Whole turkey

[Hayemaker 0]

My brother-in-law just got back turkey hunting. He is saving an entire turkey "pelt" for me. My question is, other that the tail feathers, and I would assume the paired wing feathers, is there any other use for the rest of the body?

[Gene L 0]

The secondary wing feathers are best. The primaries are too big and stiff, but you can use the biots.

[Fisherboy0301 0]

There are marabou feathers, as the marabou we buy comes from domestic turkeys, it'll be all the fluff around the belly. The legs have large soft hackle feathers. The flats(body feathers, triangle shaped with a flat top) make good wings and wing cases and parachute posts.

[eastern fly 0]

The flats and smaller feathers are good hackles.

 

Kevin

[SILKHDH 0]

I second fisherboys comment. Marabou around the butt is awesome for crawdads and woolly boogers. Also the small feather that grow at the base of larger feathers (filiplume) or afterfeather makes nice little collars and bodies on nymph flies. It's a lot like an emu or ostrich plume. Great stuff!

[Fisherboy0301 0]

I once tried to wrap a body with the beard "feathers" from a tom I harvested. However they're too brittle. Even steamed or soaked.

[flytire 0]

theres a lot of useful feathers on a turkey that can be used for wet fly wings, wing cases, wing posts, legs, bodies, marabou, biots etc

 

be creative. experiment

[vicrider 0]

Yep, like the guys said, start checking that bird from top to bottom and you'll find all kind of uses for it.

[fshng2 0]

FLY TYING BIOTS

Turkey Biots are from the leading edge of primary wing feathers. They are single barbs that are stiff and distinctly taper to a point. Can be used for tails, legs, antenna, or body parts such as wing pods. The biots can be wrapped to produce segmented bodies on small flies. Turkey biots are larger and more rigid than goose biots.

 

http://www.flytyinginstruction.com/feathers/biots03turkey01t.jpg