I know the feathers arent perfectly symmetrical, but I think it looks really good for my first attempt at taxidermy!
I made the beard thing using the shotgun shell I shot him with, natural bone beads from Hobby Lobby, and the spurs AND toenail claws of my turkey.

 

Looks great!!!
I like the beard in the shotgun shell. I might have to steal that idea...

 

Thanks! Yeah I just used the band saw to cut the crinkly part of the shell off and wedged the skin end into the opening. No glue or anything, it fit plenty tight.
Edit: And for the holes in the shotgun shell, I just heated up a nail with the blowtorch and poked it through, then ran fishing line through it.

 

That is an awesome mount! I think you did a great job. How long did it take you?

 

It took about an hour per wing to cut the meat away, then like 20 minutes preparing the tail. We just spread them the way we liked them on a flat piece of cardboard, put rocks on it to hold it down (pretty high tech, I know), and put TONS of borax and black pepper on the meat parts. Pepper might sound weird but a taxidermist friend told me it discourages bugs. Then the wings and fan dried for two weeks. Then we cut off the ball of the humerus bone, and used these nail things to attach them to the plaque. Not sure what they're called, but its like two nails with a strip of plastic in between them...So the plastic strip is on the bone with a nail going into the wood on either side of the bone, if you can picture that. Then attach fan and beard like normal. So aside from drying time, it took about 4 hours or so.

 

By the way, this only cost me about $7, for a box of borax and beads. I already had the plaque laying around.

 

Awesome looks better than just a plain fan on the wall great job.

 

Looks great! I've done the shotgun shell thing on a few birds in the past, always liked that small touch.

Here's one I did myself too. I started out with the idea of just doing wings, back feathers and tail fan. Once I got it all skinned out, I decided I liked it just like it was. A little felt backing was the only thing I had to put money out for.

 

You did an Excellent job, I'm going to do one like that on my next Turkey....I Really like the necklace with the toe nails on it......Did you shoot half his Beard Off??......:darkbeer::darkbeer::darkbeer::wink:

 

Good looking bird!

 

Awesome job

 

Looks awesome! Great job!

 

Excellent job on the mount and congrats on the bird!

 

Awsome job. Looks great. Congrats on the turkey.

 

Haha no I did not shoot half his beard off! I was actually so excited I nearly shot over him. I only found a few holes in his neck/head. He had beard rot, it doesn't show up in the pics really but the broken part is all brown where it snapped off.

Thanks for the comments guys, it was fun to make and not too hard to do. And I like the whole turkey cape, maybe I'll do my next one like that!! And I'm really glad I saved the toenail claws, they add a lot I think. I should have arranged them better for the pic: I had just hung it on the wall so it was kinda shook up.

 

Oh Ok,I shot a great big old tom once that had a 2 inch beard, and he had beard rot......At least the other half is long....:darkbeer::darkbeer::darkbeer::uzi::turkey:

 

Really nice work.

 

That is awesome...very clever and creative ideas.

 

Excellent mount!!! You just gave me an idea to try.

 

Thanks! The most important thing is to get as much meat off the wing bones as you can (without cutting the feather quills or through the skin), and there's no such thing as too much borax!!

 

Looks good

 

That looks better than a whole turkey mount, such a shame to have such beautiful feathers and that ugly head.

 

Haha they're heads ARE pretty ugly..I do love it when they're heads are candy apple red though! It's the most vibrant red I've ever seen.

 

Good job

 

sorry to bring a thread from the dead but i like this idea and had to subscribe

 

I did one similar to yours and basically used the same methods but I use pins or small nails to hold my fan and wing feathers in place instead of rocks on cardboard. I would encourage anyone to give it a try as it only takes time and little money to do and as somebody mentioned turkey feathers are beautiful!
Here's the one I did for my son's first turkey.

 

did you leave the wing bones or take them out?

 

Took them out.

 

Nice work all around

 

Awesome. How much would it cost for actual taxidermist to do this?