Preserving turkey beards

[Shooter]

Well, I finally got enough ambition up to do my beards from the last 3 years or so.
I'm doing it Reloader Ronny's style, with 12ga hulls, leather straps through the primer pocket, and hot glue.
Got 13 done, and 19 to go. Had to take a brewskie break,...lol
Dadgum, I had no idea how hot that crap gets. I thought I was safe, holding the brass head of the shell,... WRONG!!! Burnt the XXXX out of my finger on the first attempt.

Doing a little better now, after I've done a few.
I'll post a pic in a few days after I get them all finished.

Take care guy's, Tommy

[Turkey Talker]

Cool, cant wait to see em!

[Gobbler]

Post up some pics when your done.

[Reloader]

You better believe it gets hot. I found out the hard way as well LOL. Now I just set them on the edge of something and hold the beard til it sets a bit. I need to get going on a pile of them in the freezer, just haven't gotten motivated enough just yet.

[GOLD HUNTER]

[gaswamp]

look forward to the pic

[Shotgun Dave]

That's alot of Beards !!!

[Southern Sportsman]

That's alot of Beards !!!

Thats what i was thinking. Id have to have several beer breaks with a task of that size.

[Shooter]

Well, finally finished tonite. The electicity was off most of the day.
I'm glad I didn't wait any longer. Some of them were already falling apart from them dang bugs eating at them. I wasn't smart enough to put all of them in the freezer.
Those top three on the left are extra special to me. The one with the curlyque was a 12" three year old bird, which was the last turkey I took with my Black Lab, Katie five months before she passed on. It was took with our little 20ga, with a Win XRHD 4s.
The second is Long Dong Gobbler, My big 13" avatar bird over at the other place. He flew up to roost one eve about 75yds, and i saw that beard hanging down,... I almost went into shock.
Took me five attempts/morns, before I finally got a bead on him. Yep, TSS at 19yds.
The third is The Phantom. He would always let you know he was around, but never would let you see him. Must have hunted him dozens of times last year. Heck, even Spur/Wes was in his presence twice. I only saw him twice. once in a fog when he slipped across the trail. It was like I was seeing things. Ended up taking him at 30 yds with the new 3.5" 2 1/2oz TSS load, attacking my decoy before going to roost.
That's Lily's giant first turkey from last year on the bottom right. Taken with a 20ga Fed HW 7.

Had to modify some of the brass heads, because some of the beards were too thick to fit in.
They are not perfect, but at least they should last a while.

[Shooter]

Well Crap!!! Can't get the dang pic to resize.

[pullit]

I set mine in a jar with salt in the bottom of it for some amount of time then do the leather/shell thing. I have several I need to do as well.
You are right that hot melt in the shell will burn the crap out of you.

Got a fan or two I need to mount as well

[Shooter]

Finally got it. Ever since they fixed my computer, have had trouble with pics.
I used to have a different program, but this new Irfanview works totally different.

[el diablo]

Looking good Shooter! I do mine that way except I put spurs above the shell, but I don't have that many, lol.

[Spuriosity]

Looking good Shooter. Glad you took the time to preserve some memories. That's the best reason to preserve those trophies, the memories they bring back. I had this posted over at the old site, but don't think I have posted it over here. This is how I have mine displayed. I have a bunch more that I need to display, but the guy that made the cedar display board no longer does it.

[gobbler336]

i have a bad scar on my right hand from hot melt glue! i usually cut my beards and leave a bit of skin and put borax on the skin, they stay together like that, i know some guys that just pull the beards right out of the bird but after a few years they fall apart, i saw a cigar box that was just full of beard strands, the guy was very upset when he opened it.

[poorcountrypreacher]

Looks good! I do mine that way too, but as mentioned above, I put the spurs on above the shell. I had never thought of doing this until reading about it on a turkey forum. All my beards and most of my spurs before 1999 were ruined

[GOLD HUNTER]

WOW they look great

[Shooter]

Thanks guy's, too bad I had to waste all those new hulls. Did not have any fired high brass hulls.

Wes, That is an awesome display. Wish I had something like that.
That wood is beautiful.

[Spuriosity]

Thanks guy's, too bad I had to waste all those new hulls. Did not have any fired high brass hulls.

Wes, That is an awesome display. Wish I had something like that.
That wood is beautiful.

Thanks. I wish I could get some more of them.

[Southern Sportsman]

Thanks guy's, too bad I had to waste all those new hulls. Did not have any fired high brass hulls.

Wes, That is an awesome display. Wish I had something like that.
That wood is beautiful.

Thanks. I wish I could get some more of them.

There were selling some very similar at the convention this year. They even had several different sizes.