Hi everyone,
I am new to Turkey hunting (first year) but have been a deer hunter for many years. Without seeming too optimistic, I am looking for information/advice on care of game after the shot. There is and has always been a wealth of resources for properly dressing out your deer, but I am finding it hard to gather that same info about wild turkey.
I have never butchered my own game, but I need to know what steps to take after the shot (if I am ever lucky enough) to protect the bird agianst spoilage, etc.
Any advice or links to this info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Theis is how I process my turkey. I breast out my turkey. I will pluck the feathers off the breast and then cut under the skin and remove the skin. Then I cut the breasts out. Its very simple. I can have a turkey breasted out in less than 15 minutes...

The way I clean birds any bird.
I fillet everything usable out.
1.Turn bird on its back.

2.Grab a hunk of skin around the Beard and cut it free. Then trim the excess skin off and save this. You will not need to treat this with anything as it will dry just like it is as long as there is no skin left attached to it.




3.If you want to save the tail cut it free from the body slightly below the anus of the bird. I'll post on that later.
4.With a fillet knife (I use a 3 inch or less blade – small Rapala fillet knife my favorite) grab a piece of skin right at the end of the breast and make a small slit through the skin but not into the meat or the stomach cavity.

5.Now cut this all the way to the neck past the breast-bone to the neck. You can rip this too but if it gets caught and starts pulling precious meat with it use your fillet knife. This would be similar to taking the skin off a fish fillet.

Should look like this


6.This is the other end with the crop exposed – notice how clean my hands are.

7.Now make one cut under the skin but not into the leg on each leg and peal the skin/feathers away. Do the same thing with each leg to the very last place of feathers. (Top of the leg joint.)
8.Cut around each leg joint and remove feet.

9.Now remove the crop located in front of the wish bone. This is an air like-sack which will also contain the crop. Remove and as much excess skin as you can.
10.Now with the skin pealed back all from the breast, legs and pushed back to the thigh it is time to cut out our the turkey breast fillets.
11.Look for the keel bone. It is the center top line of the turkey breast as the turkey lays on its back. Make a cut straight down and slightly angled against this bone all the way to the bottom. Make this incision all the way back to the stomach cavity. In the front at the wish-bone cut with the knife down the wish-bone to the shoulder (wing/body joint)
12.Then start filleting from the stomach cavity back towards the wing.
13.At the wing cut it free. There you have one turkey breast fillet out.

14.Do the same to the other side
15.Push one leg flat until it is laying on the table.

16.At the body cut parallel with the body cutting out the top of the thigh


17.Sever the tendons of the hip joint. You should have one thigh/drumstick free.
18. Do the same on the other leg/thigh.

19.Wash the fillets and take off any excess skin membrane and I also cut the thighs from the legs.
20.I them bag and freeze to which I think I might use for a meal.
21.Toss the carcass away…You be done!
Oh save dose wings....they make great calls and don't toss the drumnstick bones either!
I'll teach ya later what to do with them - so just freeze them for now!
JW

JW, that's an impressive, very imformative post! I'm sure he'll thank you for that!

As far as my own birds, I do the same as Arrowmaster, I simply breast 'em. The rest of the bird really isn't worth messing with in my opinion.

JW!
Thank you for the informative (and well illustrated!) response. I really appreciate you taking the time to teach me your cleaning method. I hope to put it to good use!
I found your information so helpful, I am sending my buddies a direct link to your post.

Thank you again!

Wow JW...great post. I do similiar to JM. Some will just take the breast out, others will take just about everything.

That sounds so familiar. I used to do EVERY turkey full body, plucking, gutting, what a mess! The bird I just got I breasted out in 5 minutes at the most (I am a pro when it comes to breasting out game birds). But if my mom wants a full bodied turkey forEaster or somthing then she better have it.