Turkey fan mount question

[Hedgelj]

For my first turkey I did a homemade fan mount. I pinned the tail feathers out onto a piece of cardboard and put a VERY HEAVY amount of salt on any exposed flesh. I let it sit like that for months and then trimmed it down, added additional salt as necessary and mounted it to one of the tail feather mounts you can buy in stores. Hung it in my basement and then I hung it in my garage when we moved to the new house as I had no better place to put it. I just realized 1/2 of the feathers have fallen off and I now only have half a fan mount.

Any ideas? It wasn't a huge bearded Tom but it was my first bird and its sad.

 

[Left field]

Have heard with any bird mounts I’d you don’t take it to a taxidermist it will not last , have bugs ect. , haven’t tried it myself and though

 

[Big_Holla]

Don't use salt, it only dries it and doesn't cure it for long term. Use Borax, it's a detergent and will cure it for years and years to come. Trim most of the extra meat off and cover it liberally for a good month.

 

[Hedgelj]

too late for that.....its a few years old (4-5)

 

[Gern186]

Don't pin the feathers. Use binder clips to hold them in place on some heavy cardboard. Use borax. Trim as much meat off the base of the fan as you can prior to applying the borax. Once the fan is spread out, lay a piece of wood or something over it with a little weight to it to flatten out the tail fan and hold it flat. Let it dry for a couple weeks or more. Add borax as needed. Apply some borax to the base of the beard also.

 

[Big_Holla]

too late for that.....its a few years old (4-5)

Yeah once it's losing feathers it's about done. If you are good at arts and crafts you might be able to salvage what you have though, not sure if the Borax would do much good now or not but it couldn't hurt to try?? If you decide to ditch it then use the plaque on the next one, assuming you have one on it.

 

[Isaacorps]

Don't use salt, it only dries it and doesn't cure it for long term. Use Borax, it's a detergent and will cure it for years and years to come. Trim most of the extra meat off and cover it liberally for a good month.

Don't pin the feathers. Use binder clips to hold them in place on some heavy cardboard. Use borax. Trim as much meat off the base of the fan as you can prior to applying the borax. Once the fan is spread out, lay a piece of wood or something over it with a little weight to it to flatten out the tail fan and hold it flat. Let it dry for a couple weeks or more. Add borax as needed. Apply some borax to the base of the beard also.

This. Borax is the way to go. It will also get destroyed by critters if left in an unconditioned space such as a garage

 

[Hunter II]

Instead of binder clips or nailing the tail flat, you can use a clothes hanger with the clips on it. Clip it to the last feather on each side and hang it up to dry. Besides using borax I always give my tails a good spray of insecticide. They have mites that will attack your other taxidermy.

 

[Fletch]

Borax is definitely the way to go... I have tails up in my attic from the 80's ( probably older than @Hedgelj ) LOL Just was looking at them yesterday and they are rock solid... That attic gets extremely hot in the summer and cold in the winter... I always just sprinkled Borax on the meat placed tail on cardboard with a heavy book or something holding feathers fanned out...

 

[triple_duece]

Clean down to quills, borax heavy, let dry in position you prefer. Bugs, and worse than that is humidity. If you didn’t clean good enough it mostly rotted and that was your biggest problem

 

[Fletch]

Here ya go... Went up and took a pic... This tail was from 1982... Been in the attic since... Why??? Just no room to hang them too much other things in a 12 x 12 room.... Tail don't look bad for its age and the fact the pile of tails had boxes etc. piled on it .. I tugged on feathers and they are rock solid.... Something did eat some of the small feathers around the base, probably mice.... But like everyone has said Borax....

 

[triple_duece]

I will take pics while doing Hunters and mine and post hear.

 

[Boarhead]

Borax all the way.

 

[CJD3]

Borax works great on snake skins too.
When done, they are like a thick piece of parchment.

 

[triple_duece]

Well I fugged up and forgot to take pics. We had 3 fans to cleanup and mount. Hunter was learning and doing his first so I was all in teaching him and forgot to take pics. Sorry fellas, maybe we will get a few more idk.

 

[triple_duece]

Ordered this setup to mange my mounts.

 

[jagermeister]

Another vote for borax. It’s all I’ve ever used.

Also, look closely to see if the feathers truly “fell” out, or were they chewed off. Mice absolutely love feathers, and will target a turkey fan like you wouldn’t believe. I kept a couple fans in my old garage in a spot up high where I thought they would be safe. Nope. Mice got to them and completely destroyed them. I was finding feathers in all sorts of nooks and crannies in that garage for quite a while.

 

[giles]

I guess I gotta read this thread now...