Turkey wall display..

[wooly]

I got a chance to finish up my 2014 turkey fan and wing display today!
As you all probably know by now, I like my stuff looking a little rough and rustic instead of that fine finished look, so I decided to tear apart an old twisted stump for my plaque wood.
The entire process went surprisingly smooth except for one accidental spill while the Borax was still drying things out. Had to make an emergency run for more but the best I could come up with was Boric Acid powder...... close enough,lol!

 

Anyhow, here's what I came up with.
The pot call and striker had nothing to do with killing this gobbler. I wasn't real happy with that call so I'm glad I found a use for it so I have an excuse to get a new one next spring!

 

 

 

 

[Pav2704]

Looks great wooly!!! The rustic piece of wood really makes it!!! I have mine sitting in the freezer. I'm still deciding on what to use for mounting the fan.

[letinmfly]

That's a really neat mount Matt!!

[New York Hillbilly]

Hands down that is the coolest freaking turkey mount I have ever seen. Great job!! I'm as blown away as that turkey was.  lol

[Red]

That looks very sharp. Great job

[josephmrtn]

Hey Matt mind if i copy yours?

[NaturesWay]

Looks really nice! The twisted stump was a great idea.

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[nyslowhand]

Great job & very cool!

 

What are the items on the lanyard between the call and the striker? Looks like spurs, but not sure about the round object..! X'section of leg bone..? Part of shot shell..?

[Cabin Fever]

Pretty sweet and very unique!

[wooly]

Thanks guys!

The round item between the spurs is indeed the shotgun shell brass.

I cut that off flush with tubing cutters then hacked through the primer with a hacksaw.

I added a second one to the center of the pot call because the slate started to crack when I was screwing it to the backer board.

[landtracdeerhunter]

A rare, unique, one of a kind mount that looks very nice.  I hope that fine mount will hang in a nice area. No sticking in the barn, LOL.

I'm curious as to all those wing feathers. They all came off one turkey? Just never realized they had so many.

[wooly]

A rare, unique, one of a kind mount that looks very nice.  I hope that fine mount will hang in a nice area. No sticking in the barn, LOL.

I'm curious as to all those wing feathers. They all came off one turkey? Just never realized they had so many.

 

The wing feathers are all from one bird, but I added the patch of back feathers around the call to hide the backer that showed between them.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with it, for the little time I have invested in it.

[Terry]

How did you preserve the wings?

[GreeneHunter]

Nice .... Good Job !

[wooly]

How did you preserve the wings?

 

Terry- I de-boned the wings and fleshed off as much of the fatty junk and leftover meat that I could. Then I hit the quill tips with a wire brush to remove more junk between them, and coated them with Borax/Boric Acid and got them pinned to a sheet of cardboard. You want to preserve the skin, not the meat and fat. I let it dry in the sun for a week or so before removing the pins and everything was dry and ready to rock and roll.

 

The back isn't nearly as attractive as the front,lol

You can see though where I sliced the wingbone along the feather quills.

Edited June 7, 2014 by wooly