Seasons over and I have saved up a few birds to try my hand at this game-hobby only. I have a mallard, 2 wood ducks, 1 gw teal, and a common Merganser in the freezer. Which would be the best to get my feet wet on? Also I have cleaned divers before and I anticipate a skinning nightmare on the merganser. Anything I should know about skinning him before I start. Any info is greatly appreciated. I forgot- I have a widgeon also but am leaning towards taking him to a professional.
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I would start with the mallard,they are a common bird so if you screw it up its easy to replace.The greenwing teal are delicate and are tougher to work with.As far as skinning ,again for a novice the teal would be a save for last speciman as they are delicate and also will probably be tougher for a newcomer to mount!Skinning a merganszer is no different than a mallard so dont worry about it!
the head should you not be using an artifial head and you'll have a tough time trying to invert a mallard head, making it necassary for one of the more difficult stitches to conceal,where you've made yor relief cut to invert the head, again, unless you're using artificial heads. I'd go, Merganser, Mallard, Teal, Woodie, just my thoughts.