What are you doing with your gobbler(s)?

[bowmike]

This year has been my best year turkey hunting ever. I was lucky to take birds back to back on public land the first week of the season. I worked really hard for these birds and want to save them as trophies. These were only my 2nd and 3rd birds ever harvested. I have only been at it for 3 years so my hard work has been paying off.





I try and use all of any game animal I harvest that I can. If there are parts that I cant use and other can I will donate them.

My gobblers breast meat was cut into 1/8" strips and are going to be marinating for jerkey. A guy I work with makes some killer deer jerkey so I had him whip me up a batch for my gobbler. I will be making it this week, and it is marinating as I type this.
I kept the legs and thighs to try and make some soup. The smaller trimmings from the breast were bagged separate and I am going to make fajitas on day.

I took the jake's breast and cut one breast into chunks to make some turkey nuggets. THe smaller trimmings were added to the fajita bag. I may add this to the soup if I don't get enough meat from the legs and thighs.

I left the other breast whole and will either smoke it, or put it in a roaster. I am not a fan of wrapping stuff in bacon but might try it on this one.

The legs were kept separate for soup.

I took the wingbones out of this years birds and my 2013 gobbler and will be donating them to a call maker. He deserves them for all of the questions I throw at him throughout the year.

I took the primary flight feathers and will be sending them to Muddy.

The skull from my gobbler was cleaned off and setting near an ant mound for a euro mount. I don't have time right now to do it right, so I figured I would try this method for now.

I took the beards and preserved them. I am contemplating doing a quick mount on the gobbler like these:





I used the van dykes mount on my first bird so I will go with either one of these. Nothing against the van dykes mount as it is very nice, but I want a different looking mount for this years long beard. I think I like the one with the spur hanger. I will be preserving the fans this weekend if I get a chance.

My jake had some really pretty copper secondary feathers on him so I will be doing that fan as well. I will most likely put this in my shed or garage.

The spurs will be cut and preserved as well. I am thinking of making a nice lanyard to hang from the mounts.

I printed an 8x10 picture of my gobbler to display on my desk. Right now the beard and shell I used are hanging on it. depending on if I decide to get the mount the beard will stay there or hanging from my rear view mirror.



I took the jake photo and beard and put it in a frame my wife got me back in November for my birth day. I love the way it turned out.



It sits on the window seal off my office next to my coyote skull and 8x10 of my first gobbler.

Not much more I could have done to utilize every aspect of the birds I have been fortunate enough to harvest this year.

WHat are you guys doing with your birds? What meals are you going to prepare? Being that I have only harvested 3 birds so far I am still into preserving the fan and such. Not so sure that the fans will be saved after this season, unless they are really big, or unique.

I cant wait to try the turkey jerky. I think it will be awesome.

[oldrank]

Nice ! Very creative

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[JoeRE]

Cool looking mounts Mike. For the meat, I typically bag the white and dark meat separate and crockpot cook it with a variety of seasonings. Wild turkey is delicious if you don't let it dry out and one of the best and simplest ways to keep it moist is use a crockpot. Often I cook the turkey breast and then shred the meat mixed with 1 or 2 cans of condensed cream of chicken soup....simple and delicious on a sandwich! Turkey drumsticks need to be cooked a long time in a crockpot to tenderize them, often I leave them in for 12+ hours.

I string up the spurs and beards, and will save the fan if it is a really good one but those start to take up a lot of space after a while.

I have found a couple birds over the years where a hunter just removed the breast and left the rest of the turkey to waste. Whatever people choose to do, please don't do that Breast meat is only about half the meat on a bird.

[bowmike]

I agree with you on just breasting the birds. The legs and thighs have a ton of tendons and such that people don't feel like messing with, but for me I want to be sure that I get all of the meat I can. You cant go buy wild turkey anywhere. Even if you just make soup out of it, it is utilizing the bird some how.

I can see how sometimes one may be pressed for time to get to work or something, and have to do a quick field dressing job on them, however.

[bowhunter15]

This is what I did with my bird. I sliced the breasts into 3/4-1" slices for pan frying and baking, and will probably make the legs into a shredded turkey dish in the crockpot. I mounted the fan and beard, and separated the primary feathers to make fletchings out of. I also am keeping the secondary feathers to make flu-flu fletchings on wood shafts. I would have kept the wing bones to make a call, but supposedly the best calls come from hen wings, so I'll wait for a fall hen kill. However, I might attempt making one out of a gobbler just for the practice on the next one. I would have given the head to a taxidermist, as they can sometimes use extras for mounts where the heads are demolished, but it had an odd tusk growing out of its mouth and I figured it might look too weird.

[remmag]

I applaud you for putting everything to good use from your kill, that's the way it's done! very cool idea with the picture and beard both framed together. I'm also new to turkey hunting, this years bird being my second tom. My fan is being dried and preserved right now, have been considering either the same mount you posted or the plack that bowhunter15 used. The only thing that worried me about the mount you posted is being that its fake I don't want the end result looking to cheesy

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[Stanley]

Some years I pass a few toms and get skunked. But I can get a nice butterball and feel pretty good about not killing a bird that way.

[hunter_mike]

That jerky is going to be really good, i made some similar 2 years ago and it was awesome.

I have tried a few different recipes with the breast meat. Anywhere from marinating and grilling covered in tin foil, or a baked, stuffed turkey roll in the over, or slow cooking with gravy and vegetables in a crock pot.

I keep all the spurs but stopped doing fan mounts because they start taking up a lot of wall space after a while.

[wiscoz7]

I just breast mine out and marinate the chunks, then wrap them with bacon. I'll batter them up and fry them also, but the grilled bacon wrapped method is my fave!!
I decided to keep the wing bones out of the one I got this year, and I'm gonna make a couple calls eventually.
I keep the beard and the spurs and make a little decoration.

I have my 1st bow turkey fan plaque mounted, and 1 other fan on a plaque, but all the other ones get used for decoys or reaping set ups.


[ Post made via iPhone ]

[bowmike]

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[bowmike]

I was a bit worried as to how this would turn out. The longbeard was soaked when I took his fan off and put it in the freezer. I took the meat off as best I could, and used my wifes hair dryer on the feather. Put them back in shape, and pinched and stroked the feathers back into where they look nice. His tail fan was a little beat up, but I am happy with how it turned out so far.