when i shoot a big gobbler ( i hope) what do i do?? do i just bring it to the check station and then the butcher?

I'll post what I do as I fillet everything out - but I need my other hard drive. I do have a pictorial "do it yourself"

If you are required to check in with the Dept of Nat. Res. do that before you field dress. We are required to do so here in WI - so once shot - I get er dun quick - then see if I can buy another tag!

JW

I breast mine out...

I just filet the breast meat right off the turkey. Once you do it, it's easy. Sure is one heck of a lot less messy.

To field dress a wild turkey you should cut the skin just below the pointed end of the breast , near the vent.
Don't cut too deep , or you'll puncture the intestines then reach in and pull out the entrails.
If you like giblets , cut the heart , liver and gizzard free , and store them in a resealable plastic bag.
Next , remove the crop where the neck joins the breast , if the bird ate recently , the crop will be firm and roughly the size of a tennis ball.
Cut though the breast skin to remove it and the esophagus attached ot it , rinse and clean well.
Then your bird is ready for the oven or fryer , if you have any more questions about cooking your bird let me know.

Just fillet the meat off of the breast...there isn't any other ediblemeat on a wild turkey...They are runners so their leg meat is like chewing onrubberbands.

You have a few options to choose from. You can do the traditional plucking and get the thanksgiving turkey look or you can breast the bird by cutting only both breast off the bird. Plucking takes forever and breasting you loose a bunch of meat. One thing that you can do to help the plucking process, if you choose that route, is to boil the bird in hot, hot watter (feathers and all) for a few minutes. Then, when you go to start plucking, the feathers just fall right out...there isn't much grabbing a handful of feathers and ripping.

No need to take a turkey to a butcher, you can do most of it yourself pretty easily. You can breast a turkey and be completely done with bird in a few short minutes.

RDhunter gave my advice...if im not going to be home quickly, i will field dress the bird in the woods by opening it up between the breast bone and back legs...think of the hole that is in the ones at the store..thats where you make your cut...dont go deep...turkeys are one of the smelliest critters to field dress as it is IMO.

then its upto your prefered cooking methods on how you take care of the rest....i learned that the only meat that you can chew from a wild turkey is usually the breasts..legs are tiny and tough...not much meat elsewhere..so i been breasting mine out lately. from there i usually cut it into chunks and marinade them and grill them..since im the only one that eats them, i found thats the best way to do it...but theres 10000s of options for cooking/processing the bird...

Breast it out, legs and wings are TOUGH! I'd cut the fan and beard off first if I was planning on saving them, and I save the legs too... I should probably just start cutting the spurs off to put on a lanyard or something...

so i doa all that BEFORE i bring it to the check station?