what do you do with the beard, spurs,tail fans and feet of the turkeys you kill?


i have some of my beards tied to leather strap hanging down the limb that the mounted turkey is on. in the corner is a display of the fan,beard and feet/spurs of one of my birds from last year. my other tail fans have ended up on decoys for me and a buddy or two.

I string my spurs on a leather string that is 32 inches long. I display them like a neclace on the wall. I've got three full ones at this point and I still have to clean about 14 sets of spurs and get them stung up.

I keep my tail fans if I have plans to do something with it, or if a buddy needs a fan for B Mobile. I have two easterns and three Merriams in my freezer right now that I have to do something with soon.

I usually keep the longer beards (11' +) but other than that I give them to buddies, or they get lost. To me the beard is not indicative of the trophy, it's the spurs.

The feet....... they get tossed with the carcass.

I have been using the brass off the shell that killed the bird and display the beard/spurs like this.




Dang BC, throwing away the beard because it doesn't represent a trophy? Thats about like cutting your pecker off and bragging how long your big toe is.

When we get as many as him we will probably just start throwing the beards away to.


I still have all the beards and like bc put the spurs on a stringer. The beards are just put up, I keep alot of fans, seems someone is always wanting one. If I get to many around I will just throw them in the thrash.

That looks good.

True, I have a ways to go to catch up to some of these guys.

I've got most of my beards on a display board and I keep the tail fans just to have. Spurs are in a shoe box, need to do something with them. I also keep the wings b/c I've got a friend who fletches his own arrows, so I give them to him.

I still want to make my own box case with a tail fan, beard and feet enclosed w/ glass. One day I reckon.

I didn't say I threw them away . I have a small box that I keep the larger ones in, in my gunsafe. I used to keep every single one in a shoe box but over the years they would fall apart and when I would get them out it would just be a pile of hairs in a box. Usually if they aren't put into the shoebox they lay around in my hunting room and come up missing. Every now and again I will find one or two in a box or a storage container somewhere in the house.

I am much more of a spur man, I love the spurs and think they are a far greater measure of a trophy than the beard. I killed a 2 year old several years ago with a 12 inch beard. Beard length is determined much more by the terrain they frequent than their age.

I saw a beard in Nebraska last year that I wanted bad though. Him (and four others) were coming right to me in a small canyon. He had a paintbrush beard at least four inches wide and I don't know how long it was, but he was walking upright and it was dangling down close to the ground. All of them just turned and walked up the canyon wall about 20 yards from shotgun range for whatever reason. I know they didn't see me, they just turned and walked up an almost straight up bluff. Beats all I had ever seen.

that looks good

Man, those look good!

Here's a couple that I've done:

My Dad's Missouri bowkill


My Winston Co. gob

AUdeerhunter those look awesome! i like the 3 little feathers at the top of the beard

Here's one me and Slingshot made I thought turned out pretty good its sitting in my office.

I put em on a placque with the tail, spurs, beards....several to a placque. I got way too many to do one to one.....no mas wall space...



troy

Here's a display I made for a Rio and Eastern from a few years back.

those look good!!!

usually throw them in a shoebox or they get left in the tool box of my truck and then get thrown away the next year,been thinking of finding something to dip the tip of the beard and feet in or spray them with to preserve them, some type of laquer;any suggestions?A fella I know threw out 56 beards the other night because they were falling apart in the box he kept them in.

Hey Fred...Have you ever killed any big bucks?

Don't often keep tails anymore. Spurs get cleaned and lacquered then hung on chain. Beards get Boraxed on the butts as soon as I get home then dried for a couple months. Hot glued into the shell base after that and put into the rack.

What kind of laquer do you use for the spurs,and explain how to do the borax please sir.