What will you be doing with you 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 fall gobbler. 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 a guy in Iowa I met on another forum.

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.

[cramerhunts]

Congratulations on the birds and really cool ideas and use for them. Thanks for sharing them.

[J-Shaped]

Kudos to you for utilizing your birds so well. Not only are you utilizing what the bird provided you with to the fullest extent, but you're preserving some memories you'll have for a lifetime. I think hunters would be looked on a lot more favorably in today's society if more folks did this.

Good job and congrats on your season.

[hobbes]

I used to not keep legs and thighs but after moving I found that  Montana has a wanton waist law and requires that they be kept.  I have tried them multiple ways but have finally found a keeper.  Try this with your turkey legs and thighs.  Cook them in a crock pot for 8 hrs or so.  I did the first couple hrs on high then the rest on low.  I added a couple pieces of bacon per leg/thigh.  I also added salt and pepper to all sides and some Cajun seasoning.  Some liquid may be added but I didn't.  After cooking I easily stripped themeat from the bones and ligaments then placed in refrigerator.  My wife chopped the meat the next day for tacos.  Heat meat in skillet or microwave, place meat in heated corn or flour tortillas.  Add whatever you like but I prefer pico, salsa verde, avocado, and cheese.  Makes me hungry thinking about it.

[THattaway]

Nice work. Have done fan mounts, some multi fan mounts, a euro skull mount and I save all spurs and beards from toms I and family have killed. I save wings and fans from them all, sometimes to dry and make fly down wings but mainly to clip feathers for fly fishermen. Have sent free packages of feathers all up and down the east coast to fellow fly fishermen through fly fishing sites. Turkey makes some fine flies and has more uses than you will read about in flyfishing circles. Primary and secondary wing, coverts, tail, base of tail (rounds), leg, body marabou and breast feathers all have good uses...pretty much everything really. A few bow hunters have gotten stocks of primaries from me for fletching as well. The point is, it's a shame to waste parts of such a beautiful bird.

Thanks for the recipe Hobbes.

[bowmike]

I am a die hard fisherman as well. I never really used turkey on my patterns with the exception of a tail feathers to the turkey tail nymph. Similar to a pheasant tail, But since I keep my fans I don't use them on that.

I do however shoot at least one squirrel a year for fly tying purposes. Some of my extended family shoots rabbit and we put them all together in a roaster, and cook it how my grand mother did, Were it makes its own gravy like a rue.

[WV TURKEY THUG]

im gonna cut a pice off a log about 4 or so inches thick with a chainsaw. and right in the middle of the piece im going to cut about half way down so i can put the fan in it. im going tcut the bottom of the piece to make it flat t the bottom it will still have a circler shape on the top im going to put the tail fan in the slot i cut. then im going to glue the shell i killed it with to the bottom and glue the beard inside the shell. then im going to take the feet with spurs and hang a foot somehow havent figured it out on both sides of the shell. might get a picture and put it above the shell. the meat im going to eat haha gave the gizzard to someone else

[101st501]

Those are some great ideas.

[kyturkeyhunter4]

Congrats! On your turkey,those are some pretty good ideas.

[backwater]

Sounds like you had a great season.    Cool displays.

[Greg Massey]

I always keep my first turkey I kill each year for thanksgiving ... we also fry up some deer steaks etc.  Always giving thanks to GOD... for this great wildlife we get to hunt... I take some of the other turkeys and slice it for frying meat. Also keep some of the meat for turkey jerky ... etc...                 nice birds... what you did looks great....

[bowmike]

my test batch of turkey jerky was amazing. I think that all of my birds from now one will be made into it!!!

[Oconeeguy]

PM sent

[TRG3]

I shared the breast meat with the farmer who let me hunt. The rest of the white meat goes into a turkey pot pie, my favorite way to eat the bird. Dark meat goes in the crock pot for turkey veggie stew. I keep the wings for fletching for my traditional arrows. The tails are spread in the fan position, secured to a piece of cardboard, and powdered borax sprinkled heavily on the cleaned-but-remaining meaty/fatty area to be used later on a gobbler/jake decoy. Wing bones are made into yelpers; however, while I can make them, I certainly haven't mastered the yelper yet. The butt of the beard is stuck into a bucket of salt as are the legs below the feathers for later use (got any suggestions?).  I have saved the feathered back via borax and spread it over a black bucket as part of my homemade gobbler decoy, taking two birds with my flintlock using this set up.

[Cut N Run]

I marinade, then grill the breast off one bird I take each Spring to use for a party at the smaller of the horse farms where I hunt.  They're grateful to have it and sharing helps guarantee that I'll have that place to hunt by myself as long as I want to.

I pull the primary wing feathers and trade them to other flintknappers for quality rock for making arrowheads.  They use the primaries for fletching on home made arrows.  A few years ago, I knapped a matching set of stone arrowheads for a guy who mounted them on arrows he made with turkey fletchings he got from me. He killed several deer with those arrows shot from a long bow he made.

Jim