Buckmasterflex

Ok guys I'm new to turkey hunting and got a pretty nice tom.. I cleaned all of the meat that I could off of the quills(theres still a little) and then I put Borax all over them and let them set in that for about 2-3 weeks now what do I do? I think its ready to be put on the plaque I bought but I was wondering if I should put something on the meaty area so its wont attract bugs or anything? Any advice would be greatly appreciated..

Western MA Hunter

I just usually salt/borax the meaty area till it turns hard. Then, whatever dried meat is exposed I will put some polyurethane or something on it...
I like to use the Quaker Boy turkey fan mount kits.

JW

I do let my dry for several months.

I do lightly spray with 'Raid House & Garden'

And never touch it again......


JW

r33h

Here is a "how to" from nwtf. I used it to learn how to do mounts by myself and it was very helpful. All the supplies can be found at wal-mart. http://www.nwtf.org/tips_adventures/tips.php?id=289

JW

Beard

I put about 1 inch of Borax in a plastic cup.
All I do with the beard is once cut off with a bit of skin (see picture) is to place it in a plastic cup meat end in the cup. I will just let it dry as long as the fan.

Fan Mount….

What I do…
You will need a piece of board – I use plywood, a few screws – I use drywall screws, some flat thin wood pieces about 3 feet long, table salt, and some bug spray.

I cut the tail free from the bird cutting off at the narrowest area of the tail bone. Remember back to Mom’s Thanksgiving turkey and the part that goes over the fence last.

Should look like this. Here is a tail cut from a bird.


Picture of my mounting board I use year after year.


You see those 3 screws on the board> I place my tail good side of the fan facing the board – on the center screw.



Looks like this.



With the center of the fan positioned on top of the 2 inch drywall screw I take the right bottom most feather of the fan and spread the fan so it opens up and just take the feather shaft over the right and left dry wall screw. This will spread the fan.



Will look like this. Now again this is the backside of the fan. The part that will face the wall and not you. I then take a thin strip of wood and screw it down on either end. I will position each feather and then really tighten those screws down.

Below is the outcome.


Now I mound table salt on the meaty portion of the tail as shown.

And I will set it aside to dry for a few months. I leave this in an area in my basement of my house. I will check on it once a month and add more salt if needed.

I will also spray the fan with a good insecticide such as House a Garden a few times giving is a light spraying. This will kill any dermestid beetles….


After a few months I remove the dry fan and mount it to a plaque I make. I will put a dry wall screw from the back side into my mounting plaque. Now you will have all the tail bone intact and store bought mounting plaques don’t work all that good. But I have been doing this for years and my wall mounts still look great.
And here is another link to mount with out the tail bone by Adrian Hare.

http://ontariohunter.proboards26.com/index.cgi?board=Turkey&action=display&num= 1090757179