Can anyone tell me the best was to mount the tail and beard of a gobbler. I am new at this and need a little advice. Thanks
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You can use any of the turkey panels sold by the suppliers. The main thing is to get the tail bone out, and cled all of the meat and fat off of the feather quills. I have seen people mount them with the tail bone stillin there. It rots and stinks then they bring it in for us to deal with.To mount the beard. I fasten a piece of leather to the beard, string it through the shotgun shell the turkey was shot with.(knock the used primer out first)then fasten it to the panel. I cut off the spurs and glue them to the topcarners of the pannel. The feet and wings look to ugly and busy looking to put on it. That is why I only use the spurs.
It is not neccecary to completly remove the tail bone. I have been preserving turkey tails now for 12 years. I think if one was going to rot i would smell it by now. Be sure and remove as much meat as possible around the tail joint and then cut it short. roll it in some DP or borax (powdered) and spread her out. Good luck man, some of these guys just like to see you do more work some how they get off on it.
Get it off you will be better for it. To include the tail bone. I myself pluch the tail feathers and clean each one individually then lay them out as I go spacing properly and apply adhesive to hold each layer then clean up the other feathers to lay on to present a nice tail feather mount.
Here's where I "get off". It's dimwits like you who post advice on "shortcuts" that you've gotten away with. I emailed Jeff a complete sheet of instructions on how I PERSONALLY do it, but your stupid comment of us wanting people to do extra unnecessary work is just that; stupid. Leaving that tail bone in leaves just that much extra fat between the apex feathers and just that much more extraneous bone to attract dermistids or worse. If you cut that wedge of tail bone out, your fan can open much wider than with it left in. It's ONLY a turkey tail, but if you take "shortcuts" in the simple jobs, I cringe what you'd do with the complex ones.
Hi Jeff,
We remove all the fat and meat around the quills(tail bone included in removal), degrease tail base by washing with soapy water(dawn) and rinse well, pat dry with paper towels, then coat base well with dry preservative. Spreading the fan as you would for mounting-pin down to a large piece of cardboard (as to support the entire fan & to air dry for a day). Since the tail has already been arranged for mounting, place saran wrap or some other sort of plastic underneath the tail base (to keep the bondo from sticking to the cardboard) and work a small batch of bondo around the quills to fix the fan in place(to stay spread out). Keep in mind that "a little dab'll do ya"! You can shape the bondo "base" by pulling the plastic up over the bondo and working it with your hands-but work quickly. Keep in mind how much space you have on the board you'll be mounting it on. As for the feet, I'll cut the plastic shell casing away from the brass and punch out the used primer-making the hole slightley larger. Then attach the brass to the board by screwing it to the board(insert the screw from the inside of the brass into your board).With hot glue inside the brass, insert the preserved foot, you might want to prop the foot in place for at least 10 minutes while the glue cools.
Hopw this helps!- Susan
OOPS!.. I'll take another brass(done the same way as above) fill with hot glue and insert the beard- you can also take some of the breast feathers and arrange them around the beard in sort of a 'broom' fashion as added filler in the casing before inserting the whole thing into the brass casing. Hope this helps too...-Susan