Finally Got the Turkey Mount Done!

Last weekend, my oldest son Mason and I officially capped off the Spring 2020 turkey season by completing our tail fan mount.  If you need to get caught up with our hunt, here are links to the two posts that detail our adventure.

Part 1: https://showmeflyguy.blogspot.com/2020/05/hunting-with-mason-my-oldest-part-1.html

Part 2: https://showmeflyguy.blogspot.com/2020/05/hunting-with-mason-my-oldest-part-2.html

The process was pretty easy.  We removed as much meat from the base of the tail as possible and then put it in a box of borax.  We did the same with the beard.  We let it dehydrate for a couple of weeks and then opened the fan back up on a piece of cardboard.  We taped it to the cardboard and and used a bottle of epoxy to seal it up (to keep it from stinking) and to have it maintain its shape.  After the epoxy cured, we mounted it to a display kit that I bought on Amazon.  There is a link to the kit below.  To display the beard, I drilled a hole in the shotgun shell that was used to harvest the turkey.  I ran a fishing line through the hole and attached one end to the beard with a knot.  The other end ran through a small gap in the display and I taped it to the back of the wood along with the tag that I used to check the bird after I harvested it.  It was a cheap, easy, and fun way to mount the fan.

Link: https://www.walnuthollowcountry.com/solid-oak-turkey-displa-kit/

Now I know some folks might be a little grossed out by such a thing and some might be outright disgusted.  If you are, I get it.  If you think about it, it is kind of strange to hand dead animal parts on a wall.  I would like to share with you what I shared with my son if you find yourself in this boat.  I'm not trying to sway your thinking, just to explain why I would do this. 

I told my son that we mounted this turkey fan as a memory of the hunt and to honor the bird.  I hope that every time he looks at the mount that he remembers a few things.  I hope that he remembers that for us to survive, other things have to die.  Every burger he ever eats comes from a cow and every chicken nugget he consumes came from a chicken.  I want him to remember the circle of life and how it is a part of nature.  I want him to appreciate life and to respect wildlife.  Hopefully he remembers the experience of being in the woods with his dad, hearing the turkeys gobble from a roost, and how good it felt to harvest our own meal with wit and wisdom.  Maybe he will remember how this bird came from our family farm that has been in our family for almost 100 years.  This is not a symbol how how we dominate nature and how we killed a bird.  It shows an appreciation for nature, a respect for the food chain, and a memory that teaches us long after the bird is harvested.  That's why we did this!