Musty Horns
 

Hoping someone on here has had similar experience. Daughter shot a deer 2 years ago. 4-5 year old deer. It's a prairie deer. Healthy Deer. Totally stripped of velvet, shot in November. Anyways the horns have a horrible musty smell to it. Almost like moldy hay. Tried everything from alcohol to soap to try and take the smell off. Smell just comes back. So strong stinks up house almost immediately. Want to do something with the deer for her but cannot bring in house at present time. Harvested many deer in area and never come across this before. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Dumb question, apologies ahead of time. Is there any meat left hiding somewhere you haven't seen?

Simmer it in some hot water for a few hours, then soak it in some peroxide, maybe that will kill the smell.

No. It's clean. The smell is coming from the one side Main Beam. Cannot smell it on other side.

Maybe something going on internally? Rot or something? Might have to drill a hole and inject something.....bleach?....cleaner?.....Lysol?

Pick up a can of Krylon non-yellowing, clear varnish in Satin finish. Give the antler a few light coats. This will seal in the odour.

I have never heard of this happening before so any advice would be a guess and it belonging to your daughter I don’t want to give poor advice

Personally I recommend calling a good taxidermist for advice. Talking to someone who preserves people trophies for living likely can give you a solution you can trust

This is a good idea.

Id salt them for a good while usually moisture accompanies bad smells it will draw that out
then clear coat

Your attempts to remove the odor are likely intensifying the odor. The application of water or any water based solution will cause an evaporation of the water and along with it whatever is dissolved in the water. Think of what a wet dog smells like :)

Buy a box of 20 mule team borax and spread the entire content of the box over the rack. Taxidermists use borax to draw out moisture and dry flesh.

Is it a euro mount or just the skull plate?

Thank u all. very possible keeping smell in by cleaning all the time. I will try Salt and Krylon. Thanks for suggestions. And yes daughter does smell..Love a good sense of humour.

Most likely there was some blood remaining in the antler, which is now rotting.

Do not use the Krylon. If it is rotting inside, this will just compound the problem.

If you can isolate where the smell is coming from, drill into that area, try to ream out the marrow up and down the beam. This may drain the problem area, and will at lease provide this area access to air to dry out.

Flush the bored area with a Borax solution, not salt.

Give it time and when it is all cleaned up and not smelling, you can fill the hole with bondo or such and use a little paint to cover it up.

Antler
 

The smell MAY be caused by bacteria living inside the antler. High heat from a oven or microwave may kill the bacteria and stop the odor.

This is what I was thinking also. Bake the moisture out?

Nail it to a tree outside, and find a bigger one this year!

antlers
 

Slow bake in outside BBQ to kill odor causing bacteria and moisture. Hope it helps