Found this on the web and thought you guys may be interested. All the instructions are by Rob Ramsdale which I found on wildturkeyzone.com. It was a very informative site.How to Make a Cape Mount
Cape Mount of a Rio Grande Turkey If you want to save a cape mount like the one shown in the picture, here are the basic steps to follow. 1. Hang the turkey by its head and begin skinning out the back of the turkey by starting high on its neck where the feathers begin. If you've ever plucked a turkey, you know that a turkey's feathers are laid out in tracts and not every inch of skin has feathers coming out of it. For a cape mount, you want to remove the tract of feathers that run in about a 3" wide strip down the turkey's back. You can see a part in the feathers if you look closely and once you start skinning down the back of the bird you can see it's a very thin strip of skin that contains all the feathers that cover the back and even down the sides of the turkey. 2. Carefully skin the bird's back all of the way down to the tail and then cut down through the base of the tail to remove the tail with the back skin still attached. 3. Lay the cape off to the side and finish dressing the bird. 4. Once you have the bird cleaned, go back to the cape and start by scraping all of the flesh off the skin and then proceed to the tail. 5. The tail fan takes some time to get clean. You want to remove all of the flesh and fat possible by cutting or scraping with a knife and even using a wire brish to get down between the feather quills. You also need to remove the piece of the backbone that is still attached to the tail. A pair of pliers will help you twist the tailbone out which will allow the tail fan to lie flat. 6. After the cleaning is complete, you have the option of washing the cape if the feathers got dirty or were messed up on the tips. If you've ever shot a bird that rolled down a mountain or shot one in the rain you know that often the tail feathers are a ragged mess when you get to the bird. They can be fixed, as long as they aren't broken, by simply washing them. Start by dunking the cape, tail feathers and all, into a tub or sink of warm water that has Dawn or some other mild grease-cutter/cleanser mixed in with it. Swish the cape and feathers around really well and work any noticeable dirty or greasy spots on the cape with your fingers. It's amazing how much dirt the turkey feathers can be carrying and a good wash and clean water rinse will really make your feathers shine. After the cape is rinsed, you can use a hair dryer set on low to gradually dry and fluff the feathers. I don't own a hair dryer so I generally pin the cape up in front of a fan and just let it dry that way. It doesn't take long and I check it once in awhile and help get the feather "combed" back neatly but running the feathers through my finger tips. If you kept really good care of the feathers on your way in from the field, you can often skip this step. 7. After the feathers are dry, rub the entire bare skin and tail section with borax (You can use 20 Mule Team Borax which is a laundry additive you can find at WalMart.) Don't skimp on the borax since it will help dry the skin and preserve it so the bugs won't attack it. 8. Take the treated skin and lay it skin-side down on a board or stiff piece of corrugated cardboard. Work your way around the fan pinning the feathers into the position you want them to dry in. This is one place you can actually cover up a broken or missing tail feather by spacing the rest of the feathers out enough to cover the extra space. 9. The cape should be check periodically during its drying period of around 3 - 5 weeks. You may need to add more borax during this time. 10. Once it's dry, remove the pins and shake off any excess borax. If you like, you can cut a piece of wood or felt to further mount the cape on. I hope this will help you create a lasting memory of your favorite turkey hunting adventure.
How to Make a Turkey Spur Necklace
After managing to take a nice gobbler through skill or blind luck, most hunters will want to preserve as much of the memory of the trophy as possible. One nice way of doing this is preserving the spurs on the gobbler. In many ways, the spurs on a turkey are like the horns on many big game animals. Spurs are not shed each year like antlers on deer, but, like antlers, the size, length and sharpness of the spur increase as the gobbler ages. Spur length and sharpness are really the only reliable indicators of an old boss gobbler. Many hunter's like to dry the feet of a gobbler and incorporate that into their trophy mount somehow. Another popular option is to cut off the spurs and make either a necklace or hatband using a string of spurs. This may be accomplished by anyone with a little time and effort. The hard part is getting a gobbler to part with his spurs. Here are the general steps involved in making a spur necklace. This is how I did all of the spurs shown above but remember each set of spurs is a little different so you may have to adjust boiling times etc. Just be careful and watch them closely during the boiling stage. 1. Take a hacksaw or some other very fine-toothed saw and cut through the leg above and below the spur. This will leave you with a piece of the leg bone about 1/2" long that has the spur attached. 2. Take a knife and remove as much of the skin and ligaments from the bone as possible. Also, take a pipe cleaner or some other instrument and push out the bone marrow from the leg bone. 3. After they are as clean as possible, put them into a pot of boiling water which has a couple of tablespoons of dish soap added to it. Boil the spurs for a few minutes and remove them, let them cool, and try to scrape off any remaining material. Most of the time, you will have to boil them more until they are clean. This is not an exact process. You'll have to closely watch the spurs and decide for yourself when they are clean enough and making sure the spur's covering is not discoloring too much. The spur covering will lighten during the boiling process but it should darken back up. 4. After the spurs are clean, remove them and let them dry and see how white the bone is. If they are not white enough, you can prop the spur up in a small pan or dish of hydrogen peroxide to just soak the leg bone part only, leaving the spur dry above the peroxide. If you try to use bleach here it will eventually eat into the bones but I've soaked bones in peroxide overnight with good results. Also, some bones for whatever reason just don't take on a nice white color. I've found that cleaning the spurs as soon as possible after shooting the gobbler will give the whitest results. 5. After the spur has dried, take a Dremel-like tool and grind off the ends of the bones to get the desired width. A file and/or sandpaper can accomplish the same thing with a little work. I like a little bone showing past the spur while many others will take off more bone than this. 6. String up your spurs as they are on a leather lace or string. Or, spray the spur with some clear polyurethane for a glossier look. Wooden beads make good spacers and can be found at any craft store. Good luck!!
Displaying Your Turkey Beards
Turkey Beards are probably the easiest parts of the turkey to save and preserve. Most people just cut them off, let them dry and store them in a box somewhere. That's usually okay since the beard only has a little bit of flesh on the end attached to the bird so it's probably not going to be destroyed by insects. Personally, I do add a couple of steps just to be sure they are well preserved --
Rack of Turkey Beards 1. Removing the Beard - Pull the beard away from the turkey's body and then carefully cut through the skin all of the way around the beard to separate it from the body. Some people just firmly grasp the beard at its base and give a jerk. I prefer to error on the side of caution so I cut the beard off. 2. After you've removed the beard, take a sharp knife and trim as much of the skin and flesh off the base of the beard as possible, leaving just the cartilage that holds the beard together. 3. Stick the flesh base of the beard into a small container of Borax to allow it to dry and preserve for a week. You can use 20 Mule Team Borax which is a laundry additive you can pick up at your local Walmart. 4. After it has dried thoroughly you can remove it from the borax, brush it off and choose the method you would like to display it. There a thousand different ways of doing this so just use your imagination. Some people make a display of the beard and spurs and hang this underneath a fan mount of the bird. I just keep my spurs and beards separate so I use a variety of different wooden beard racks to display my beards. I've shown one here that uses beards that are glued into the brass parts of a 12 ga. high-brass, shotgun shell. I simple use the shell I shot the turkey with and cut the plastic off with a knife. You can leave part of the plastic on if you like as well. There are many options available so have fun experimenting. I hope this will help you create a lasting memory of your favorite turkey hunting adventure.
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