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While camping this past week I setup my Sony W7 digital camera on my Bushnell Sentry spotting scope to take some video of a milk jug that I placed on some rope tied between two trees at 311 yards. Even with the low quality of video, that this camera shoots, you can clearly see the vapor trail of the bullet.
I was shooting my 243 WSSM Winchester Model 1885 with 55g Ballistic Tip factory load bullets. These bullets have a muzzle velocity of 4240 fps from this rifle. I was shooting from a sitting position using my Stoney Point Steady Stix with a tripod and my digiscope to the right of me.
This inexpensive digiscope setup has worked pretty good for me for several years. However my camera has now developed some internal floaters that place a couple of blurry spots on the photos and video I take with the camera zoomed.
With my camera now having issues I have been looking for a better camera/digiscoping solution. I think I've found it in the new breed of digital point and shoot cameras, cameras like the Nikon P100, Olympus SP-800UZ, Fujifilm Finepix HS10, or Pentax X90. These are point and shoot cameras with very high optical zooms. These cameras also offer high resolution still images along with good to excellent video qualities depending on the camera. With a camera like one of these there is no need for a digiscope setup, just place the camera in a steady tripod and take video and still images at amazing distances.
Right now I'm leaning toward the Fujifilm or Nikon cameras as they both take high resolution 1080p video. The Fujifilm camera takes AA batteries and I think that is a huge plus but the Nikon I think might take a little better quality of images... maybe. I need to find some money somewhere and get one.
Update Nov. 8th 2010: I finally bit the bullet and ordered a camera from my favorite computer/gadget website newegg.com. I went over and over the specs, reviews etc and felt that the FujiFilm FinePix HS10 was the best camera for me. It was hard for me to chose this camera over the Nikon P100. I'm looking forward to getting this camera in the field to see what it can do. Here are some of the different features that made me chose the HS10 over the P100:
- It takes AA batteries
- It can take Raw images. This will be handy for taking photos that Browning (my day job) may want to use.
- It has a 30x zoom compared to a 26x zoom
- It has a manual zoom. Motor driven zooms mean one more thing to chew up battery and on more thing that might break.
- It has a standard 58mm threaded lens, thus allowing for filters and teleconverters to be threaded on the front. The manual zoom also allows for teleconverters to be placed on the lens without a motor to get messed up trying to move the lens with a teleconverter attached. See my 51X Ultra Super Zoom FujiFilm HS10, HS20EXR and Sony VCL-DH1758 Teleconverter entry for more info on teleconverters.
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Here are a couple of still photos I snapped as the mule deer bucks were feeding early in the morning.
While camping this summer I took some digiscope video and still photos of some bucks that were out feeding in the area where we were camping.
There were six bucks in the group. Must of the bucks we yearling two points and spikes, with a three-point and a pig of a two-point. This large two-point buck's body was much larger and had a very pronounced fat belly. He also showed signs that he might grow some crab claw forks in the front and back before he finished growing in a month or so.
I explain a little more about my digiscope setup used to take this video in my Digiscope Video of 243 WSSM Shooting a Milk Jug at 311 Yards journal entry.
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June 2020 Update
While the information below is still a good method for cleaning off a skull I have found a better method that I use. See: DIY European Skull Mount In 3 Days — Bucket Heater Method
Many years ago I decided to do a European skull mount of a whitetail deer. At the time I used the boiling method to clean the flesh off the skull. After all was said and done I really didn't like the outcome. Mainly because the very fine bones that are in the nasal cavity were all destroyed in the process of trying to pick off pieces of flesh in-between boiling sessions. Boiling also makes me worry that the skull could crack or shrink from the heating.
Since that time I have used the maceration process do to my mounts and have done so on close to twenty skulls from elk, mule deer and whitetail deer. Keeping the skull in water for a long period of time allows bacteria to break down the flesh. The process, although it takes some time, produces end results that are great.
Place the skull in water.
Here is my process. I skin the head and remove the eyes and as much flesh as you possibly can with a knife. In a shed in my back yard I have a large plastic storage tub that I fill with water. I prefer to get some pond or river water as it speeds the process of getting the bacteria going faster but, tap water will work just fine. It will just take a little longer for the bacteria brew to get going with tap water.
Where the four inch screws are holding this elk skull on the plaque.
Where I drill a single hole through the skull of a deer for the screw to anchor the skull to the plaque. I drill a hole a little smaller than the outer diameter of the screw threads.
I submerge the skull in water and leave it in for a couple of weeks. It is fine if some of the antlers are partially submerged. I will remove the skull every week or so to check it's progress and spray it off with a water hose to remove as much of the flesh as possible then place it back in the bacteria brew. I use a pair of needle nose pliers and pull pieces of stubborn flesh off the skull, especially around the area the spinal column enters the back of the skull.
Heating the water.
To keep the bacteria growing the water need to remain warm. I use an fish aquarium heater to keep the water warm. Be careful to place the heater in a position so that it doesn't rest right against the skull. If it rests against the skull you may get a brown spot on the skull as I did once. Oops! Using a heater will keep the water warm and the bacteria working at a much faster pace.
Keeping the smell to a minimum.
Although not necessary I prefer to keep the smell to a minimum. If you do not aerate the water you will get a very smelly anaerobic bacteria, just like you get in your septic tank. A horribly stinky mess. If you aerate the water you will get aerobic bacteria that has less of a smell. Just like waste water treatment plants that have large aerating machines to pump oxygen into the water to keep the smell to a minimum, I use a fish aquarium air pump to pump oxygen into the water and keep the bacteria smell to a minimum. The rotting flesh is still gross but at least the smell isn't so horribly bad that it makes me dry heave when I pull the skull out to spray it off.
Teeth falling out.
Whenever you pull the skull out of the water watch for teeth that might fall out, especially watch for this when you are spraying it down with the hose. If any teeth fall out just hold on to them and after you have the skull cleaned you can super glue them back in.
Creme Developer Peroxide Bleach for DIY European Skull Mounts
Bleaching.
Get a gallon bottle of peroxide creme from a beauty supply store. I say gallon because I think it only comes in gallon bottles. You will find it in 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 volume varieties. I like the 40 volume as it is the most potent.
After I have the skull's flesh cleaned off I will place the skull on a large piece of cardboard and using a paint brush I liberally paint the peroxide creme all over the skull being very careful not to get any on the antlers. For that matter be careful not to get the peroxide on anything but the skull and cardboard that the peroxide will drip down onto. I will then repeat brushing on coats of peroxide a couple times a day until I get the desired whiteness. Every skull has been a little different for me but usually within three to four days the skull is all pearly white. However, I have had some skulls that have taken two weeks to get some stubborn areas whitened.
Once the skull is as white as I want I then spray off the skull with a water hose and let it dry.
Mounting to Plaque
After the skull has dried, there is a really solid piece of bone on the underside of the brain cavity that I drill hole(s) into to mount the skull to the plaque. I drill two small holes for elk and one hole for deer. These hole(s) line-up with four inch grabber screws that I place through the mounting plague. Once I get the hole(s) in the plague to line-up with the skull I screw the skull in place with the long grabber screws and I'm done.
Elk European Skull Mount Wedge Angle Template. Click the image above to download the elk template.
Mule Deer European Skull Mount Wedge Angle Template. Click the image above to download the mule deer template.
With mule deer and elk I like to place the skull at an angle to the wall. Using a piece of 2x6 lumber I cut a wedge for the skull to rest upon. To the left are some PDF files of the wedge templates (Elk and Mule Deer) I use to angle the mount away from the plaque on the wall. These templates should give you a good start on the wedge but might require a little tweaking to the angles and rounding the edges to fit your unique skull.
You can view other homemade European mounts that I have done in my DIY European Skull Mounts journal entry.
At the 2011 Western Hunting Expo I found a neat system to hang European skull mounts that I might have to try on future mounts myself.
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