears and then just got in there with a knife and started cutting off the meat.It helps to take off what you can before boiling it.A coat hanger with a slight hook is good for getting the brain out from the back of the skull.To bleach it I use an 80% peroxide solution.Note: be careful with that stuff,it'll burn you fast.To keep the teeth from cracking or breaking I coated them all with Mod Podge,it's a clear adhesive.Believe me the teeth will crack if you don't do this.

[sir_huntsalot]

Cleaning skulls is a nasty job no matter how you do it. Boiling and using beatles are the two methods I use. Like Blue Norther said get as much meat off as you can with a knife, cut out the tounge , boil it and pick the meat off. You may have to throw it back in the pot a couple times to loosen all the meat. Be careful not to boil it too long or the teeth may all come loose and fall out. Make sure you get all the brain out.
The second way is my prefered method of letting the bugs do the work. When I lived in the country I used to have a little cage to put the skulls in. In the summer the beattles would be on it within a day and pick the skull pretty clean within a couple weeks. They go right into the skull and get at all the hard to clean places like the brain cavity. If you use the bug method dont lay the skull directly on the ground or it will stain the the skull and will be hard to bleach white. Also cover the skull up with a dark tarp or something, if you just leave it out in the open the beatles dont work at it as hard. They seem to like their privacy. You can use a bleach water mixture like norther said or you can try this little trick. If it is available in your area you can use Spray9 Marine, it has to be the marine grade , the regular spray9 will not work. After boiling and cleaning the skull spray on the spray9 and use a scrub brush or a soft wire brush to scrub the skull . Let it set til it dries and reapeat the process until the skull is nice and white. The spray9 seems to pull the grease out of the skull and bleaches it pretty nice. The only problem with bear skulls is that if the set around for a while the grease seems to be harder to get out. Coating the teeth is a good idea as well. If you get any loose ones just glue them. Good luck and have fun HE HE :lol:

[pupper]

Here is a step by step article and video of how to skin, clean, and prepare a bear skull:

http://www.huntingtipsandtricks.com/a/How_to_Clean_a_Bear_Skull_and_Make_a_European_Moun t_In_5_Easy_Steps

it is a gross but fun job :)