I'm probably way ahead of myself, but it never hurts to plan. What tips do you have to prepare a bird for the taxidermist after it's taken with a bow?

I put it in a big garbage bag then inacooler with baggedice and drive it to the taxi. right away and let him dress it out and skin it. That way he has it just the way he wants it to make a good mount.

What if it's a 7 hour drive from Kansas to the taxidermist?

It should make it, or to feel more comfortable, call your taxi and ask him what he wants you to do.

If you put him in garbage bag thena cooler with ice top and bottomand thetaxi. gets him within 7 hours the turkey will be ok, but you have to keep it cold and get there asap. If it's going to be a day or so I would wrap it in news paper and freeze it. You have to keep it cold or freeze it.

Bag it Ice it and get it to the Taxi.. should be fine on ice for the trip stop an check along the way an add ice as needed


MrGobbler

More important is what you do right after you shoot the turkey. Most damage to the birds take place after you shoot them. They flop around and can make a mess of things.

Get to your bird right away and pin him to the ground....or hold him up by his legs. Don't let him flop around because you will lose lots of feathers. I shot a gobbler several years ago that did several back flips down a hill before I could get to him. When I got to him, over half of the tail feathers alone were gone.

The next thing to do is wipe off any blood that has gotten on feathers.....especially around the head. Then place some paper towel inside the mouth to help soak up any blood and prevent it from getting on the feathers.

I'm not a fan of putting them in a plastic bag because that can promote moisture. If it will be a while before you can get to the taxi, just place the bird in a cooler with some ice. (Keep the ice in the original bag. I like to put that bag inside another bag to help keep the bird from getting wet)

Good luck!!!

I am a taxidermist that specializes only in mounting turkeys.we mount around 1100-1300 turkeys a year and 70% of the turkeys we get turn out better if the hunter follows the step that we reccomend. which are,#1 after you shoot the bird, get to it as quickly as you can and pick it up by both legs(watch for the spurs) and hold it outaway from youuntil it quits flopping. This is because on the ground the bird will flop several feathers out and if they do not pull out right right thenit will loosens the quills up from the skin and the feathers will fall out later on in the mounting process.
#2 take a pair of panty hose with you, right after itquits flopping,stick the turkey head first into one of the legs of the panty hose until it is completely covered.This reduces the feathers getting ruffled up and also keeps a lot of the blood off of the feathers.
#3 be careful while transporting the turkey home, make sure towatch that the tail stays straight and try to keep as much blood off the feathers as possible.
#4 when you get the bird home, sandwhich the tail feathers between 2 pieces of card board,staple or tape the edges of the cardboard together so it wont come off. wipe the blood off of the feathers and turkey head and stick the head into a sock. Place the bird back into a different panty hose head first. Cover the cardboard with the hose also.
#5 put the bird in a black trash bag and freeze it. if your going to take it to your taxidermist that day then only follow steps 1-3. 90% of the cases when i recieve turkeys is when customers ship them to me from all over the world, thats why i was talking about freezing the turkey to ship it.
I hope i was some help to you. Thank you.

[align=center]The Turkey Roost[/align][align=center]Drake Morris[/align][align=center] [email protected][/align][align=center][/align]

I didn't have any panty hose with me when I killed my last mounted turkey, didn't plan on shooting a mounter, so what I used was a pair of my sweat pants to slide the turkey down into a leg of them, did the same thing as panty hose would do. Then iced the bird down until I got it to my taxidermist.

Turkeyroost, where are you located?