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.