Turkey hunting and BS welcome!

I didn’t know how to preserve them. I just nailed fans and feet on the barn at my first house for about 8-9 years. Prior to that I don’t know what I did with any of them. I have kept a journal since about the 3rd year in, went back and recorded every kill. I record a brief summary from every hunt. Some of the best scouting info, just read last years notes and pick up where I left off, do a little armed recon and usually do fine.

 

Awesome

 

That's really cool. My dad did the same thing for every duck hunt he ever went on since he was 14. I lost the original copy to my brother in a coin flip. My brother paid some one to copy it hand written and gave it to me for my birthday a few years ago it is my most prized possession.

 

First time kind of . Did a fan a long time ago ,still looks good . Watching YouTube and the cleanest way to go is pluck all the feathers then put it back together with Bondo
Removing all the meat is a bitch . The one with Borax on it I will probably start over by plucking .

 

I just spread them out pin em salt all the meat let them dry then I paint a political sign a dark color and zip tie them to the sign and hang em up

 

Started on the fan in the above picture with the borax on it . I don’t think it would have turned out great with all that yellow fat and meat between the quills so I tore it apart and cleaned each individual feather quill .
Primary and secondary’s are all clean and the iridescent feathers are all still together in their natural mini fan with the quills in borax . When I’m ready I will spend the time putting back together and use Bondo .

 

So you do separate all the main feathers , clean crap from quills and submerge the whole feather in the water and Dawn ?
I definitely save that little iridescent fan also

 

I use several tools. A pair of medical tweezers, scalpel and a tool I forget the name of. It’s basically a piece of braided stainless wire rope crimped into the end of a brush handle and unraveled. Slice between quills, borax and rub with wire tool. Then tweezer out gunk, scrape etc, repeat. Can take a paper towel and pluck the sheath off each quill base. In the end you leave a strip of skin holding it all together. I’ll post a pic if I can find them.

 

Last bird of the year with my oldest son. Bird of a lifetime for this area 1 1/4 spurs and 2 full nine inch beards. 17 years since he has shot one.

 

Congrats!!

 

Nice congrats!

 

Thanks guys

 

Congrats, great one to end it on.

 

Great bird ,congrats !

 

Looks great we did turkey noodle soup with some of the legs from this year

 

Yum. We fry all ours too.

Finished up plaques for mounts today. Still got a couple fan wing sets to work out, deflesh, wash and pin out etc.

 

I always brine, truss and smoke all of our breasts.