# If I get a turkey....Also Taxidermy question (TEX-O-BOB)



## #1DEER 1-I (Sep 10, 2007)

I know where a few okay tombs are around my area just wondering, I've been told wild turkey meat is really tough and hard to eat, is this true. I've also been told if I get one it would be better to Jerky it than anything.

I also have a question on taxidermy, how much is it for a standing puffed up turkey mount?


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## fixed blade XC-3 (Sep 11, 2007)

I'll mount your turkey for $30! You won't want to eat it afterwords, though.


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## BPturkeys (Sep 13, 2007)

Wild turkey can be a little tough. I normally breast the bird...cure and smoke the breasts before cooking...on the grill or pan fry or best of all...the George Foreman...Yum! The drumsticks are virtually un-chewable! You can boil them down for soup base or simply bury them in the garden like an old fish. The thighs are somewhere in between. Trouble with them is they're a pretty good sized chunk of meat so you hate to let them go to waste, so, you cook um up and spend the next 45 minutes wishin you hadn't.  
The wings and feet, you send to me...un-cooked of course.


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## proutdoors (Sep 24, 2007)

BPturkeys said:


> The wings and feet, you send to me...un-cooked of course.


I get why you would want the wings, but what do you do with the feet?


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## BPturkeys (Sep 13, 2007)

The feet? I got about a hundred set of feet. I got them hangin in the garage, I got um stuffed in boxes and bags, I even got a brace still in my vest from last year...actually, I don't don't do anything with them, I just got um.


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## proutdoors (Sep 24, 2007)

Oh, I thought maybe you used then for the same reasons the Asians use bear kidneys.  :wink: :mrgreen:


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## Mojo1 (Sep 8, 2007)

proutdoors said:


> BPturkeys said:
> 
> 
> > The wings and feet, you send to me...un-cooked of course.
> ...


They make awesome mounts.....you know the ones that give you the finger.

Seriously, a lot of people make jewelry from the spurs on them. I have a couple of necklaces of them myself.

If you guys are worried about that turkey being too tough to eat, pm me, I'll take them off your hands and see that they don't go to waste.

My favorite way to prepare them for the table is to take the breast meat and slice it thin then beat it with a tenderizing mallet. I season it to suit me (salt, pepper, season salt in my case) then flour it and fry it in hot oil until golden brown. If you cook it too long it toughens it, so be careful. Add mashed potatoes & gravy and you have a meal fit for a king!

I don't really like the drumsticks but my brother-in-law loves the dark meat, so he gets a bag ever year of it (I take the small portions of meat on top of the back too).

As for the cost of a mount you better budget around $600 or so for a quality mount, they ain't cheap.


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## BPturkeys (Sep 13, 2007)

I thought it was Bear gallbladers. The British use kidneys to make pie... _/O. The Chinese use chicken feet to make soup...that and 50# rice feeds the whole family for a month...course, you ever seen a fat Chinaman?...Anyway, turkey feet can be be used in a variety of ways. Attached to a short stick, they make a fine back scratcher. Bundle enough together, plop a bulb on top and you got yourself a pretty good lookin lamp. A cousin of mine uses his to hold his waders open to dry. But me, I just collect and admire um.


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## Mojo1 (Sep 8, 2007)

I hear yah BP, my grandpa made a set of silverware with turkey feet handles, not sure I'd eat with them, but they make great conversation pieces on the mantle. :lol:

I even saw a guy down in Missouri once that had his slate call striker mount to a turkey foot, it was kind of cool looking.

All this talk has got me ready to go hunting, who's with me?


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## BPturkeys (Sep 13, 2007)

Mojo, where you going this year? Back home? I've never shot an Eastern. If a guy was to head on down South, where might you recommend?


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## Mojo1 (Sep 8, 2007)

BPturkeys said:


> Mojo, where you going this year? Back home? I've never shot an Eastern. If a guy was to head on down South, where might you recommend?


Well first off I'm going to southern Oklahoma, in my area there we have Rios mixed with a very few hybrid Eastern/Rio's. I'm going to try to make it over to Arkansas a couple of days, but I will most likely stay up in the mountains at some friends since the last few years of above normal spring floods have made for a poor hatches over in the river bottoms where I hunt back there.

If I was going out of state to hunt easterns I would do the research and find a quality area to hunt or guide service in Missouri, Mississippi, or Tennessee.


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## Mojo1 (Sep 8, 2007)

I'm going early this year second week of April, due to work I went down the first week of May(last week of season) last year. The hunting was hard............breeding was over, it was really hot, and the turkeys were real educated. I still got a bird, but it was the toughest hunting I've had in a long time.

I have a few missions for this years hunt, I'm gunning for a true wall hanger, I want one on the wall. I was standing in Tex's shop on Monday admiring his turkey mounts and I decided if I can get a good enough specimen, he's getting mounted this year.

I'm taking one of my friends 10 year old son on his first turkey hunt this year so after I get him a bird, then I get to concentrate on getting my bird. 

I broke my streak of birthday birds last year, I had killed toms on my birthday for 10 consective years, so maybe I'll start a new streak this time around. :lol:


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## TEX-O-BOB (Sep 12, 2007)

I'll let BP, and Mojo do all the turkey jewelry and nick-nack making. 

As far as eating wild turkey, if you're eating it and it's tough, you didn't cook it right. Too many people cremate it and cook it WAY to much. My favorite way, strip the breast and thy meat into one inch strip steaks, marinade them in what ever you like, (I like any of the "Grill Mates" marinades by Schilling) and then grill them on a charcoal fire until they are firm. Anything past "firm" and you've over cooked them and then you WILL have boot leather.

Now, on to my favorite part of Turkeys. Mounting them! 

I won't post up prices but I will say Mojo was in the "ballpark" with his guess. Anyway, Turkeys are my bread and butter. I mount close to 100 of these fine birds a year and never get tired of them. Do me a favor though, If you do want to get one mounted, get his head up out of his feathers and shoot him in the lips. Nothing ruins a good turkey Mount like a 24 inch cloud of 6 shot right through all the feathers. And unless he's going to flop off a cliff, let him! Trying to stop the bird from flopping by holding him down will pull more feathers out than if you just let him do the kickin chickin. Once he's dead, get him cold and get him to me. Whole. DO NOT GUT IT! The meat will be fine. Just get him cold and get him to me asap. I'll skin him while you wait and send you home with the meat. Unless you think the meat is way to chewy to eat, then I'll be glad to take him off yer hands. 

Here's a little sumthin to gock at till the season starts. :wink: 



























This ones for you BP, Guess what I'm doing back there???  _(O)_


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## Mojo1 (Sep 8, 2007)

I never get tried of seeing those mounts, great job on them.


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## BPturkeys (Sep 13, 2007)

I second Mojo's appreciation of your work Tex. A mount is more than just a nice job of smoothing down some feathers and gluing in some glass eyes. For a mount to be a true work of art it must capture the essence of the individual bird and the species in general. The mounts I see from Tex meet all these requirements. You simply will not do better than to choose Tex to do your work.
-BP


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## TEX-O-BOB (Sep 12, 2007)

BP, that's may be the nicest thing you've ever said to me... sniff sniff...


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## proutdoors (Sep 24, 2007)

TEX-O-BOB said:


> BP, that's may be the nicest thing you've ever said to me... sniff sniff...


Get a room!


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## BPturkeys (Sep 13, 2007)

sorry, must be those nipples...I always been kind of a boob sort of guy :roll:


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## TEX-O-BOB (Sep 12, 2007)

BPturkeys said:


> sorry, must be those nipples...I always been kind of a boob sort of guy :roll:


Oh ya, And I hear you like a little hair too!


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## RJ-Max4 (Sep 11, 2007)

Tex, those turkey's look sharp.


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## sharpshooter25 (Oct 2, 2007)

Hey Tex-o-Bob. It depends on how old the bird is. If you shoot a tom, then just hamburger the bird, or jerky it. If you shoot a jake, then they are good. I shot a 26lb tom last year in Nebraska and the guys that guided me told me that he was a hamburger bird. I of course am mounting him so to answer you second question, it is costing me $400.00 to have it mounted full strut. Hope this helps and good luck. I personally highly recommend going to Nebraska to hunt turkey's. There are all three breeds there, and a lot of them. Plus you can shoot three and the tags are over the counter.


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## TEX-O-BOB (Sep 12, 2007)

Baloney!

I've eaten 4 year old toms and 10 month old jakes and they both eat the same. It's all in how ya cook em. :wink:


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