Cleaning an alligator skull...

After three nights of hunting in zone 4, My hunting partner and myself were finally able to close the deal on a 86lb 7' 5" gator last Friday night . Not a monster, but respectable none the less. I was considering preserving the skull but I'm not exactly sure how to do it. Does anybody have any ideas? I know boiling is one method but I also know that when you boil a deer skull that some of the fats and oils that are in the flesh can be absorbed into the bone resulting in a yellowish appearance and possibly giving the skull an odor. Would this also be true of an alligator. Anybody know of any other methods?

Countryboy

Take it out back and find you a ant mound and drop it off. They will clean it up real nice. It might take a few days but they will do a nice job.

Woody could probably answer this better than I, but here goes.

I've done a few deer skulls, and all I done was boil them, scrape, boil, and scrape until I got all the meat off I could. I then diluted some bleach in some water, let soak for a little while, and then set outside in the sun to dry...

They turned out pretty good and no stink. The stink comes from leaving too much meat on the skull, or the brain and nasal cavity inside, IMO...

Not saying this is the right way, but just how I done it... Here's a skull of a 9 point I did. The trick is to get off as much of the meat/skin as possible, before the first boil... It's time consuming, but I love "european skull mounts"... After a while, the smell won't bother ya.

It is important to get as much meat removed as possible. After scraping as much meat off as you can, then take a long drill bit and from the rear of the head drill down the length of each jawbone to remove the meat in there.

Be carefull not to boil too long or you could make the bone soft, also boiling will probably cause the teeth to fall out, but they can be glued back in.

When doing Euro mounts, add laundry detergent to the water. This helps with the fatty tissue. It is >>>>VERY<<<< important that you heat the water to a boil, but bring it back down to just under boiling before you put the skull in. Heat for a minimum of 2hrs. Scrape. Then do again.

Story behind the skull.

Now that I've had a little time to re-coop from the weekend I'll give you the story.

A friend of mine, Steve, who grew up in the Valdosta area, was selected for a single gator permit in zone 4. We would be hunting a private resevoir that Steve had access to which turned out to be more of a lilypad and moss choked cypress swamp more that anything. On short notice, I made a harpoon and gig, we bought snares and snatchhooks and I borrowed a neighbors crossbow and rigged it with some gator getter arrows from Muzzy and a bowfishing reel. All of the above methods would end up with the gator connected to a rope tied off to homemade buoys. The plan was to cruise the swamp at night with a Q-beam spotlight until we saw a red glowing eye(s) and then shut off the gas engine and spotlight, switching over to a trolling motor and low intensity light beam to stalk within 5-10 yds. throw the Q-beam back on and quickly size him up and harpoon/snare him etc... That was the plan anyway.

Our first trip (I say trip because I live in Canon and Steve lives in Watkinsville)was Saturday and Sunday night the 18th & 19th. We quickly found out that the trolling motor would not go 15 yds in that swamp without getting tangled up in lillypads and moss. We ended up idling up on them with the gas engine which made it very difficult to get close. They would either submerge or start swimming away. If they swam, the chase was on - trying not to hit trees or stumps (I hate stumps). We chased three or so before we finally connected on a 9 footer with the crossbow. We were using 80lb test bow fishing line. We knew it would not be enough to fight him but hoped it would be enough to hold him until we got a second line on him with a gig or harpoon. He started swimming with the buoy in tow but it didn't take long for the line to become tangled in the moss and lily pads and he broke the line. Very disappointing! We had several other good opportunities that first weekend as we chased close to 20 alligators, some as big as 11-12 ft .

After returning home and a little searching on the internet, we found some 600lb test bowfishing line offered by Muzzy (why I didn't see that to begin with I don't know : ). Knowing that we came so close to getting an alligator the previous weekend and that we may not get a permit the next year we decided to do a last minute hunt on Friday the 24th. We both had to be back home at lunchtime on Saturday though. We left work at lunch on Friday and drove 5 1/2 hrs. to south Georgia and got the boat in the water just as it was getting dark. We spotted and alligator almost immediately but couldn't tell how big he was until he swam away. We chased several, including one that was carrying the front shoulders and neck of a deer . We just watched time slip away as we would come close but not seal the deal. We had agreed that we needed to stop at 2:00 a.m and head back home. Well, at 1:40 while working our way back to the boat ramp we finally put an arrow in one. Unlike the first gator we shot with the crossbow, this one went straight to the bottom. Within just a few minutes we were able to gently pull him up to the boat where we were able to use the harpoon to put a second line in him. After a little tail splashing and paddle biting we then got a locking cable snare around his head to position him for the shot. He was quickly dispatched with a round from Steve's .380. After duct taping his mouth shut and severing his spine we loaded him in the boat, iced him down and headed home. We arrived at Steve's house at 8:00 a.m. and spent two hours dressing him out. We plan to sell the hide to a tanning company to help pay for some of the equipment we bought and of course kept the meat. And as you know, I've still got the skull in an ice chest - trying to figure out the best way to clean it. Thanks for your suggestions and I hope you enjoyed the story!

Way to go, CB!

That's something I'd like to do before leaving this earth. Gator hunting. Now that's legal, I might apply next year for a tag or two. I think it would be a HOOT to do that... Just like frog-gigging -- 'cept the frogs are bigger and badder!

great story cb

thanks for sharing