So, you've killed a big ol' long beard and you want to mount the fan to a plaque to display for all to see. How do you mount the fan? Well, watch here and find out.
Awesome Thank you. My boy got his very first Turkey this year and we are going to try this for sure. Never done a turkey before so it should be interesting, but this video made it look pretty easy.
Great video. Instead of gluing and screwing the fan in place, I shimmed it with several pieces of cardboard. This allowed me to fine tune the positioning and I can remove it for dusting etc.
I recently purchased one of the HS kits for a turkey tail fan mount I've been wanting to do myself. Shot a bird over 10+ years ago & with the COVID-19 quarantine going on in my state(Wisconsin)I couldn't send my already treated fan to a Taxidermist. After watching this, it made me confident that I could successfully mount one so easily!
Decent kit and excellent video. I used this video and one of the HS Strut kits to do my very first mount today. The only issue I had was with the screws that are used for the mounting plate. One snapped off at the head when it was nearly completely screwed in. It snapped off flush with the wood so I had no way of removing it. The mount seems solid enough with the other screw and the longer one that mounts the tail to the board. I'd buy one of their kits again but I'd definitely throw away the screws that come with it and use better quality ones.
LET ME SAVE A DIY GUY SOME TIME... Get all your supplies in one place, and you can do this in a couple of hours: Need to have hot glue gun, bone shears (to cut out the tailbone) bondo quick dry, better, replacement screws, plastic wrap, than in the kit (one head broke off), a vice in case you need to bend the back plate to fit the depth of the base of the feather, a wire brush, a bourbon on the side. Nuances below KEY NUANCES... 1. The scalpel sized knife, or super small, 3" razor fillet knife is a must, when trimming back the meat that you will eventually finish with the wire brush 2. Cutting out the tailbone is critical 3. I never found the oil gland, but wire brushed everything out so I got it out 3. The smallest fan layer, toward the front, is a bugger -- Go slow and keep it together. 4. Make sure there is no "bow" - my fan was in the fridge, after vacuum sealing it where I was hunting out of state to protect it in my luggage -- You want it flat as you can get it. 5. Take the shit screws, from the kit, to a hardware store and replace them with good ones. 6. Bondo comes in regular and fast drying -- get the fast drying, and the feathers will be locked in about two minutes -- make sure and have some books to hold it. 7. Don't go too thin with the bondo -- you really need a great substrate to run the final screw into. 8. The wire brush is a must. Don't start the first part without one on the workbench. 9. The kit is pretty forgiving -- if you have a good bondo base, and a glue gun, the critical set up points, or moments of truth lock into place quickly. Hope this helps to learn from my mistakes.
Honestly I do zero of these involved steps...no bondo or borax...I've never even trimmed all the meat off of mine...let it sit for a cpl weeks w something heavy on it and its g2g
I was gonna say I’ve mounted like 3 fans and I cut off some excess meat but not nearly this much and I just salt it heavily then let it sit a couple weeks. Am I gonna have issues?
