Turkey
- Thread starter Roper
- Start date
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bennysbuddy
Guest
I have a set of wings from a exceptional gobbler I shot up near Empire rd. It was a very mature bird . you can have them ,they are currently in my freezer. I was going to make Steelhead muddler with them , but lost interest !If anyone want to part with a tail fan or whole skin let me know
I have thought about getting into turkey hunting.
Last time down on the Klickitat one could kill a flawk while just driving around!
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bennysbuddy
Guest
I like a wood pecker call the best , well in town anyway because in make the neighborhood roosters crow at dusk. Let’s you know who might have eggs for sale.
It looks like you did a good job on the wrap. Hopefully you're able to get a nice, tight pattern out of it.
I'll be getting a late start this year, which will be a serious negative if this year is anything like last year. I've been on the waiting list for a coveted April week at Playa Blanca lodge for a few years and a spot finally opened up this year. Just so happens it's Apr 16-23, so hopefully the cabin neighbors will have left a tom for me upon my return. If the permit fishing sucks, I'll probably prioritize turkeys in 2023.
I am getting the sense that for a serious turkey hunt you need a camo wrapped pump or semi auto shot gun. LOL.
Seriously, I'm really new to the shotgun shooting and hunting. Never grew up hunting. However, I have Dad's 12ga O/U that I would like to shoot. Turkey sounds like a nice bird to hunt, just for the fact there's more meat than say a quail.
Growing up, we received a few geese, duck, and pheasant from a colleague of Dad's. From what I remember, the meat was good.
Sam
Seriously, I'm really new to the shotgun shooting and hunting. Never grew up hunting. However, I have Dad's 12ga O/U that I would like to shoot. Turkey sounds like a nice bird to hunt, just for the fact there's more meat than say a quail.
Growing up, we received a few geese, duck, and pheasant from a colleague of Dad's. From what I remember, the meat was good.
Sam
Breck
The Whisk(e)y Dick
An 12ga O/U will certainly get the job done. You need a really tight choke and at least a 3” chamber though. I hunt turkeys with 3 1/2” and a special turkey choke.
The camo is really kind of important. Turkeys are extremely spooky and have very sharp eyesight. They can easily pick out the smallest things in their environment that doesn’t look natural. The slightest thing can make them scatter. I hunt with a Benelli Supernova 12ga with a full camo finish. I go head to toe in camo, even painting my face.
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Triploidjunkie
Life of the Party
It's been about fifteen years, but I used like calling a turkey in and popping it.
Thread drift question: - wild turkey (bird, not whiskey) as a meal - how do people fix them? Whole bird like a store bought Buttterball or breasted out? Or? From my days hunting pheasants, I found the drumsticks tough, usually too tough to chew. Asking out of curiosity.
Breck
The Whisk(e)y Dick
The secret to good wild fowl is in the brine. I brine for 72 hours in my own apple cider brine, changing the brine out every 24 hours for fresh.
Millsfly
Steelhead
First thing is to realize that wild birds are not much like their domesticated cousins. If you dont brine and bake it in the oven....gross
BUT, what I do is on the breasts, I brine and smoke them and it makes terrific lunch meat for sammiches.
For the dark meat, drop it into a slow cooker with some oil, water and a can of rotel for 12+ hours and the dark meat loosens and falls off the bone. Take that and make some redic good tacos or meat for a pot pie
Pink Nighty
Life of the Party
Weve been using wild bird for thanksgiving for about a decade now. It's been a long road but we have really arrived in my opinion.
We pluck the breasts, then breast them out with skin on. Dark meat is removed sans skin. Dark meat is placed in a mild corned beef style brine for a week, breasts in a mild salt/sugar brine for 3-4 days.
Dark meat is cooked into a stock and the meat shredded. The stock and meat are used to make stuffing. It is ridiculously good and I promise nobody at your thanksgiving table has had corned turkey stuffing before.
The breasts are the real star however. After their brine we dry them overnight. Score the skin very lightly in a cross hatch pattern. Beat the breasts with a french pin until the entire breast is rectangular and 1/4" thick.
Make a filling using pancetta, bread crumbs, mushrooms, herbs, etc... bonus points for rendered duck fat making an appearance here.
Lay the filling across the flesh side of the breast and roll it like the fattest joint you ever seen. YOURE ALMOST HOME NOW!!
Create a latticework of pancetta. Take turkey tube and wrap the lattice around it. Have some whiskey, you're kickin ass. Tie everything up tight with butcher string. Place in vacuum seal bag with a fat pat of butter and seal it up.
The cooking: I cook it in the sous vide bath overnight at 145, about 16 hours total. This really allows things to soften up.
Just before it's time to eat, it comes out of the bag and gets butter basted/fried crisp in a cast iron. Also a fantastic place to reintroduce that duck fat we talked about earlier.
Slice and serve. The result is a huge depth of flavor and wild turkey moist and tender enough to not need to be washed down with gravy. May seem like a lot of effort, this is 10000% worth every bit.
You pass the test
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bennysbuddy
Guest
White hands will get you busted when you raise the gun to shoot, wear camouflage gloves
