Cohutta - First Bird

[jbogg]

Enjoyed the story. Congrats on a fine bird, and a great hunt!

 

[mpwarrak]

I knew it was gonna be good when I saw the length of the post... Awesome!

 

[J3Holt]

Some updates. Wingbone is coming along.. a lot I'd do diff on the next one but so far it's ok. Wouldn't use super glue on the threads. Turned white.. may wrap a little more and do something diff there.. or just leave it.. gonna put the date and Bird info on it, location etc. Maybe some tracks If I can draw em lol.



The fan... hopeful it will be ok. Had no clue how to cut the thing off the bird, but did my best and got as much meat off as I could.. one side I see quils and the yellowish stuff holding em.. other side I see part of a tail bone I guess and some quills. Hopeful the borax will do a good job as long as I got enough meat off.. so far so good and no smell..


Hope to put it on one of these:



Cleaned the spurs off and beard a little..

Currently in this state:


Will do some scraping in a day or two to see if I can clean the spurs up some more. Been in salt for a day or two.


None of this is perfect, obviously.. but I'm fine with it for my first. (atleast hope I end up with something decent)


Oh and what I'm looking forward to tonight:

Fried Wild Turkey Nuggets, been in buttermilk overnight. Now to see if I can not overcook em lol.

 

[J3Holt]

- As for the white superglue, a red and black sharpie seems to have did the trick.

Go Dawgs

 

[J3Holt]

Sounds from the Wingbone, mind you I need to practice with it, hadn't tried the clucks or cackling at all. Also thats from a different room, super loud so gotta play with my hand chambering. Something to play with and drive my wife crazy.

 

[Rebel's Dad]

The tail should be fine with the borax treatment. One trick to help preserve it is to spray it once a year or so with permethrin, the tick stuff. It dries quickly and once it does it doesn't leave any trace. Keep critters off.

I acatually learned that on the Audubon Society forum.

 

[J3Holt]

Thanks Rebel's Dad! I will give that a go too

 

[wooly]

Great hunt and good pics as well. If you can over expose that last one it will do wonders for it. Should bring out more color...hopefully anyway.

 

[J3Holt]

Tried with my phone, this?:

 

[wooly]

Yeah! That is much better and very good for a cellphone pic.
I think I meant to say under expose but which ever way you went with the cellphone picture adjustment you did good!

 

[J3Holt]

Thanks Wooly! You taught me something new lol. Didnt know this phone could even do that. Maybe I can get me another one sometime and can get some cool pics. Need to find the right balance of course but should be fun.

Before/After

 

[J3Holt]

Tried with my phone, this?:

View attachment 964248
View attachment 964250

 

[J3Holt]

Just a quick follow up. Finished up my tail a month or so ago. Not perfect but I'm happy with how it turned out, will always remember the first one.

 

[whitetailfreak]

Looks good bud

 

[Timber1]

Nice hunt. You picked a great place to take your first gobbler. I know many experienced turkey hunters who have hunted Cohutta that have yet to harvest a bird there. I also was lucky enough to take my first and second gobbler off Cohutta. The first was a longbeard called up for me by an exceptional mountain bird hunter clucking on a greenbriar leaf. The second was my first taken as a lone hunter. The limit was 1 gobbler and the season was 1 week during April. So I'm sure it was a season or 2 later.
This was late 60's. Me and Nic had the only birds in the State. The wildness and seclusion of these of these birds was unbelievable. I can remember most every detail of both hunts. I remember the smell of spent gunpowder at the shot, and my great uncle, still whispering, "you got him son," from a couple feet away. I remember looking down at my little 20 guage, which was about as big as me back then, when I laid it down by the second bird and seeing the yellow 3" magnum hull hung up in the ejector.