archery javelina

[Coach]

Thanks Mulie Hunter, FWIW, the backstrap on this javi were fantastic, and while they weren't enough to make a meal on their own for 5, I cut some of the choice steaks off the top and bottom round to cook up "chicken fried" style and while some of the lower cuts had some chewiness to them nobody ever complained about the strong taste some people often ascribe to javelina.

 

Thanks on the kudos for the skull. I'm kinda sitting on a pile of javi, coues and mulie skulls now that didn't make the taxi.

 

What I've found with boiling skulls is -

 

1) It's nasty as heck. I put them in the smallest pot they'll fit in, but it's always a big pot.

 

2) I let them cook in nothing but water until almost all the meat and tendons and whatever that white crap is that hold our mouth together is pulled away from the bone.

 

3) I add more water, and some ajax, it seems to break up the cartilage and I focus around the back part of the skull, the ear canals, the nasal passage and those two bulbous skull features that are super fragile at the base of the ears - these tell you a LOT about a an animal...

4) I re-boil it when it's really clean. This time with about 30% peroxide, DO NOT let the water and peroxide hit your horns or it will bleach them out.

 

 

On an unrelated tangent,

The size of the thin skeletal mass where the eyes and ears intersect would seem to indicate more complex neural function, but check this out...

 

 

I would have thought this part of the skull, where hearing and sight come together would be bigger and more complex for a coues deer than a javi. Seems it's smaller and more compact for deer. Interesting anyway,

 

 

 

Hey Coach,

Next time you boil a skull add a good amount of borax, it turns everything into jello. It also helps with the greasy skulls like pigs!!

 

 

Thanks for the correction - I said I added ajax, but I actually added borax. And you are right, it does a great job of dissolving the meat, tendons and anything fleshy that is hard to get off the skull.