Turkey Beards


Neb. The Good Life

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Throwing them in a box sure isn't good. They fall apart and some magically disappear or you even misplace the box you put them in. I'm not sure how many I'm missing from the old days.

Some years back I decided to do this with the birds I didn't send to the taxidermist. Cut the legs on each side of the spurs and since the leg bones are hollow, I string them up on either side of the gobbler's beard that's clipped to the line. Ran out of room on these 2 lines so I'll either start another one for this year's 3 birds or get a longer line for the top group. They are hanging on the wall above my computer desk.

Turkey_Beards_RT.JPG

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Don't have a photo of the way I used to display them, but I made a board about 4 inches wide, stained it and hung it on my office wall. I'd have plastic plaques made with the turkeys name, stats and on the bottom of the board, I'd glue a magnet on centered under the board, centered under the plaque. I'd then string the beard thru the shell I shot it with, via the primer hole I'd removed. Atop the board I'd set a 4x6 photo of the hunt/bird. Worked out nicely until the board got longer than my room.

Now, I use a neat cane I picked up on the Cherokee reservation in NC. This cane had hung in this book store's window so long it'd faded the leather white. Carved turkey head with foot. Lots of leather dangin' off, so I remove the brass from the shell I shot the bird with and using leather, wrap the beard and knot it thru the primer hole.

HPIM5013.jpg

As you can see I'm a little behind in updating it, so I just stuck 'em inside this empty candle.

HPIM5014.jpg

Another excellent idea would be like the below photo. I had this western Indian tribal member make this headdress using a couple fans from birds I'd taken and a couple nice beards. As you can see there is lots of leather left to hang more beard.

HPIM5017.jpg

And finally, here's me when my beard was red doin' my pre-season good omen chants. HA! Function taken to the extremes, wouldn't you say!

DCP_1177.jpg

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Throwing them in a box sure isn't good. They fall apart and some magically disappear or you even misplace the box you put them in. I'm not sure how many I'm missing from the old days.

Some years back I decided to do this with the birds I didn't send to the taxidermist. Cut the legs on each side of the spurs and since the leg bones are hollow, I string them up on either side of the gobbler's beard that's clipped to the line. Ran out of room on these 2 lines so I'll either start another one for this year's 3 birds or get a longer line for the top group. They are hanging on the wall above my computer desk.

Turkey_Beards_RT.JPG

I've seen someone do something close to that and put them in a wood box with glass front. Looked nice. It was a really nice trophy room. Heck he had a couple booner bucks too and many that fell just short. He wrapped the ends of the beards with leather cord.

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