Tragic accident during replumbing.

[Gobbler]

While my house was being worked on one of the wall mount Turkeys fell and hit my strutter underneath him. It broke the fall and saved the wall mount but put a hurt on the strutter. I have five fans in the freezer and can get some Osceola Fans this spring. I want to put this Gobbler back together myself. I know i can paint the head. and fix the fan (maybe). I saved the feathers. How can I fix the bald spot?

[redarrow]

Rogaine

[redarrow]

Sorry.I couldnt resist. Call your local taxidermist for suggestions. He may even offer to fix it for cheap.

[CamoMan4025]

Man, that sucks, hope it works out for you!

[Hognutz]

I agree with Red. I would talk to a taxidermist. He may fix the whole shootin' match for less than what you think.

[vaturkey]

Doug

You have 2 options:

Have it fixed

Use it for a decoy

[Stinky J Picklestein]

Joe "The Mutha Lode" Slaton might know...

[Treerooster]

You are going to have to get the feathers that were there in the 1st place, or get similar feathers from another bird. Make sure any new feathers match the old ones pretty good. Probably not too big of a deal on body feathers, but feathers with patterns on them, (like tail and wing featers) and from different birds can be quite different looking when you get them next to each other. Colors too sometimes.

You can super glue the replacement feathers to a pin and then stick each one in the styro body in a natural looking position.

[TS]

It isn't that bad after seeing it! Heck I bet Dean will be able to fix it while down here.

[Gobbler]

I know Dean is coming down. I'm going to fix it... then he can re-fix it. LOL

[TRKYHTR]

Take the feathers that were there and glue them in 1 at a time with crazy glue. You have to match the placement of each feather but they should go back in. There should be some small bumps with holes in them and thats where each feather goes. It's going to take a while but it's not out of the question. Good luck,

TRKYHTR

[GobbleNut]

Here's more suggestions.....
...unless the tail fan has been really badly damaged, you can probably push it back into place. Take some long pins, or even nails, and pin in back into position. If some of the feathers have been knocked loose, just glue them back into place with superglue,...you can do this by just positioning them and then gluing them to the feathers next to them.
....if some feathers have been damaged beyond repair, just take feathers off of another cape from the same location and superglue them in by starting at the lowest feathers,...and supergluing the loose feathers to the attached feather below it and work your way up until the area is filled.
....the internal frame of the mount is stabilized with bendable wiring. If the wings, legs, or neck have been bent out of place, just carefully grab whatever has been knocked out of position and bend it back into place. Then reposition any feathers that you might get out of place.
....you can add some stiff wires into the foam body of the mount to hold anything that may have been broken so badly that it will not stay in place. Just get some fairly rigid wire from a hardware store, cut it into appropriate-length pieces (usually about six or eight inches), position the part of the bird that will not stay in place, and run the wire through the part and into the foam body through the feathers so that the broken area stays in place,...and such that the wire is not visible. Sometimes a combination of wiring and gluing is necessary to accomplish this.

Contrary to what some people imagine, taxidermy is not rocket science. Anyone here, with a little care and patience can repair a broken mount. Some of you may even have mounts that you may have not been completely satisfied with the "posture" of the bird but have been living with it. You can even modify those birds by doing the same things as mentioned above. You can bend legs, wings, tail, and neck to get it more to your liking.

I have fixed many birds by just doing a few of the things listed above.

[Gobbler]

Thanks Guys for the info on gluing with superglue. I am going to fix this gobbler. It will give me a Something to do. I appreciate the advise.

[TS]

Thanks Guys for the info on gluing with superglue. I am going to fix this gobbler. It will give me a Something to do. I appreciate the advise.

You better let a pro do it as i seen some of your projects lol. I think the best one was the hen head on a stick decoy lmao.

[Gobbler]

I eat wild turkey every spring.

[TS]

I eat wild turkey every spring.

Yes it pays to have good friends lol. Jk you are a turkey slayer for sure.