strutnbuck

How does this mount look? It's an Osceola, was to be full strut, but was told size of bird was an issue. Wife is not "thrilled" with it. Tell me what you think?

shaftnem

Well, I've certainly seen worse. However, honestly it's pretty half-a$$ed. First of all, the size of the bird has nothing to do with whether or not it can be mounted strutting. A jake, {or a hen for that matter} can be mountedstrutting just as easy as a mature bird can be.The problem withthis particular mount is thatthe head, tail, and wings are all positioned in a full-strut pose while the rest of the feathers are laid flat down like a fully relaxed bird. This tells me one of two things. Either {a} the taxidermist was relatively inexperienced and simply was not comfortable with, or didn't know how to properly preen and position the feathers in order to pull off the pose correctly, or {b} he knew how and simply didn't want to undertake the extremely difficult and time consuming taskof mounting the bird strutting. In either case, IMO he should have turned down the mount, or at the very least attempted to convince you to mount the bird in a position that he was more comfortable with.

SoggyCereal

Um, do turkeys ever strut while they're on the roost? I'm pretty sure they don't. I could be mistaken though.

excalibur43

Yes, they do strut while on the roost. Not always, but if the hens have already gathered underneath them, Yes they do strut on the limb. As far as your turkey mount goes; In plain words, it's horrible. Whoever mounted that had absolutely no clue what a strutting turkey looks like, no clue about mounting a turkey and obviously used no reference photos!! A lesson learned I guess. Next time, Please spend more time " scouting " for a good taxidermist, not a cheap taxidermist, than you do scouting the game you are after!

strutnbuck

excalibur, do you really think that I didn't check into the local taxi's? And who said I got it cheap? I knew that it wasn't a full strut, what I was asking is if form size and size of bird could hinder mounting it full strut? Are you a taxi? You kinda sounded like you were lecturing at the end of your post....

SoggyCereal

Hm...I've never heard of them strutting on the roost, but that does make sense. Still that isn't a very nice mount, I'll post a picture of my turkey mount once I find my digital camera. I like the idea of the mount on the roost though, my friend has a mount of one flying off the roost, it's pretty cool.

excalibur43

Sorry, didn't mean it to sound as a lecture. Yes I am a taxidermist, for the past 20 years. To answer your question better, it doesn't matter how large the turkey is, as to whether it can be mounted as a strutter or not. Jakes strut, hens strut and of course gobblers strut. You said you asked for a full strut. Your taxidermist obviously can't accomplish that mount. Did he have some full struts on display for you to look at? Just curious. Again I apologize for sounding as a lecture, wasn't my intent.

Kybuckhunter

I've seen turkeys strut on the roost many times. Its not uncommon in the least. I watched a tom even walk back and fourth on a big limb in full strut. The limb was ten yards long and he would walk to one end then turn around and strut back. Some times they just strut while standing in one place.

excalibur43

Absolutely! I have seen this myself. I have also had hens come into my "hen" decoy and start strutting and hitting the decoy with their wings.

strutnbuck

yes, I saw it just about everyday last year in Nebraska, strut'n and gobbl'n on a limb! It was a pretty cool site!