Mounting a Wild Turkey has always been a goal of mine, and I have always been fascinated by this bird. This spring I was fortunate to harvest a couple of longbeards and wanted to try to mount them. I have done deer mounts and a few small birds as a hobby. I was wondering if it would be O.K. to go ahead and put the hide in the freezer once I have fleshed, washed, and dried it to mount at a later date?
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Hey Keith,
yes it will be okay. I have skin, cleaned, tumbled and frozen a turkey ready to mount and went back as long as 6 months later and mounted it and it was just as good as fresh skin. Just don't get it super dry. This is my experience only. Hope this helps.
Hit that search to the left and type freezing bird skins. There will be more than enough Info needed to do just what you are asking. I was curious about the same thing this past weekend for a bird that my boy shot and did it because of freezer space. If I had more experience I would tell you how but as David said it can be done.
Good luck Joey A.
I usually skin, flesh, and wash the birds as they come in. Once the birds have been rinsed and allowed to drip for a couple hours, I bag them up and put them in the freezer. When I'm ready to mount, I pull the skin out, soak in mineral spirits, and move forward with mounting. I will usually freeze the tail seperate from the rest of the skin as I do not wash the tail (unless its nasty). If I'm going to be mounting the bird soon, I'll skip freezing the tail and go ahead and bondo it and let it dry.
Thanks guys. This info will help me out a lot, because I don't have that much freezer space.