George S. Bachay's 'Tips For Harvesting Wildlife'
An excerpt taken from chapter 9...
'How To Preserve Skulls of Animals'
: page 105
It is easier to clean out a large skull like the head of a deer, bear or coyote for an Indian trophy than it is to clean out a small fragile skull of a duck or pheasant because of the bone structure. However, we have boiled and cleaned skulls of many birds, animals, turtles, and even snakes with little difficulty after we learned how it is done.
Most of our tools consist of several small knives, forceps, and wire pieces of different thickness bent on both ends to form hooks for cleaning
out brain cavities, nostrils and eye sockets. Every little bit of flesh must be removed.
There are other ways to clean out skulls, with use of chemicals which we will mention later, but we do it with items usually kept around the house or in a hunting camp.
Use a pail of small tub big enough to completely submerge the skull, not including the antlers of a buck deer. For most deer heads we use a 5-gallon pail.
While waiting for the water to boil in the pail, remove skin and as much flesh off the skull as possible. We use a camp stove outdoors in case the water boils over and because of the offensive odor when skulls aren't fresh. Submerge the skull into boiling water and let it boil slowly, simmering for about one hour, until meat is soft enough to scrape off.
Remove skull and scrape all flesh from bone with penknife and wire hooks or crochet needle in hard-to-get places such as the brain cavity, eye sockets, and even the cartilage in nostrils.
We save small skulls from ducks, muskrats, mink and beaver in the freezer until we are ready to boil a large skull. Then we add the smaller skulls in the same pail to boil them during the second hour so they all get done at the same time.
After removing as much of the flesh as possible, we boil a second pail of water with two tablespoons detergent added, add skulls and simmer for 30 minutes to loosen stubborn muscles. When adding
the detergent be careful so it doesn't foam up and boil over.
Remove skulls after second boil and clean out particles missed the first time.
After skulls are thoroughly cleaned, put a cup of laundry bleach in the hot detergent water, and put the skulls back into the solution to soak for 10 minutes. Remove skulls and rinse them several times in clean water, and they will dry snow white and odorless.
Loose teeth can be glued back in place. Look in bottom of pail in case any teeth fell out of skulls. After skulls are dry, print date and where it was taken on back portion with a felt pen. For example, we have the skull of the first scaup duck bagged by our daughter Kathleen, more than 30 years ago. It brings back fond memories every time we see it in the glass case along with other souvenirs.
Preserving Skulls Using Carbon Tetrachloride
Dick Holmes of Milton sent in this tip for boiling skulls. "Boil skull in laundry detergent for about 12 hours, until all meat falls off," Holmes wrote. "Shake brain from cavity. Next, soak skull in carbon tetrachloride for 24 hours. Then soak skull in hydrogen peroxide for 24 hours, and you have a skull that looks like plastic. I have a beautiful bear skull I did using this method."
- George S. Bachay
1986
Just one of thousands of examples of how our mentor, our grandfather, George S. Bachay instructed us all to be creatively inspired at all times, to respect wildlife by not wasting ANY part of the whole.
You shoulda seen his skull collection. Breathtaking. Thanks G-Pa. Love 'n miss you.
A vast melting pot o' creative mania is right in front of you at all times. Engage it. Grip it. Harness it.
Stay creative. Fight for it if you have to.
