Turkey taxidermy question

[Patton]

Here is how I did mine

http://discussions.texasbowhunter.com/forums/showthread.php?t=288537&highlight=turkey+fan+mount

[kmack]

I like your fan setup. Very nice. I haven't decided what I want to put in the center yet. Got to get it dried out first. Then I'll make a decision...

[Bill]

I've got 2 spread and dried on a big piece of cardboard, and the 'meat' dried up with pouring Oxyclean all over it! Now I'm trying to figure out what to do with them, I have one mounted and on a shelf in my home office. I figured I could put 2 or 3 together in a 360 degree circle, but then I'd have a bigger "where do I put it" problem to solve.

[kmack]

A little update on this old thread of mine...

My first fan turned out pretty good. I used salt for about 2 weeks then 4 weeks with Borax. I like how it turned out but the mount is a little plain. Not bad for my first attempt.

Anyway, so this past November, my daughter and I got ourselves into an interesting situation the weekend before Thanksgiving. We were sitting in my blind on Saturday evening waiting to see what deer would show up. Instead, we had 7 gobblers roost in the trees right above my feeder! We waited until dark to sneak out of the blind, then returned in the dark around 4 am the next morning. They were still there and as soon as they hit the ground, we both unloaded on them. She got her first turkey and got to add two more fans to my collection!

I've already got my daughter's fan hanging on her wall and she is more than happy. I'm still working on my two and hopefully will have them finally completed in the next few weeks. The fans and beards are ready, but I'm still working on the final layout for the spurs. Here's a pic of the fans in their current state (a little blurry). When I get them done, I'll post some completion photos.

[oneforthewall]

Good grief boys, NEVER leave raw meat in a mount!!! Are you trying to invite bugs into your house? Once in they will likely infest every mount you own........ If you do it yourself clean every bit of meat, fat and bone out of the tail including between the primary feather quills before you add any dry preservative.

[kmack]

I scraped off all the meat off the tail plus I have salted/borax both sides of each fan. Also, these are at the apt I keep while I'm out working in the EagleFord. Not my main house!

[White Falcon]

If you get bugs, spray a light mist of Raid on them!
Nice work!

[Patton]

Good grief boys, NEVER leave raw meat in a mount!!! Are you trying to invite bugs into your house? Once in they will likely infest every mount you own........ If you do it yourself clean every bit of meat, fat and bone out of the tail including between the primary feather quills before you add any dry preservative.

Where did anybody say raw meat was left on the mount?

I scraped off all the meat off the tail plus I have salted/borax both sides of each fan. Also, these are at the apt I keep while I'm out working in the EagleFord. Not my main house!

They look good kmack. Did you not keep the 3rd 'mini fan'? The one with the greenish or pink shiny feathers? There is the large main fan and then 2 mini fans that sit ontop of that.

[Axe Man]

I did my son's last year with Bondo. Pinned the fan open and added bondo above the meat area on the back and a small amount on the front. Once it hardened, I cut off the area with meat and sealed the bottom with bondo. We had it mounted the same day it was killed.

[kmack]

They look good kmack. Did you not keep the 3rd 'mini fan'? The one with the greenish or pink shiny feathers? There is the large main fan and then 2 mini fans that sit ontop of that.

On these two, I didn't keep the 3rd mini fan that sits on top. It didn't look as good as on my first fan. Plus it tends to make the thickness of the fan a little bigger than I originally wanted. As I get more, I plan to keep that section and see if I can make it work the way I want. More practice I guess.

Part of problem in getting these set up the way I want them is I don't get a lot of time to spend on them in any one sitting. I work on call in the EagleFord and sometimes I need to sleep more than I need to work on the fans! For shame!!!!

I've also been trying to come up with ideas for the mounting plaques other than the generic ones you find at Academy or BPS. But I don't have a jigsaw or scroll saw to cut my own like I'd want to. Adds more of a challenge I guess! (I actually stole the plaque from my first mount in order to get my daughter's on the wall for her.)

[kmack]

Another update...

I finally got my last two fans mounted. I think it turned out great! I only have a picture of one of them. The other is finished the same way so the only difference is the beard (it actually fans out some instead of hanging straight down). The other fan (not pictured) was given to hang on my Dad-n-law's wall since he doesn't have one and his health probably isn't going to let him hunt anymore.

The plaque is cut from a cedar trunk I got from behind my house. The feathers are holding the spurs. This was what I was thinking on the design.

[Patton]

Hey that looks great! Very nicely done. The cedar turned out well, and the way you did the spurs and feathers give it a Native American, old school look. I really like it, I bet my next fan mount looks a lot like yours

[kmack]

Thanks, I appreciate the compliment. It took me about 3 weeks to come up with the final look for the feathers and spurs. I wanted to use a leather strap for them but I just couldn't find exactly what I was looking for w/o spending a ton on the leather. So I just went cheap and use para-cord. I used a black felt for the wrap to tie in the black para-cord. Worked pretty good.

[Patton]

I didn't even notice the black paracord because of all the other good stuff. Sperry Top Sider leather shoe laces have worked for me in the past

[kmack]

Sperry Top Sider leather shoe laces have worked for me in the past

My daughter is the only one in the house with Sperrys and she'd be pi**ed if I cannibalized them for the laces...unless I was going to use it for one of her mounts!