Shull shrinkage?

[bullgetter]

After boiling out a bear skull what can one expect for shrinkage after the 60 day drying period?

[timba]

I've been told about 1/2 inch.

timba

[broadfieldpoint]

Originally Posted by timba

I've been told about 1/2 inch.

timba

I have heard the exact same thing.

[Colorado Rick]

Dude....

Don't... say.... shrinkage...

(C'mon... somebody was gonna do it eventually)

[Monie]

Stay out of the cold water and you'll be ok.

[bullmoose38]

Good post! Let us know what you experience. I never did a skull so I have no info to help. I know deer antlers I noticed you lose a 1/2 inch also most of the time.

[bear2]

Really nice bears !!!!!!!!
We clean at least 50 bear skulls per year, We have never had a skull shrink anywhere near a 1/2". 1/8 - 1/16" seems about normal . I had one of my own skulls that was green scoring 18 1/16 " the day it was cleaned at the end of well more than 60 days it made P&Y at 18 0/16 " . Some reasons for a large change in size could be meat etc. left on when doing the green score or not measuring on straight lines ie. following the curve of the skull . To get a fairly accurate measurement set the skull w/o bottom jaw on a flat table then use to squares to but against the teeth in the front & the little tiny ridge in the back & measure in between level w/ the top of the skull then turn the skull put the squares straight across from each other at the widest point on the cheek bones measure that & add them up or you could buy a caliper & look on the P&Y site. I hope this helps as this is about 10 min. of 1 finger hunt & peck but I will say my error rate is down to 50 % .

[ACPOSSETIM]

Originally Posted by Monie

Stay out of the cold water and you'll be ok.

"I WAS IN THE POOL!!!!!"

[Colorado Rick]

HA!! Tim got it!!

[bullgetter]

I guess I was asking for those comments

I have almost finished cleaning my skull and it's looking pretty good. I did 3 one hour boils with soda ash to break up the meat. I would boil (more like a simmer) and pick off all I could then boil again. Last night I picked up some Hydrogen Peroxide from the hair dresser and coated the skull with a brush. It helped whiten things some but not as much as I expected. Skull gets pretty white just from the soda ash. I was told to mix Hydrogen Peroxide with Magnesium carbonate but could not find any.
Remember when scoring to make sure the skull is sitting parallel as the line of measurement for length must be parallel to the flat surface the skull is sitting on. I made this mistake with my cougar, he went from 5 6/16 to an official score of 5 2/16 but I'll still take it.