The heads on both mine are freeze dried. I love the way the first mount looks...it doesn't "scream" at ya. I was a little unhappy with the way the second one looked...it's just a bit to bright for my liking....to much red.
Any good taxidermist will use freeze dried heads vs the plastic ones (the mounts that look fake). That said, most of the time they order freeze dried turkey heads either pre painted or unpainted for them to airbrush themselves. A few may freeze dry your turkeys heads but most of the time the heads are swapped out. That said, turkeys are the next closest thing to bobcats in that most guys fork over hundreds of dollars for a mount that looks like it came out of a cartoon. Pretty difficult to make them look natural. Quality can vary greatly from $400-$650. Either way its far too much for me to pay to have a bird mounted. I have the fan off my first turkey ever, as well as my two SD Merriams. Other than those, I have a shoe box full of about 20 beards or so with all the spurs. Eventually I may do something with them, but the shoebox does just fine for now. I'd literally have a feathered wall paper in my tiny bedroom back home if I had kept the fan off of every bird I've shot.
The head is what makes a good turkey mount. A really good turkey mount is normally well over $750. It has to be a freeze dried head and be painted by someone that really knows what they are doing in my opinion. I have seen some really great mounts that are total crap because of the the head. I had one done that my son shot by Rick Morris. He has won the world championships and actually helped Cally Morris (his brother) become the best know turkey taxidermist in the world. It was not cheap, but it absolutely looks alive. With turkeys, more than any other mount, you get what you pay for.
I'll 2nd that on the work done by Cally Morris. My taxidermist does unbelievable work on turkeys for a very reasonable price, IMO. He gets the heads from Cally Morris and they are definitely top notch. He's the only guy around here that I would consider taking a turkey to. It bothers me the amount of people that get turkeys done and they look like crap, but they are okay with it. Most of the birds that I see done I would be very unhappy with. Like anything else, paying the extra money makes a big difference.
No Oly....WHEN.....we get a bird this spring we will do something like this:D Nice mounts gents Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2
I like that strut mount! I was trying to figure out if I got a strut mount how I could get it off the floor...I dont want it on a limb. I think what you got there would be the ticket. I seen another mount the other day that I really liked, it was a bird hanging on a fence post with an old double barrel sitting next to it...I really liked it.
Thanks guys for the info on mounts. I agree the head is what can make or break you mount. I did a little shopping around this weekend with a few taxi and I found a guy I think im going to use. He freeze drys then send out the head to some award winning guys for air brush. Seen a few pics on birds that he has done in the past and they all turned out really well. Decided im going to go with a chest mount like someone posted earlier in this thread. Going to use my fan and beard from last years birds then use the rest of the parts from this years bird.
Thanks. I was really happy with the way it turned out. That bird was my wife's first turkey. The taxidermist mounted it, made the base, and added the post, barbwire, leaves, etc. for $500. I thought that was a very fair price. Hopefully I kill 2 birds this spring, I'm really wanting to get a pair of gobblers fighting.
Here's mine. Spent a lot of time trying to find a cool way to mount my fan because it was my first bird with a bow. Luckily my buddy took some good pics that day. It turned out pretty good and gives it a little more color than the typical fan plaques. Sent from my XT901 using Tapatalk
Here is a full strut I had done a few years ago. I think it turned out great.<a href="http://s1242.photobucket.com/user/whitetailfreak52/media/7030a3eb.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg521/whitetailfreak52/7030a3eb.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 7030a3eb.jpg"/></a><a href="http://s1242.photobucket.com/user/whitetailfreak52/media/4416978a.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg521/whitetailfreak52/4416978a.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 4416978a.jpg"/></a>
Thanks!! I didn't make this, but found a guy who does this type of stuff. I believe his website was called wudyaget.com. The spurs I just put a tiny bit of epoxy on the backside of the spur and attached them to the plaque. The image is basically printed on a sticky photo paper, then stuck to the plaque and trimmed around the edge of the plaque. That's how I believe it's done. Sent from my XT901 using Tapatalk
