Hunting with Mike

Granted wild turkey meat is some of the best wild game fare that you will ever indulge in. While I usually fix it the old fashioned way, in a roasting pan, my friend Ed Ponzy cooks his in a turkey fryer. After sampling some of his I may just abandon the roasting pan. The skin was nice and crisp while the meat was as moist as I’ve ever tasted.

Besides fine dinning there are other parts of the turkey that are very useful. The Indians used to make turkey calls from the leg bone of the bird, and my brother Darryl is an expert in reproducing that call. I am fortunate to have one. It is one of my favorite calls to use while hunting. It makes a perfect “clucking” sound, and adds an extra thrill to the hunt.

The wings are another part of the bird that are highly prized, especially by bow hunters. The wing feathers have been used for centuries as fletching on arrows. My mothers side of the family is from Canada. Her grandmother was a Cree Indian, so maybe thats where my interest in Native American reproductions comes from. One of the things I make are arrows (the old fashioned way) and I use turkey feathers for my fletching. I also use the feathers from several parts of the bird for ornamentation on the spears, walking sticks, tomahawks, ect that I make.

Once the feet are dried they can be used for bow racks or cloths and hat hangers. When using the feet “creativity” is the word. I also use them in my reproduction of Indian artifacts.

The beards and the tail feathers make a nice trophy display and can be used with the feet if you so desire. Turkey spurs can also be used on a nacklace along with various colorful feathers.

If you have any thoughts, suggestions, or comments feel free to “sound off.” Catch ya later.

Mike

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 14th, 2007 at 7:02 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.