How to Cut, Preserve, & Mount Fan, Cut Beard, Use Spurs
 

Okay you have gotten your bird and would like ot mount your fan for either the wall or maybe using on a Jake decoy to make it look more real.

So let"™s get started.
First thing is to cut the tail as close to the main body of the bird as you can. You will feel a "œV"� shape of the tail bone (Same as a chicken and ya all eat chicken!). This cut is done just above the anus. Grab all the tail feathers and bunch them "“ take a small knife and cut through the bone and body till it looks like this.


I use a piece of plywood with drywall screws placed as such. Place the fan on the plywood good side down. The meaty portion of the tail needs to be facing you.


I then take the right bottom feather shaft of the fan and put over the drywall screw. I stretch the fan out and place the left feather shaft over the left dry wall screw.


I then position all feathers and place a wood strip over the whole fan likes shown. Once I have all feathers arranged as I want them I tighten the dry wall screws so the feathers don"™t move.

I then add Table salt and mound the meaty portion of the tail real good. I will check this several times over 3 months and may add more. I just put mine in the basement "“ You really need to keep it away from animals, mice and insects. I will spray the tail with several light dustings using a typical House & Garden household spray "“ such as this can of Raid.




Now I use almost everything from the bird. I make a wing-bone call and date it with the bird stats, area I hunted and add the spurs and have put the beard in the spent shot-shell casing I used. I like to mount mine using a piece of drift wood to place on a shelf. The beard I let dry in a cup of borax with the meat portion down and the spurs I cut and put in borax too. When dry I just clean the marrow out of the leg with the spur. I don"™t do anything else to them. I will thread them on a leather lanyard as show.

Finished product

Cons:
There is another way to shave off the meat and bone and preserve yor fan but I have never done it. It will make the fan much easier to mount as the bone is gone.

Or you can do this "“ add it to a Jake Decoy.


Now all I did for this is make a real thin plywood bracket in a "œU"� shape with a 1 inch spacer bottom. All is painted flat black to which I use wing nuts and then a 1/8th by 14 inch metal stake. I jstu stick this in the ground behind my Jake or you can add this to any Pretty boy. Mine have lasted for 5 yrs now and are no worse for wear. I used them in wind and rain. Just dry them out and spray them lightly with Raid House & Garden at the end of the season and I store between two pieces of cardboard to protect the feathers. It is light to carry into the field.





So if you have a better idea let"™s hear it!
I hope this helps



Here is a wall mount that has been up for almost 8 yrs






And let's do the beard.

Pull the beard back and cut away from the bird at the white skin show here.



I started tp cut away the beard


Another look - I cut just past my thumb and the soft skin past the end of the beard you will feel.





You will feel a knob like thickness if you squeeze past the beard. Cut off past that and don't worry about excess skin.
Trim that skin and place in a bit of Borax for a few weeks

Here it is cut away.




Now the spurs

You can air day the leg - I sue nothing to preserve them and have many legs I use for demonstration for my Hunter Education classes.
To get them to dry in a certain configuration use rubber bands.
OR
I save all spurs and this is what I do if I do not want the leg



These is jsut put in a cup of Borax. Once a few months ahve passed I clean out the Marrow with a Que-tip and thread onto a lanyard - That's it!



Here is my hat Band!



JW

RE: Want to mount your own fan for the wall or maybe use on a decoy?
 

Thanks JW,been thinking about a fan for my dekes.

RE: Want to mount your own fan for the wall or maybe use on a decoy?
 

Good post...thanks for sharing

RE: Want to mount your own fan for the wall or maybe use on a decoy?
 

Thanks for the post.I have one in the freezer waiting for me to get a minute.

RE: Want to mount your own fan for the wall or maybe use on a decoy?
 

Nice post that was the one i was askin you for thanks

RE: Want to mount your own fan for the wall or maybe use on a decoy?
 

Very nice post...

RE: Want to mount your own fan for the wall or maybe use on a decoy?
 

Question: JW....What do you think of using the outline of the B-Mobile, Half Moon, Trace it onto a Piece of Pine Board, cut it out,and Drill holes in it for the feathers. Or maybe even a piece 1/2" Alum. and do the same?

TF

RE: Want to mount your own fan for the wall or maybe use on a decoy?
 

TF - I beleive the B-mobile comes with a device tht allows yo to make a collasable fan to replace the silk fan that it comes with. I will get back to you as I will research.

JW

RE: Want to mount your own fan for the wall or maybe use on a decoy?
 

Heres what I did with the bird I took this year.

Set it on a board with screws in it like is mentioned at the top until it dried. Then made the plaque myself

RE: Want to mount your own fan for the wall or maybe use on a decoy?
 

OKbowhunter, thats a very nice looking mount.

RE: Want to mount your own fan for the wall or maybe use on a decoy?
 

love the hat band

RE: Want to mount your own fan for the wall or maybe use on a decoy?
 

I used to lay my fans out on a piece of cardboard and put pins in them to dry em out... JWs idea works better cause its durable and you don't have to worry about losing the pins...
Lately I've been using an antler thats big enough in mass so that it both will keep the fan spread out and also keep it from pulling itself up. I just put the center tine in the antler where the tail attached to the body and then spread the fan so that the other two tines on the antler spread the feathers, then just propped it up on something... Shown is this years bird. I ussually let the fan dry for 3-4 weeks, then I mount it.

RE: Want to mount your own fan for the wall or maybe use on a decoy?
 

example 2

RE: Want to mount your own fan for the wall or maybe use on a decoy?
 

then i buy a cheap mount.... here's last years bird

RE: Want to mount your own fan for the wall or maybe use on a decoy?
 

here is 2 fall ago... without a mount, still holding its shape

RE: Want to mount your own fan for the wall or maybe use on a decoy?
 

Haha thats a good idea, but it seems like the tines have to be perfect distance apart. Looks like it would be pretty convenient.

RE: Want to mount your own fan for the wall or maybe use on a decoy?
 

Go kill a descent deer this year and use his one antler to cure turkey feathers.... better yet... kill 2 turkeys and use both;)

RE: Want to mount your own fan for the wall or maybe use on a decoy?
 

You can skin with the tail on,"cape".

RE: Want to mount your own fan for the wall or maybe use on a decoy?
 

Nice posts and very nice looking mounts.

Spudrow from MO

RE: How to Cut, Preserve, & Mount Fan, Cut Beard, Use Spurs
 

Awesome post. Very informative and the pics really helped me understand what you were saying. Great job.

RE: How to Cut, Preserve, & Mount Fan, Cut Beard, Use Spurs
 

What do you think of this one my dad and I shot these two.

RE: How to Cut, Preserve, & Mount Fan, Cut Beard, Use Spurs
 

i use the Quaker Boy plaque mounting kit... very nice looking plaque... very easy to do...

This is absolutely amazing and fantastic we can use these things for the home decoration as well and it also looks great after preservation and decoration.

i mounted mine last year like this and it turned out pretty good

Just a thought to ad to the post.. Instead of cutting the beard out, just yank it out. Then there is no meat left on it to dry or cut off.. Grab it and yank, comes out perfect..

demoIL

Here's my first bird 12 yrs ago and I just keep on adding the beards.
The picture is not current and I have 11 beards hanging on it now.
Four of them are 10 inches long..

i really like your guys fan mounts and the way you made us of the other part i would not have thought of that