I recieved a few ocellated turkeys that were skinned leg-to-leg,( I prefer the breast incision),and I suspect that the mexican skinner was taught this method by an american taxidermist. I can handle the leg-leg method but what is the deal with removing the entire wing bones, I've seen these artificial wings in catalogs and I can't see why anyone would do this. What a pain in the --- to reconstuct the wings. Is this a standard proceedure for some of you?
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I've never done a turkey that way. Have done both incision, I like leg to leg. LOL
It isn't SOP for the taxidermist, however, it is SOP for some of the skinners in other countries as lots of countries require that the bones be removed before they can clear customs. I don't think the US is that way, but I doubt the skinner knew where the birds were going.
Luckily with a little asking around you can probalby find some reference measurments to rebuild the skeletal armature, they aren't that terribly uncommon here in the states.
But realize, the cast wings you can buy are for our good ole American birds, Occelateds are considerablly smaller birds.
Have fun,
Jon
Thanks Jon for the advise, but I guess I was just venting. I have one of my own ocellated turkeys mounted in a flying pose so getting the measurements wasn't an issue. I could see removing them if the bones were completely shattered, but I just couldn't imagine why a person would remove them from perfectly good wings. I've been mounting birds for over 30 years but I'm not always up to speed on the latest techniques, and I thought that maybe this was some new bird brain idea!
Breck, sometimes the skinners will take out the wing bones because of the temperature down there. They can't get all of the meat out so to keep it from spoiling they simply take the whole wing out. Makes for a little more difficult mounting job though. Good luck!
Son flojos, that's pure laziness. If they've already turned the wing inside-out then what would prevent them from removing the meat off the bones? makes no sense. I mounted one flying yesterday and it came out good but took longer. Today I'm doing a standing mount(no wing bones)I hope you don't get many like this.