Turkey cape help

[ryjack70ss]

Hi all. I just shot in April my second Missouri turkey since my first 10 years ago. I caped the turkey out, fleshed it, pinned it and put the borax on. Everything seemed great. Flash forward 4 weeks and I went to take a look and the neck portion looks like the left side and right side feathers splayed out completely for the bottom 5-6 inches. It didn't look like this when I first did it. The rest still looks good to me. I tried to reposition the feathers in the middle but they just split back out to the sides. Any thoughts on what happened and if there is a fix? Should I just cut off the bottom 6 inches or will the feathers look funny? Any help for this newbie would be greatly appreciated.

Ryan



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[BigSlam51]

Where did you have it drying at?

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[Southerngobbler]

I certainly don't know for sure but I have seen bird mounts that looked like they were ruined. (Ducks cleaned by a spouse). That were made to look good again by getting them damp and drying with a blow drier. You could run into problems with any bird taxidermy if there's grease in it. I do know a taxidermist would always de grease a turkey before mounting-soak it in gas or some other solvent so most folks that do a cape type mount omit that process-probably takes some luck to get rid of the fat without actually degreasing it.

[bbcoach]

You should be able to clean the feathers.  Get a washcloth, some dawn dish soap and some warm water and gently wash the area in question.  Grab a blow dryer and dry the feathers and see if that will take care of the problem.  Don't over wet them just give them a good rub and dry.

[ryjack70ss]

Awesome. Thanks for the advice. I will clean this a bit and borrow my wife's blow dryer. I'll update everyone once I have given it a go.


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