How do you field dress and pluck a turkey?

[Canonoch]

How do you feld dress and pluck wild turkeys? I' m new to bird hunting (turkey and upland game birds) and I' m hoping to be as much informed as possable. Thanks for all replies

[mddittman]

I pluck the feathers away from the area in front of the vent, then make a 4-5" cut. Reach in and get everything out. I then take it home and fill my utility sink with the hottest water that will come from the tap, and submerge him in it for several minutes. Then drain the water and most of the feathers will pull out easier. The wings are harder to pluck, sometimes it seems easier to torque on them at 90 degrees from the way they come out of the skin, it seems to split the skin along those big quills and you can pull them right out.

Also, it seems like if you take the smaller feathers off of the wing first, the flight feathers come out easier?

Cut the head and feet off of the bird. Make sure you take the crop out of the breast area too. Some people do that in the field but I' d rather not put any more cuts into the bird than I have to before I pluck it, it seems like turkey meat is a magnet for the tiniest feathers that are next to impossible to get off.

[mauser06]

plucking them makes cooking nice because you have the skin...but if you do it by hand and dont do anything to the feathers its very messy and takes long...i plucked one and skinned one...first i cut off everything i want...wings...tail beard feet ect....then i skin it by tearing the breast skin and peeling it all off...birds tend to come right out of the skin....then i cut off the neck and open the vent to gut it...then i gut it and wash it all out and freeze it....thats the easiest way i found so far....good luck....theres many ways to do it....just think of how chicken and turkeys ect look from the store....if you find a easy way to get them to look like that you done did good.....good luck..also welcome to the boards....theres alot of good guys here...dont be afraind to ask any questions post stories and pics and join us in having a good time....its a great place to know about...these guys helped me alot

[Canonoch]

Thanks I' ll print out your replies and hopefully this spring will get a chance to put all the info to use

[Raven]

Hey canon welcome to the roost

Hey Adrian gives us a virtual tour of how that turkey plucker works