Skulls, it’s not that hard!

I think “dip & pack” includes removing all the flesh which is when the boiling occurs. If so, then having skulls just “ dip and pack” is not going to prevent the horn damage from boiling issues. I have 4 shoulder mounts and 4 euro mounts. Two trips and two different RSA taxidermists. Seven out of the eight have dull and cracked horns. Only one Blesbok euro Mount came out with fresh shiny horns. I am very disappointed over this.
After my my first trip I contacted the outfitter and sent photos. They did respond and said they all look that way.
This issue comes up often on this forum. Asking the outfitter or taxidermist or dip and pack service to use the “beetle eating method” to remove the flesh is probably not going to work.
How do we get their attention on this?

I have 3 sets of whitetail antlers that were cleaned with a little Clorox and a brush decades ago and they look great.

I just hung a spring buck skull that was dip and packed by Africa Wildlife Artistry. They did a real nice job boiling/cleaning it. But for some reason they ran a saw through the bottom, didn't even do it straight. On one side the teeth are cut in half, on the other side they cut actuall cut away part of the jaw and just the roots of the teeth are there. That part of the order was for a cleaned skull and flat skin. The skull came screwed to a little scrap of plywood.

On the other hand I got 3 water buffalo skulls from Australia that were done well. My guide in camp was also the one who boiled and cleaned them. He did it while we were still there. He boiled and power washed them.

Thankfully my lion and hyena skulls came back in great shape. As did my leopard. The former came through Relive Africa and the latter through Emiac out of Mozambique. All as dip and pack, but all three skulls came out of the crates and went right up onto my mantel

In South Africa, I would guess many skulls are indeed handled by a "taxidermist" for boiling. However, throughout most of the remainder of the continent, they are actually boiled by the outfitter (read a couple of guys who likely aren't very good at much else) at camp. Sometimes that is done well - other times not so much. The taxidermist, here or there, then handles bleaching, sawing (if desired), and attaching to a plaque. Dip and pack usually won't do anything but spray and pack for shipment.

Red Leg said:

In South Africa, I would guess many skulls are indeed handled by a "taxidermist" for boiling. However, throughout most of the remainder of the continent, they are actually boiled by the outfitter (read a couple of guys who likely aren't very good at much else) at camp. Sometimes that is done well - other times not so much. The taxidermist, here or there, then handles bleaching, sawing (if desired), and attaching to a plaque. Dip and pack usually won't do anything but spray and pack for shipment.

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I seen mine delivered salted so I know the condition they were in when they received them. I took video and pics and emailed them they claim they will replace them and agreed they were in very bad shape but plot twist, I opened another one and there were live bugs in it that ran all over the place so I now have to fumigate so that these don’t get into my other mounts.

slam8031 said:

totally agree with Dennis--I am fighting with skulls now that were overboiled--I use dermestid beetles to clean my stuff here in the states--every bone is intact at the end. Not so for three trips over the pond with Euros on every trip--brittle bones and lost bones and...

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I use maceration and they are perfect and the process requires almost no work but takes longer. It can be done if they were just educated on the process. I’m sure no one would have an issue waiting a few more months to get quality and I would pay more too knowing what I’m getting.

Not exactly great attention to detail...over boiling 101...

I have found that there are a lot of people in the hunting field that have no idea of how to actually cook a skull.

I had a black bear skull from British Colombia that when they were done looked like they had used a screwdriver to scrape the meat off and they then reamed out the nasal cavities with either a knife or a screwdriver. You would think that outfitters that do this would learn the simple ways of doing it for their clients.

I have since learned how to do it and now all my "friends" show up with skulls for me to cook for them. Some will help out while others just drop it off and then go home. I like teaching them how to do it properly but a lot of them don't have a camp stove and pot that is large enough to do them properly. One fun thing I enjoy doing is when I go into a beauty supply store to pick up my hydrogen peroxide and Basic White to whiten them. They ask me what I am going to do with it and then look surprised when I tell them. But I did make friends with one of the owners that asked me to bring a skull in so that she could see it.

slam8031 said:

Not exactly great attention to detail...over boiling 101...

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I have a wildebeest that looks identical to that.

Had a Jackal skull come in from Botswana that was in a ziplock sandwich bag. Well most of the pieces anyway, thought I could at least salvage a K9 tooth that was missing from a previous trip’s skull but all of the teeth were missing as well. I was still charged for the skull cleaning.

Sand Rat said:

Had a Jackal skull come in from Botswana that was in a ziplock sandwich bag. Well most of the pieces anyway, thought I could at least salvage a K9 tooth that was missing from a previous trip’s skull but all of the teeth were missing as well. I was still charged for the skull cleaning.

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You can literally cut the majority of meat off a skull throw it in a bucket of water and come back in three weeks to clean skull. Now it stinks and there may be some teeth that need glued in but it never needs to be heated. It’s way easier than boiling and the quality is a million times better. My wife seen this bunch of skulls and said how do they even send that out? I said it’s pretty normal for Africa. She said when we hit the lotto we are moving there and buying beetles to start cleaning skulls for hunters these aren’t even skulls anymore. Y’all pray she hits the lotto. Hahaha!!

Dip pack is boiling to pass inspection. Euro will be done the same IN AFRICA and then repaired and paneled. EXAMPLE. Average dip pack skull in Africa for the above shown wildebeest 65. Euro in Africa probably 100-150. IN THE US where the quality is SOOOOOO much better , The Average ELK has the same size SKULL as a Wildebeest and you'll pay 450.00 . HMMMM wonder why? You get what you paid for a boiled skull...We do euro's for many african skulls , repair about 90% of them with pieces from other skulls that were kept after mounting other shoulder mounts. From a dip pack skull we charge by the hours for repairs Example that above wildebeest would be 150-195 to repair fill-epoxy and finish the base of the horns and not just inject some silicone around it and airbrush back to good looking skull. 45 for a panel on it.
Sandrat, your little guys skulls that are here to be shipped with Impala , ARE in good shape,,,, we made sure of it , on us.....

The Artistry of Wildlife said:

Dip pack is boiling to pass inspection. Euro will be done the same IN AFRICA and then repaired and paneled. EXAMPLE. Average dip pack skull in Africa for the above shown wildebeest 65. Euro in Africa probably 100-150. IN THE US where the quality is SOOOOOO much better , The Average ELK has the same size SKULL as a Wildebeest and you'll pay 450.00 . HMMMM wonder why? You get what you paid for a boiled skull...We do euro's for many african skulls , repair about 90% of them with pieces from other skulls that were kept after mounting other shoulder mounts. From a dip pack skull we charge by the hours for repairs Example that above wildebeest would be 150-195 to repair fill-epoxy and finish the base of the horns and not just inject some silicone around it and airbrush back to good looking skull. 45 for a panel on it.
Sandrat, your little guys skulls that are here to be shipped with Impala , ARE in good shape,,,, we made sure of it , on us.....

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I agree our skulls are SOOOO much better and I’d gladly pay for that quality. I don’t think the skull has to be boiled to pass inspection it has to have meat removed and be dry there’s a lot better ways of doing that.

They will Never macerate them Takes to long they do Tens of thousands of skulls a year . Each studio. They have to be boiled and not just water , they have a solution required by law to be exported as dip pack just like skins, Your skins in camp are salted , at dip pack they are soaked up in acid solution per law and re salted , they will never releases unless the core is off an clean or boiled into oblivion like wildebeest do as they don't come off and have lots of meat and tissue UNDER and in the horn. Africa aint never going to change. been like this 50 years, and they aint changing anything....