Tail Mounting-different ways?
 

I just shot my first longbeard yesterday while getting pelted by hail and rain but I definitely want to mount the fan. I've been researching and it looks like some people cut out part of the bone at the base of the quills and some people don't. I would be afraid that I would cut too much out and the feathers would come loose or fall out. Is there a "correct" way? Do bugs get into the cartilidge/boney area even after sitting in borax for 3 weeks? I just want to make sure however I prepare it that it won't smell and it won't attract bugs or rot. Any tips or advice would be GREATLY appreciated. (It's currently in the freezer with the beard while I do research)

I've done them with and without doing any cutting on the area at the base of the fan that holds everything together. Generally I think it's best to do a little cartilage/meat removal to speed the drying process and it also keeps the maggot count down. If you spread it out and pin it in place on a board like you want it to dry for mounting, it will be easier to do. Just take a little knife blade and clean out a little of the fleshy part in the middle because the feathers attach around the outer circumference of the "fleshy lump". Then take some borax and cover the whole area to start the drying/preservation process. Put it up somewhere that is out of the way where no animals can get at it and I put more borax on it several times over 3 or 4 weeks until it has dried out completely and will maintain it's shape when you unpin it. You can make your own plaque to put it on or buy one of many different styles of your choice that are very simple to put together. I bought a nice plaque from Cabelas for the best one I've ever taken and put the base of the beard together at the fan base and then tightened the centerpiece cover to hold everything. I cut the legs off the bird at the main joint and an inch or so below the 1 1/2 inch spurs and let them dry out before taking a small drill bit and drilling a hole through each one up near the joint. I ran the ends of some fine fishing line through each hole and tied them so that I could then hang them over the top of the wood holding the fan and beard to the plaque. Attached is a picture of how it turned out. That fan is by far the biggest of all the birds I've taken over the years and measures 31" wide from tip to tip and is 20" high. The beard was 10 1/2 inches long and we figure that bird was probably 4 years old because I think we saw him in the same spot the year before when he was almost that big. He was taken in May of 2006.

Congrats on your first tom! I cut the fan out without bone attached. If you grab the fan at the base and serperate the fan feathers from the back feathers you will see and feel a knob, which is all the tail feather quills. I cut that knob off and have never lost a tail feather. Then I trim as much meat off of that, trim it so you almost expose the quils on the outter feathers. Then put Borax all over it, between feathers, stuff it up in the quills as far as you can. Then I add more Borax to it as the meat absorbs it, if you think you have used too much Borax add more! The faster you get the meat dried out the less chance of bugs and smell. Then put some nails in a board and put the fan on it to spread it out as it drys, when it drys out the fan will be open. Take a look at the photos. Have fun!!!

I'm just afraid I will do something that will attract bugs and ruin that mount and my other mounts. But I'm also afraid to cut off too much and end up having the feathers falling out. My boss just mounted a bird for me and he didn't cut out the boney piece in the middle, he did go through and get as much fat and tissue off except for that and then covered it with borax for about 3 weeks to dry it out good, is that good enough do you think or should I go back and try to cut that bone out at this point and re-borax it? I'm just really afraid of getting bugs I think that'd be sick and my fiance wouldn't appreciate that either (it's her bird that my boss mounted)

The borax will take care of any bugs and the smell as everything dries out and the fan sets up the way it will look spread out on your wall display. When you lean it up to dop the final placement on your plaque you will be able to tell if there are any little critters, so don't worry and just do it, LOL! The rpevious pictures posted shwo the procedure real well!

The borax will take care of any bugs and the smell as everything dries out and the fan sets up the way it will look spread out on your wall display. When you clean it up to do the final placement on your plaque you will be able to tell if there are any little critters, but there shouldn't be, so don't worry and just do it, LOL! The previous pictures posted show the procedure real well!

Natimage you have to just do it! It really is easy to do. You are worrying too much about the bugs!!! Just cut and Borax, nothing to it. If your nervous about cutting to much off go ahead and leave the bone in it. It is easier to get a good fit with a plaque though without the bone. Look at it this way, if you cut to much off and lose the feathers you will have to just get another tom next year......LOL!