So this is part one in a series where I explain the process I used to do my European mount. I have to give credit where credit is do, I learned the useful information from taxidermy.net and the stuff I did wrong, well that's all my fault. This should be a useful guide to help you figure out what to do and what not to do the next time you make a euro mount.

This is what a half rotten deer head looks like.

First your going to need a skull to start with, I was lucky enough to have one buried on the side of my house. Ya that's right, it was buried on the side of my house, I normally will let nature do all the work for me and let the meat rot off over a year or so. This was mistake number one, I dug up a deer head that had been buried for 4 months and then put it in boiling water. If you haven't had the experience of smelling rotten animal flesh while it simmers, your extremely lucky. Next your going to need a large pot and a heat sources. I My cheap stock pot and turkey fryer.used a cheap enamel stock pot from walmart and the stove from a outdoor turkey fryer as the heat source. If your single, or want to be single again I guess you could always use the kitchen stove but your significant other wont be very happy. You will also need some old pot holders, a box of baking soda, something to scrape the cooked meat of the skull, and a screwdriver or something long, thin, and hard enough to scramble the brains with.

The head simmering in the pot.

I started by filling the pot with water and adding the whole box of baking soda and then putting the pot on top of the heat source. Let the water reach a boil and then back the heat off, you do not want to boil the skull, you risk cracking the bone and destroying the skull. You want to simmer the skull, you are basically going to slowly cook the meat and skin off of the skull, almost like making a roast, except not as appetizing. Occasionally lift the skull out of the water and scrape off any loose flesh, this will speed up the process a bit.

Check back tomorrow for the next part where I will cover the final simmering process and degreasing the skull.