If you ask a hunter what the best part about going hunting is, the answer will be subjective depending on to whom you are talking. Their personal motivations affect what they appreciate about hunting. For most hunters, it is nutritious, fresh food. For others, it is time spent with family and friends and participating in the stewardship of natural resources.
One of the ways to preserve the memory of a hunt is by saving part of the animal. I typically hunt for food, but my first turkey was really special and the feathers are beautiful! I wanted to preserve them and I wanted to have the tail fan to use for future hunts. Here’s how I saved my turkey’s tail fan:
Make a Plan
Before you go hunting, you should have an idea of what you plan to do with your game. Perhaps you’re thinking about turkey pot pie or some other recipe. This means you have a plan to field dress the game in the appropriate way. If your trip home or to the fridge or freezer is a long one, consider having a cooler on hand. Do not risk meat spoiling! Stopping for a cooler and ice is not just worthwhile, but necessary.
You might not have planned to preserve any part of your bird before your hunt, but perhaps you end up with something so beautiful or something with meaning. It’s okay to divert from the plan and preserve your memories!
Handle with Care
How you process or handle the food part of your bird can affect the state of the rest of the bird. For example, if you want to preserve the tail fan, you could take it off the bird immediately, and you would likely keep it from getting dirty or being moved around aggressively. If you have to travel home with your bird, freezing it might be an option, but think in advance whether you plan to keep any part of the animal (like the tail). Do your best to keep it dry, and protect the feathers from getting crushed.
Adding paper towels to your vehicle and some extra bags to layer around the animal could be useful for keeping it dry and clean.
Take your Time
First remove the tail fan, then remove as much of the meat and skin as possible. My bird had to travel home from a hunt with me on ice and in hindsight I wish I would have been a little more intentional with the fan immediately.
Once the fan is removed, and you are able to clean off all the meat and skin, it’s OK to do a little due diligence and clean any other dirt off the feathers. I did my best to clean the feathers a bit by wiping some alcohol in the direction that the feathers lie. I used patience to try to carefully groom the feathers back to their rightful state.
Don’t use water, as this can matt the feathers. Make note of that and make sure anyone helping you field dress the bird knows what you intend to do with it and that you do not want it to get wet.
Next, lay the tail fan out on a large piece of cardboard. I used a piece of OSB (particle board) and drove a nail into the center of the base of the fan, and then used large T-pins to hold each tail feather where I wanted it. Then I spread a layer of powdered Borax all over the areas where I had pulled off the meat and skin. The Borax will draw the moisture out of the tail and preserve it. It will harden over several weeks.
Once the fan has dried and set, you can mount it onto a wooden base for display, or use some felt and glue to make a fan to use for hunting.
Some hunters want a realistic mount with their tail fan; there are methods using Bondo to build up the base of the tail that lead to a really neat look.
Optional Fun
One thing I also did, because they were so beautiful, was preserve the wings of my bird. I think they look amazing and show how big the bird was. I did the same thing for them as I did for the tail, fan, removing all the skin, meat and fat that I could. Then I cleaned any dirt or other residue off them with alcohol and pinned them to a large piece of cardboard with T pins. I mounded up plenty of Borax under, around, and brushed into the bases of the wings to dry them out, then left them in place for about a month. It was so neat to see them harden and freeze into the shape I set them in. I can’t wait to come up with some sort of a wooded mount to attach them and the tail fan and beard to.
Don’t Hesitate to Try
Whatever you think about preserving your animal, don’t hesitate to try this! I had a big trip overseas for a world championship match and was feeling like it would be too much of a project to take on, but decided that it was such a beautiful memory to preserve that there was no reason not to try.
