My wife and I want to try and mount a wild turkey, we bought a video and a book just about doing turkeys, but the book doesn't recommend freeze dried heads, due to insects and such. I already have 1 full mount done with a freeze dried head done at a taxidermy shop and I love the way it looks. I talked with another guy, and he also uses freeze dried. So is the book misleading? Is freeze dried the choice of all you experts? If so, were do you get them done? How do I go about in shipping it? Or should I just get an artificial from Van Dykes or Mc Kenzie? We are only looking to do this for ourselves as a hobby, and to save money, not to start a business. Any help would greatly be appreciated, thanks!

I'm having a turkey done right now and my taxidermist is using the freeze dried method. This seems to be the common way of doing it. If there were a problem with insects or something else, I don't think it would be as popular. In addition, you do want to mount what YOU harvested, not a piece of plastic.

I always use the latex heads that I made myself.I use a mold made from the head of the bird I took. made from plaster , then poured the latex into the mold.
Thats just the way I did them befor I had to quit.(health reasons).Don Bailes has a book that shows and tells the details from the start.

The better looking heads are freeze dried.Not saying that there are not any good cast heads out there because some look real nice.Most taxidermist that I know use freeze dried & most customers 1st ? is do you use freeze dried.Most freeze dried heads are skinned completely & a foam insert is installed before the process.That way you only have the skin to preserve not the complete insides.
If you want tobuy one Cally Morris of Hazel Creek Taxidermy inMO. does some of the best.Don't have # handy. Good luck in the mount,turkeys are'nt easy to learn how to mount.