Now I know most of you are thinking “umm that’s the taxidermist job”. and you are very right. However a lot of it starts with you. There are several things you can do to help ensure that your mount looks its best. Today I want to cover Birds.

Birds are the hardest animal to taxidermy in my opinion. They take great skill and patience to mount. The mounting is a LOT easier if the hunter has taken the proper pre steps before bringing it to us.The first thing to remember is the number one rule with any animal you want to have mounted ” FREEZE ” it as soon as possible. The longer you let that animal set out in the sun the smaller time window I have to work on it.

Bacteria begins to build up on the skin pretty much as soon as the blood stops flowing and bacteria is what makes a body rot.  If you cant freeze them due to the fact your not done hunting yet at least have a cooler full of ice just for the birds to put them in. If its a turkey please put it in a bag first we don’t want to get it wet.

The next thing you want to remember is if the bird is not a water fowl don’t let it soak in a cooler full of melted ice, bag it first to keep it dry. Turkeys floating in a cooler full of bloody water is not a good thing. Its very hard to get those feathers clean and fluffed back out.

Now once you are ready to freeze the bird the best thing to do is wrap a few paper towels around the body and head to soak up any blood that may seep out while freezing or thawing out. Once you have it wrapped slide a nylon stocking over the birds head first and down towards the tail, going with the feathers.

If the bird is a pheasant you will want to take an empty paper towel roll and slide it over the tail feathers to ensure they do not get broken.. once the bird has been wrapped and the stocking put on. Place it in a zip lock bag or garbage bag and freeze it.

Always remember  the more bags the better.

I also want you to know that sometimes the birds have dozens of holes in the skin from pellets or dogs getting a better grip on the bird. These holes are a big problem with birds. Its always a good idea to have a few birds for your taxidermist to choose from. This will insure the best looking mount..

The great thing to remember is I am a Taxidermist not a magician. If you shoot it in the head, pump it full of bullet holes, or let  the retrieving dog turn it into a sifter its gonna be a huge job to make it look good. So a quick over view.

Freeze or put on ice A.S.A.P

Keep non water fowl out of melted ice water

Wrap bird in a few paper towels

Slip into nylon stocking

Place into a few bags

Freeze

Have a few extra birds for your taxidermist to choose from.

If you do these things and your Taxidermist knows what he or she is doing, you will have a BEAUTIFUL bird mount.

Around 3 o’clock in the afternoon a customer came in the shop to check out our work and ask a few questions.; My husband was chatting with him as I was diligently working (I mean fighting) with skinning out a water logged turkey. It was hot and I was pretty nasty at this point so I let him handle the customer. The man was inquiring about his options on a turkey mount and he mentioned that he would love to have a whole body mount done but his wife was ” TOTALLY” grossed out about animals, hunting, and yes…taxidermy work. He even went on to tell us that she was out in the car because she refused to come inside.

My husband decided he would take a bash at using his good southern charm to coax her into coming inside to help ease her mind about the taxidermy business. He just wanted to help the poor guy out. I truly thought my husband was wasting his time when low and behold.. here she came, walking in like at any moment one of the animals might jump off the wall and eat her. My husband talked to her for a bit and slowly you could see she was beginning to relax.

Mean while I am still fighting.. I mean working on the darn turkey. As I am finishing it up the lady gets curious and ask me what I was working on. I tell her I’m skinning out a turkey. She walks over and stands right next to me like I might save her if the bird were to try to hurt her. I take one of my tools to pop the eye out of the socket, and to my surprise she leans over to get a better look. It was hard to believe but that lady was no more than a foot or so away from the head of the bird. You could tell she was interested, but scared to death all at the same time.

When I went to pull the eyeball out of the bird to my horror…. ” eyeball juice squirted out and landed across her face and in her hair, ” and on her white North Face  pullover. I just gasped, and wanted to see what her reaction was going to be. I thought she would laugh I would get her a clean towel and that would be it. I mean that’s how I would have handled it.

Well her eyes got as big as half dollars.. her head turned white as a paper towel and she let out this God scream. She went on screaming over and over as though someone was being hacked into little pieces in front of her. I ran around the table to help and comfort her..(trying my darned hardest not to bust out laughing).

When I reached her she shoved me away and screamed…..

” LOOK AT WHAT YOU HAVE DONE  TO ME! ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME? I THINK I AM GOING TO DIE!”

I calmly told the woman I meant her no harm and that eyeball juice could not kill her. I even added in a little joke that eyeball juice was good for your hair. WOW was that a huge mistake. She flew into a rage that it was in her hair. Screaming over and over to get it out that it was burning. My husband and her husband are just standing there with their mouths open watching me trying to get this woman under control.

She would not let me help or touch her. She really thought I did it on purpose. Well as each second passes she is getting more and more upset. Finally she begins to hyperventilate. I beg her to sit down and let me get her a glass of water but she acts like I am going to put eyeball juice in the glass.

People this woman has went completely bonkers. She tells her husband that she is getting light headed and that she thinks she is having a panic attack. Her husband calls 911 and an ambulance picks her up from my shop about 15 minutes later. Her husband apologizes as he is getting into his BMW and speeds off after the ambulance. My husband and I are dumbfounded. We couldn’t comprehend what just happened.

I mean one minute we are working, the next a lady is sprayed with eyeball juice- has a panic attack, and leaves our shop in an ambulance.

“Dude that one heck of a day.”

Well about 2 days later I sent the lady a card in the mail hoping she was alright and telling her how sorry I was. About 3 days after that I got a letter from the Better Business Bruea stating that our business had personally attacked this lady with eyeball juice causing her to have a panic attack and that if we did not pay her medical bills she would take us to court stating that we had caused her humiliation and pain and suffering.

The (BBB) closed the complaint. She never took us to court. And I hate to say I think I have lost all of this guys future business. I laugh every time I think about this story and I hope It made you laugh too.

Note to taxidermist… when a customer is hovering over you be careful of what you do.

It was a beautiful spring morning when I woke to the neighbors rooster crowing outside. The darn thing just wouldn’t shut up at all. All I had my mind set on was that wonderful gobbling bird that sat high in the Alabama southern pine down next to the swamp at old man Bannister’s farm. His farm was well know for producing me some of the largest turkeys I have ever killed in my entire life. And boy was they some big one’s.

I sure am glad I didn’t have to worry about a gobbler smelling me because I had spill my coffee on my cloths twice while driving down the old dirt path that led from the highway to the open field. I just had a gut feeling that this was going to be my morning. Two weeks into the season and still no bird what was happening to me I had no clue. But this morning was set in my mind that it was already good even if I had spill my coffee twice. “ I didn’t care I was still going.”

The first sound was a gobbler yelling out to me from a distance about a hundred yards away. He still was not the one I wanted. I was after the one that would gobble twice before fly-down and then shut his trapper before he made his last flight from treetop to the wet ground below him where I would be sitting thirty yards away. As soon as he hits the ground he will then be allowed to perform me a show of excellence by strutting before a hen decoy which I have placed out at twenty yards to help lure him in to gun range. This will be his last strut and steps.

He gobbles for the first time.

His thundering gobble shook all silence from all around the neighborhood. The sound of true spring is now here and is heard for all to hear. Daybreak has come and I can see him still sitting up high in a southern red oak about forty feet up. He has no hen with him but the hens from seventy-five yards out have already made their fly-down and is headed my way.

I set patiently as he stretches his wings and gobbles once more. He has now reached the ground and he begins to show his dominance as being the one gobbler that will defeat all others who face him head to head. I cluck and make a small soft series of yelps and he looks around to decide where the sound comes from. A hen yelps in the distance but the gobbler has no chance to answer as I pull the trigger on my Remington 870 wing-master and drop him with a load of number 6 shot.

There he flops around on the ground like all other gobblers do after a shot of impact hits them hard. My morning was great as to have harvested such a remarkable animal. The colors of the feathers are a beauty to withhold for a lifetime. It’s a memory that will never leave you once you harvest a turkey for the first time or even your fourth time. Your heart will beat fast for the first turkey as it will do for the second one. If this does not happen then you will never be a turkey hunter. They say once you start you will never quit.

Spring time turkey season is some of the best there is. Alabama is home to some of the best turkey hunting locations in the U.S.. For years there were only few turkey hunters around and now the hunting of Alabama turkey have doubled and even tripled. Alabama has been known to have some of the most difficult turkey hunting of anywhere. The swampy bottoms of the rivers will make you think twice sometimes before entering.

Some of the best hunting lodges in the south are located with some of the very best turkey hunting around. Westerveltlodge ha been known to grow some big deer in their time but the turkey hunting here is among some of the best in the south. Westerveltlodge is located in Aliceville, AL. Another great place with true southern hospitality is Southern Sportsmans lodge located in Lowndesboro, AL. Just minuets away from the Alabama River and the Robert F. Henery lock and damn is also very great turkey hunting. Lets take a look at Westervelt on the video and see what Alabama turkey hunting is all about.

It was a cool morning for someone to be high tailing it through a swamp two hours before sun up. If ma and Chelle wanted to make my perfect set up before daybreak we had to head out early. Getting into the woods well before daylight was our plan. This would be her first ever turkey hunt and I was going to make it one she would never forget. Her first words was I’m cold when we stopped the truck at the fields edge. I told her that things would warm up soon to just be patient with a little time.

As we walked through the wet grass across the field to the tree line she asked me if anything was going to get us. Just as soon as I told her No she swore up and down that something was following us. I told her if something did get after us the only thing she had to worry about was to out run me and we all know that wasn’t about to happen. I wasn’t worried too much do to the fact that if something got after her it would soon let her go do to all the noise she would make.

Chelle could get kidnapped and before the napper would drive 100 yards he would make a U-turn and bring her back. God could she talk up a storm. We finally got to the swamp and had to head east about 200 yards more to a small dry spot under a tall pine. By the time we had the chance to sit down she heard something roughing up in the bushes about ten yards out. She asked whats that? I said you have to be quite if you plan on killing that there turkey.

What turkey?

The one that I roosted yesterday evening for you. He’s 23 pounds with a 15 inch beard and at least 1 1/2 inch spurs on both feet. So just be quite OK.

I’m cold.

Get over it  and be still. There’s the first Owl just listen to that beautiful sound. God’s creation make all that noise and she was right there beside me making noise too. She would never kill this here turkey. As I looked through the tree tops you could see daybreak and what a beautiful sight it was.

There he  go’s his first gobble and boy was it deep. Didn’t seem like he’s that far away either.

Chelle asked what in the hell was that? I told her that it was the gobbler she was going to shoot if she would just be quite. I yelled out an owl sound of my own and that bird just cut me off like there was no tomorrow. 1,2,3 gobbles in a row. What a show he was displaying for us. As I looked at Chelle she had a grin on her face I would never forget. One of them kind that just melts ya heart and makes you smile.

I placed her between my legs and straddled behind her to help her as she made the shot. She had leaned back so the gun would not kick the hell out of her so bad. By then the gobbler had done pitched down and was looking for us. I laid a three note soft yelp out there and shure enough he answered back so sweet.

Chelle said…I see him…he’s coming in slow.

Ok just wait til I say shoot….OK. He’s strutting now get your gun ready and place the bead on his head..When he clears the tree pop him one.

OK…Now on the count of three shoot…OK…1,2 bang she shot before three but rolled that turkey a flip into the next county. The turkey had started flopping and I said get up and go get him. Don’t grab him by the feet Chelle he will spur you and just as soon as that come out of my mouth she had sure enough grabbed him by the feet of course. She let out a yell as she was trying to stand on his head.

Good the turkey was down for good now as we took some photos. Boy she was as beautiful holding that bird as she was on any given Sunday. Beautiful blue eyes just blended in with the scenery of the woods that surrounded her. She was so happy that all she could do was just shake nervously. As I have said on any other occasion thank you God for allowing me to see a bird that look so beautiful.

As we walked back toward the truck Chelle never quit yapping. Gosh he’s heavy, Gosh I’m getting hot.

Hope you enjoyed another Tall Tales story for Hellohunting. Hope you will continue to click back for more soon.

Planting can be tricky in many ways. What do I plant? How do I plant it? Where do I need to plant? Will it grow under shady areas? How well dose it hold up in the early spring?

The first question I ask is what do you want out of your food source for your deer herd. Do you want to plant an Annual or a Perennial. There is a big difference between the two.

Annuals are plants that require only one growing season to complete their life cycle. This means that if you want them to keep growing then you must replant these forges each year. Some annuals can be encouraged to reseed themselves through proper management of the food plot. This management may include mowing, fertilizing, and disking, and will depending on the forage species you have planted. Annuals such as soy-beans, corn, rye, oats, and wheat will need to be planted each year for maximum growth.

Now Perennials on the other hand can be planted one time and may last from 3 to 5 years in a single planting. Most of these forges produce their own nitrogen from their roots. Things like clovers, alfalfa, chicory, and some vetches. These are all perennials. They do this by developing specialized root systems that allow them to regenerate from their roots after the leaves and stems of the plant die at the end of the growing season. The number of seasons  you will get from a single planting depends of the specific forage species, how well you maintain the food plot, and the region you are in.

By far, the biggest benefit of planting perennial forages is that you can get more than one year of good forage production from a single planting. This will allow you to keep your seed and labor costs lower than required on annual plots, which must usually be disked and often replanted each year.

Most of the Perennial food plots will have to have plenty of moisture and some of these can be planted in an area where sun hit’s for only four hours a day. Annuals will need more sun light to produce the tonnage of food per the acre. You wouldn’t plant corn or soy-beans in a swamp.

Remember that you have two different types of annuals as well. The winter annuals are planted in the late summer and early fall. They will begin growing soon there after and go dormant in the winter and begin growing in early spring and die in mid summer.

Summer annuals are planted in early spring through early summer and will put on most of their forges in summer time and will die in early fall or early winter. This is where your grains such as beans and corn are here.

It is important to know whether the forages you are planting are annuals, or perennials. Most importantly, the life cycle of your forages determines how often you will have to replant them. There are also some situations when you might want to select to plant an annual forage instead of a perennial, and vise-versa. Also remember that the foods that you plant for you deer may even benefit your turkey as well. So the next time you decide to plant make sure your planting the right food source.

For over 30 years Moultrie has grown to be one of the top feeder companies in the nation. I have been using their feeders for over the last 6 years and I can say one thing. “Great” I would choose no other feeder over Moultrie.

They not only have feeders but the scouting cameras to go with them. So when you use a Moultrie feeder try one of their great game cameras to go with it. What a combo they make.  But the cameras and the feeders are not all they have that are great products.

The ATV spreaders, and the sprayers are also good tools to attach to your ATV. These things come in handy when trying to kill weeds or plant a food plot that you can’t get to with a tractor. So why not go to Moultrie for all your hunting needs.

The fish feeders that they have are something that every fisherman should have on their private lake or pond. When feeding fish  like catfish and bream grows to be an everyday job you can sit back and enjoy that time on the bank to actually catch fish. Cause the fish feeder dose all the work for you.

So when you are looking for that perfect feeder to feed your deer,turkey,and fish try a Moultrie Feeder. They want let you down and you will have a feeder that will suit your needs.

Now lets take a look at a video of Dan Moultrie explaining to Jim Strelec how important it is to use a Moultrie Feeder.

It was a cool cloudy evening and the day before Alabama’s opening day of spring turkey season. I had sat down at the dinner table to think out my first morning’s strategy of how I was gonna outsmart a turkey that had been busting my butt wide open for the past two years. This turkey wasn’t just a two year old bird anymore and he had outwitted me the last two seasons.

I had been scouting this one boss gobbler for the last three weeks and the mornings were shaping up just right for a perfect opening day of spring turkey season. As I bowed my head over my little bit of grub that I had sat aside for dinner I asked the good Lord for thanks for letting me have what I had. I had also asked him for a chance at that gobbler, that had been laying the smack down on me for the past two seasons. My prayer went like this. “Dear Lord thank you for this day and bless me the turkey hunters way Amen.”

Maybe I should have asked him to look down on me with a great big smile and hold everyone back while I eat a while. But to my luck there was no one else in camp but me. I just had this gut feeling that the bird of my nightmares would be in my, fryer by lunch the next day. I ate my food and washed up, and double checked everything needed for the next morning. Can you Imagine that I didn’t get the best sleep that night for the insane reason of worrying about that turkey.

I knew what tree he was in and I also knew that he didn’t have the first hen within 500 yards of him. He was a loaner and a smart one at that. He didn’t live to see five years old for being stupid and dumb. I had only made four shots at this turkey in the past two years and had missed him all four times. This season was gonna be different and I could feel it deep down my spine all the way to my toes.

The night had passed and the alarm rang at exactly at 3 am. I had to make sure I was gonna be in the woods one hour before sun up with my gun and box call in hand. As I grabbed my coffee and my coat, I headed out the door and I had my first whiff of clean air. I stood on the front door step and put me a pinch of snuff in my lower lip and climbed into the camp buggy headed to the one spot that was gonna give me that chance to kill that bird dead.

Sun was to rise at 6:16 am and I was under my tree and standing at 5 am. Everything was so calm that you could hear things walking through the woods from a mile away. I placed another pinch of snuff in my lip about 5:45 am and the first sound of gobbling shook me, and nearly blew my hat off my head. That was him OK and he was very close. Almost too close that I know he could have heard my heart pounding in my chest. “thump” “thump” “thump” I didn’t know how much I could take of it so I spit what snuff out that I hadn’t, already swallowed and took a deep breath and bellowed out the perfect owl sound that I had in me.

That darn gobbler double gobbled, and even triple gobbled at me and then went silent. 6:30 am there he go’s again no more than 40 yards from me and still in that big southern pine no more than 20 feet up. If you were to be sitting above him in a stand you could have spit on him and put his eye out. I took one deep breath and he pitched down no more than ten yards from me. As soon as he hit the ground it was too late for “em”.. The trigger was pulled and I had done what I set out to do and that was to kill a bird that was out to take me down for a third year.

Did you know that every time you hear a turkey tale the bird always weighed over 20 lbs and had over 1 inch spurs and he always has a beard that is over 12 inches. Well how bout this one for size. The bird in this story had two beards and both were over 13 inches long, he weighed 26 lbs and sported 2 inch spurs on both feet. Too bad this was my tall tale huh. I wish I could have seen that bird in real life.

So what did ya think? I hoped you enjoyed reading my Tall Tale of “The Gobblers Last Season” as much as I enjoyed making it up for you to read. Remember dreams always come true in Tall Tales. I hope to bring you more stories like this in the Tall Tales section of Hello Hunting. So visit daily and keep clicking.

North Carolina is home to some of the best eastern whitetail deer hunting you can find. Clay McPherson has worked hard to bring great hospitality and fun times to his friends that come to join him in Ahoskie, NC at Cutawhiskie Creek Outfitters. Here you can take on the challenge of harvesting one of America’s most hunted big game animal the elusive whitetail deer. You also have the chance to hunt the Black Bear, along with waterfowl that fly high through the North Carolina swamps.

You can take advantage of bow season as early as September 12. This season will last until October 2. Then Muzzle loading firearm season starts around October 3 through October 16. Gun season continue the rest of the season from October 18 through January 1 of the new year. We all know that it can get awful cold up in the great hills and wood’s of North Carolina so the closer to that last day of season it gets the colder it may get.

Hunting North Carolina will be nothing like hunting here in South Central Alabama. The weather varies to maybe even colder temperatures and possible snow. Where here in my home state of Alabama if it happens to snow here then everything closes down almost as if it was a day for Alabama and Auburn football or even a local high school were headed to a state championship game to finish their season.

The hunting at Cutawhiskie Creek could be very good for any of the hunts that they provide. So take the time and give Clay a call and visit his web site. You can find your way to his site from hellohunting just by scrolling to the bottom of the page and clicking on his site from Our Friends area. Remember a trip to Cutawhiskie could be a trip you may never forget.

I have been a member of the National Wild Turkey Federation for a long time now. As of April 2009 I have been a chapter president for four years and I hope that I can continue my journey onward for a long time to come.

The NWTF is a nonprofit organization that dose many thing for many causes. Like the chapter I am over is located in Georgaina, AL and is a small chapter. We usually average about fifty to eighty people show up every April for our NWTF Hunting Hartiage Banquet. The NWTF has a chapter in every state and also in Mexico and Canada.

There is so many great things that come from the NWTF like the restoration of the return of the wild turkey in many states. Turkey hunting has growed to a amazing height for the young and the old. There is no better feeling than to wake up on a cool spring morning and hear the sound of a mature gobbler in a distance form where you stand.

The NWTF has groups for all ages and not just men but women also. There is the Women in the Outdoors which is set up for the lady hunter of the family. You have the Extreme Jakes for ages 16 to 18 and then the regular Jakes for the ages of 15 and under. And also lets don’t forget the NWTF Membership along with sponsor memberships as well. If you have never seen or heard anything about the NWTF I want to invite you to visit their web site at www.nwtf.org. There is something there for all ages and if you or your child is a senior in high school they to can sign up to get scholarship through a local NWTF chapter. The NWTF is growing larger and it’s volunteer’s are working harder to make the turkey hunting world a better place.