Back in the olden days I hunted wild turkeys on my great uncles cattle ranch near Boerne Texas. Turkeys have average hearing, poor sense of smell. But their eyesight is like a peregrine falcon. They can see your eyes move at 20 yards. You have to be incredibly still and well camouflaged. And your camo must pretty well match the background.

A flock of turkeys is very hard to fool. Any suspicion in one bird gets a “puck!” Call and they all run away.

It is of course, illegal to shoot them on the roost. But that would be the ideal for meat hunting.

What we did was still hunt between roost and nearest water. They are creatures of habit if undisturbed. You may ambush them that way once or twice. But they soon abandon the route and perhaps even the roost.

How do you prepare them for cooking?
Boil water then let it cool a bit. Dunk the Turkey quickly and take it out. If large feathers pull free, begin plucking. If not, dunk again. Repeat.

After Turkey is mostly nekkid it will still have tiny feathers. Easily removed with very brief exposure to flame. Don’t burn feathers in the house.

Some people just skin them. Easily done. No feathers to contend with at all.

With feathers gone make a horizontal slit across the vent. Have trash bag and bowl of icy water standing buy. Reach inside and scoop the innards out. Trim connective tissue and vessels from heart and liver and gizzard. Cut off top of heart where it joins the large veins and arteries. Put in ice water. Same with liver. Except CAREFULLY remove gall bladder. If the enzymes from gall bladder get on the liver, discard the liver. The bitterness won’t go away. After touching gall bladder wash your hands.

Slit open the gizzard from the top and remove esophagus and grit from inside. Now more carefully clean the giblets in the ice water then put in baggy and refrigerate.

Back to the carcass. Vertically slice the loose skin where neck enters gullet. Pull esophagus and trachea out. Slit skin along neck to head and pull esophagus and trachea free. Find a joint near the head and cut off head. Cut off feet and knees.

Look at tail on upper side and notice a small orifice. This is an oil gland duct. Cut around it and cut deeply to remove oil gland.

Wash carcass thoroughly in ice water.

Now your Turkey is prepared but not ready to cook. Ideally, it should be hung at low temp, but not freezing, to allow cell autolysis. Essentially, cell death destroys cell membranes leading enzymes into tissue. Enzymes help break down connective and muscle tissue. Or leave in fridge (wrapped) for two or three days.

Now either freeze it or cook it.

Many people like to marinade wild game. I understand that, the flavor is stronger than the modern pallet appreciates. Go for it.

Cook as you would any Turkey. They have far less fat so basting and strips of bacon (I used salt pork) is necessary to avoid very dry, tough meat.

Interesting. We moderns are often helpless in the real world. God only knows what a turkey I slaughtered tomorrow to avoid starvation would taste like. I'd make some mistakes, pretty sure of that.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

I suspect if you were near starvation nothing would taste better.

When I was a young lad in BSA, the scoutmaster, retired USMC Gunnery Sergeant, would take volunteers on three day survival hikes. By day three we were like bushmen hunting grubs. For real. My parents were really proud of me while totally revolted by our menu items. Imagine letting kids do that today!

Mom's fed the ones where she lived, they were HUGE .

We never had turkeys on the farm when I was a kid, just chickens and guess who got the crappy job of de feathering them ? .

I think all Children should have some sort of camping out of town to show them there's more than their current little world awaiting them .

For this reason I push -very- hard to get every one of our Foster boys to camp , usually in Topanga, not really far away but in the hills .

I also think fire arms use and safety should be taught to all school children before they're 7 years old so they won't be thinking "guns are so cool !" when they're 12 and cause all the ruckus they so often do as teenagers .

I knew how to handle firearms at an early age and I've never gone postal.....

Common sense, isn't these days .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

Amen brother.

I have really fond memories of my two trips to Camp Wehinahpay in the Southern NM Rockies, south of Cloudcroft. Up at about 8500 feet it was a workout. We had .22 skeet and target classes and competition. I was around 13 and 14.

__________________
1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

That'd do it .

So far not a one of my Foster boys didn't want to go back again as often as possible .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

__________________
"I applaud your elaborate system of denial"

I guess they did not have spell check turned on.

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Tony H
W111 280SE 3.5 Coupe
Manual transmission

Past cars:
Porsche 914 2.0
'64 Jaguar XKE Roadster
'57 Oval Window VW
'71 Toyota Hilux Pickup Truck-Dad bought new
'73 Toyota Celica GT

Wow, that's wired.

__________________
1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

I don't spell very well so I like spellcheck, autocorrect is a whole 'nother thing that I hate .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better