Caribou Gear

Need Taxidermy Advice

mcelweed

Member
Joined
May 10, 2012
Messages
134
Location
Albuquerque
Ok, this is a weird request for advice. I made a wing bone turkey call for my daughter last fall with the wing from her first turkey. I'm getting ready to make a couple more from my spring gobbler. I'm trying to think of things to make them unique and thought about a wrap of skin around the middle section. I thought it might add some interest to the call. Ironically, last month's NWTF Turkey Country magazine had an article about a couple call makers that use snake, fish, and other skin for the same thing.

Here's the weird part where I need taxidermy advice. If I skin out the legs, how do I preserve them to wrap the turkey call? This may not work, but I thought I'd try. It needs to preserve the skin without it becoming so hard that it won't bend around the call. If I can get it to work I plan on spraining it with an acrylic coating to protect it.

Any ideas from the taxidermists in the crowd? Thanks.
 
Not sure if I follow entirely. You'll only need the skin to be supple when you wrap it. Once it dries, it doesn't need to flex? right?

If that's the case, I don't see any reason to try to 'tan' them so the skin remains soft. Skin out your legs, remove any fat or flesh from the inside, and then layer them between moist paper toweling and freeze them. When you're ready to use them, thaw them out, make sure they're nice and moistened and wrap away. Dry bird skin tears really easy. Moist skin doesn't
 
Not sure if I follow entirely. You'll only need the skin to be supple when you wrap it. Once it dries, it doesn't need to flex? right?

If that's the case, I don't see any reason to try to 'tan' them so the skin remains soft. Skin out your legs, remove any fat or flesh from the inside, and then layer them between moist paper toweling and freeze them. When you're ready to use them, thaw them out, make sure they're nice and moistened and wrap away. Dry bird skin tears really easy. Moist skin doesn't

Yes, it only needs to be flexible in order to wrap around the middle section of the call. I guess if all the fat and meat is removed there isn't much to rot once it's sprayed with acrylic. Turkey legs are scaly and pretty dry to begin with. I may lay it in Borax for a couple of days after I attach it and before I spray acrylic on it just to make sure it's preserved.

This is totally an experiment. I thought is would add interest to the project. Thanks for the inputs. I'm kind of working in unknown territory here.
 
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