Boiling a goat head

[moonlight]

Hey guys. Looking for a bit of expertise. My dad drew a Gerber muzzleloader goat tag in South central Oregon. I went down for the opener with him and we had a blast. Saw lots of goats, and had several opertunities, but goats being what they are, it never happened for him that weekend. I ended up having to leave and head home for the first week of school (I am a teacher). He went back out the end of last week adn was able to close the deal on a nice buck. We scored him, and while I know we may have made some mistakes, came up with approximately 74. A nice representative goat. Not a monster, but it is his first. Now, he would like nothing more than to mount it, but really can't afford to do it. So he is thinking of having me do a euro mount for him. I have done a few deer and an elk for him, and they turned out great, but I have heard that it is different to do a goat becasue of the horns. I don't want to mess this thing up, so can anyone give me any pointers, or is this something that you just should let a pro handle? thanks ahead of time guys, and good luck to all this fall as the seasons continue.
"success Is Reason Enough!"

 

[NDBadlandsbucks]

I've done a couple myself, and what I've done is when tit starts boiling good I check it and see if the horns are loosening up. After a little bit they will just pull right off. I then throw the head back in the water and let it boil while I work on the horns. There will probably bee some soft tissue on the inside of the horns. I just take a knife and stick it in right along the inside edge of the horn and run it all the way around the inside to scoop out that tissue. Also, it seems to me that the horns have a little bit of a smell to them so I usually take something like baking soda and fill the inside of the horns and let them set for a couple of days to air out before dumping out the baking soda and reassembling the skull and horns. It's really not that difficult, and I don't really think that you could screw it up.

Keep the Sun at Your Back and the Wind in Your Face

 

[JJTMD]

I know that I won't do it again. It can be kinda a pain.

-Cape it out like you would a deer. Be careful around the
bottom of the the horns, they are somewhat soft and the hair
grows right into the horns. It is better to leave more hair
than to cut off horn.

-Stick the skull in a black trash bag with the horns sticking
out (between the base and prongs) and seal the bag the best
you can. Put the bag and skull in the sun. This will heat
everything in the bag up and speed the rotting process.

-After a couple of days, and a bad smell, take the head out of
the bag. Get tough and pull the horn off of the skull. If it
won't come off, put it back in the bag and wait longer.

-Once the horn or sheath comes off the skull, cut the pink and
green stinky crap off of the skull (it's what holds the horn
to the skull).

-From here go ahead and flesh, boil out and finish the skull.

-You may or may not shorten the horn part of the skull (be sure
to leave enough to hold the sheath on the skull). You can
even put some sort of pesticide on the horn part that is left
to discourage any insects.

-The sheaths will still be rotten smelling. I fill them with
Arm and Hammer and let them sit for quite a while, until the
stinch is gone, and then a little longer.

-You can either find some kind of glue to secure the sheaths to
the skull or you can just leave them and let them slip on and
off.

-Next find your choice of stand or wall plaque and mount the
skull to it.

-Finally, kick back and enjoy, or by this time, go and kill
another antelope that you got drawn for the following year
(JK).

I am not a professional but this process has worked for me. It took quite a few phone calls and some guidance from a taxidermist.

If you are looking to save a few bucks, give it a try. You will never be able to say that you have never done it.

GOOD LUCK and congratulations to the hunter

 

[cataximan]

I sent you a pm.

 

[jims]

I have done quite a few antelope over the years and many of the things mentioned above work great. One thing you want to make sure of if you put it in a garbage bag is that the skull is ceiled well. If the skull/horns dry out it will be nearly impossible to get the horns off!

I got a pretty good buck this year that I wanted to get officially scored so wanted to speed up the process. Instead of using a plastic bag and letting the horns rot (and stink) I submerged my horns in a small tub for a couple days. I changed the water a couple times to keep the smell down (and the wife happy!). Once the water started boiling it only took about 15 minutes for the horns to pop off (pulling like a son of a gun). The rest of the meat and "stuff" came off pretty easy. Definitely don't let the skull dry out or it takes many more hours to clean (especially for a european skull mount).

There are a couple kinds of pyroxide that work great for whitening up the skull after you have cleaned it up. There is a paste you can buy at a beauty supply store or pyroxide liquid that you can dip the skull in. Try to get the highest concentration pyroxide and make sure you wear gloves because that stuff is nasty!

 

[jims]

Forgot to mention that there are moths that can raise cain on all the mounts in your house that may appear if you don't clean every i-o-da of meat off your skull. It has gotten to the point that I take out the entire nasel area on my skulls because there is a lot of tissue, meat, etc that these moths will feast on for years if this tissue isn't removed! One of the best ways to take the nasel area out is with needle-nosed pliers. I also put bondo between the horn and horn sheaths. This not only holds the horns in place but prevents the moths from getting inside the sheaths. Hope this helps!

 

[ForkWest]

If your wife will let you, or you have an old microwave, 5-7 minutes in there and they'll pull right off! If you hear things pop'n and sizzl'n that enough.

 

[nmtaxi]

Never let the water get to a full boil. You can simmer the skulls, but boiling will make the bone fall apart, and cook the grease into the skull.

After I cape the head out, and cut off as much meat as possible and take the brains out, I like to soak my skulls for a few days before simmering. Submerge in water to an inch above the base of the horn, and cover. In this heat, those horns should pull in a few days. Simmer the skull with Oxy-Clean. That will help the tissue come off quicker. Pull it out of the simmer once every 15 minutes and pull off as much meat as possible. Antelope are extremely greasy. Once the skull is clean, submerge the skull in some water with some Dawn detergent. Change the water every day for at least a weak. This will get all the grease out.

 

[nmtaxi]

LAST EDITED ON Sep-09-08 AT 08:32AM (MST)[p]Just a side not, only use Oxy-CLean on a skull that has no antlers or horns. It will bleach out the antlers. If the skull has antlers, us washing soda instead.

 

[Blank]

Check out Skulls Unlimited, or read the story below

http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/dirtyjobs/features/skull-cleaning.html

 

[Triple_BB]

Here's the easiest way to remove the horns and works real well. Learned by accident. After you get yer goat home, hang the whole thing up by the horns. I had straps going around each horn. After two or three days, the collegen that binds the horn to the bone starts to break down. The weight of the animal will pull them apart. One year I came out and the goat was laying on the floor and both horns were hanging in the air. I scraped the bone and was ready to go. My garage is insulated and cool so there's never been a problem with spoilage. I like things to hang a few days before I process the meat...

 

[jnich]

My dad is a taxidermist and I have done this a lot of times and have found with deer elk and antelope the sooner you can skin them and get the meat off the skull the better. The oils in the meat will soak in the bone and it makes it harder to get them white. Boiling is the best way to get the horns off but not to long boil for 15 min keep checking some come off easy and some are a pain get some leather gloves horns get hot in that water. There is some meat left on the bone on the skull from the horn some times it will just roll off if you pull it if not scrape it off with a knife. Another cool thing I have found for cleaning the skull is if you do this a lot is buy a pressure washer it can be a small one but has to spray fairly hard boil skull for about 10min take it out and the meat will spray off keep doing this until clean make sure to spray in the nose good it will push all that crap in its nose out its brain cavity. Also if you put some powder laundry detergent in the water when you boil the skull it will help to draw the oil out of the bone. If the teeth start to fall out you have boiled it to long. Hope this will help you.