Another way to process your turkey is to scald and pluck the turkey feathers. After this process is completed your turkey looks like a turkey you would get from the store. But, there is no sport in going to the store and buying a butterball.
First the head must be removed, this is accomplished by laying the head and neck across a block of wood and taking a hatchet to chop off the head, generally at the base of the neck. A big pot of water is warmed to 145 degrees and you must submerge the turkey for 45 seconds to loosen the feathers so they can be pulled by hand or use a motorized feather removing machine to remove the feathers from the turkey. The feet are cut off after the bird has been submerged in the hot water. Do not cut the feet off until after dipping the turkey in the hot water because they serve as a handle to keep from burning your hands.
When I turkey hunt locally I prefer this method of cleaning my turkeys. There is a person who cleans turkeys for people for a small fee. She has been doing this for years. The butchering area is set up for efficiency. When they butcher everything you saw on the video is done here except for the motorized plucker, it is done by hand.
After a successful turkey hunt and properly checking your harvest with your states DNR or conservation department it is now time to butcher your turkey. There are several options to accomplish cleaning your turkey. The fastest way to butcher your turkey is called ‘breasting out’. It is less work to butcher this way but you will waste some meat doing it this way. this video shows proper technique on how to breast out a turkey.
When hunting outside of my home range I use this method of butchering because it is fast to breast out my turkey. Remember a good Sharp knife is a must to do the job efficiently. Butchering by scalding and plucking is not practical to pack the necessary equipment. The turkey breast is the best part of the tukey to eat so I don’t feel like I am wasting any valuable meat.
It’s also hard to forecast success rates this spring, considering the terrible 
nesting season we had last year. Spring 2009 had far too much rain, diminishing hatching success and chick survival. Second-year jakes — males born last year — could be in shorter supply, though, making the hunt far more challenging. Wild Turkeys need a relatively dry nesting season for optimum reproduction. Hopefully they’ll get that this spring. Enough said!
I had my doubts about the spring season as well, listening to everyone make their predictions of this spring’s wild turkey population. I was hearing a good amount of early morning gobbling. This past Monday morning I put the accusations to rest as daylight approached and started to set up on a roosted gobbling tom. Before I ever set up I received a text from a friend who had a big bird on the ground already(21lbs). Less than 5 minutes after
that another text, this one from one of my sons he too had a long beard on the ground(22lbs) .
I continued to my setup zone and got ready to call. The first call I made the big bird answered along with several hens cutting back at me. Less than 15 minutes later he and the hens were standing in range of my 870 and my hunt was over(24lbs).
I than sent out my own text of a successful hunt to my buddies and started to pack my bird out of the woods when received another text from my hunting partner hunting the same farm I was on, he had just dropped a big Missouri long beard sporting 5 beards. This bird would have probably been close to record book scoring but it had no Spurs!! What is up with this I 
thought? He just never grew any spurs, but he did weigh over 25 1/2lbs.
I guess mother nature wasn’t that bad on the Wild Turkey flock in our part of Missouri. We headed to the house, boiled the water, sharpened up the knives and butchered all of the birds.
“Best Time of the Year”
I have been turkey hunting now for 37 years and every year is an anticipated high for me as the first blossoms start to appear. I make many trips afield to
hear the first gobbles of the morning in early spring as the sun is just starting to rise. For me turkey hunting has become an obsession to get outdoors and chase the infamous long beard around. In the last few years I have even challenged myself to hunt with archery equipment, that’s a whole new ballgame.
When daylight is breaking and the birds start gobbling I make my move to get as close as I dare staying in the shadows and close the wood lines avoiding my silhouette to be seen by a roosting tom. I set up in relatively open woods to allow the turkeys feel comfortable. After several minutes I will give a fly down sound to imitate the hen that I am trying to mock and do nothing more than purr and cluck to sound like I am feeding and scratching in the leaves for breakfast. Hunting turkeys is challenge in the sense they can see 90 percent around them without turning their head. not to mention their head is always moving. Start calling softly to get the big guys attention. if he answers, great I still call softly to get him more excited.This makes bow hunting extremely tough when they get close enough to shoot, which for me is inside of thirty yards. Hunting from a portable blind gives a slight edge to drawing my bow when the long beard struts into range.
I’ve found out the hard way that is close to impossible to sneak up on gobblers. Watch the way the birds are constantly moving their heads around, ever alert, and you will understand why stalking a gobbler rarely works.
Turkey hunting has long been among my favorite of the hunting sports because there are few things as thrilling as hearing a big tom gobbling away in the woods on a quiet, sunny morning. Especially if you can tell it is getting 
closer to you every time it he gobbles.
When a gobbler does start coming in, slow down your calling and make it softer, not louder or even quit calling so they come looking for you. You want to play hard to get for that tom, and sounding like you are too eager sends the wrong message and can get a mature bird too nervous and he will want the impatient hen to come to him.
Big gobblers don’t get to be old birds by being reckless.
Late winter brings makes for a dull time of year for most hunters, me included. I surf the net looking for places to hunt in the upcoming season. This map that shows the different species of the wild turkey and where they live. Doing this helps decide where to start looking for property to hunt on.
Several organizations are also preparing to have annual banquets to 
raise money for there cause. The “NWTF” National Wild Turkey Federation has been doing this for years. I am a firm supporter of the NWTF. They do alot for conservation and habitat for wild turkeys.
They are boasting they have helped increase the national turkey population from 1.5 million birds to more than 7 million. The NWTF website offers tons of information to review for anyone wanting to increase their knowledge of the wild turkey.
The ultimate goal of avid turkey hunters is to complete the Grand Slam of turkey hunting , which means harvesting all 5 species of wild turkeys. Chasing the Grand Slam starts in Florida with the Osceola
moves north and east going after the Eastern which is typically the largest species of the five. The Rio Grande starts its population in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. The Merriam turkey is sparsely spread through the Rocky Mountains. The last of the five North American Grand Slam is the Gould which is located in Mexico in the Sierra Madre Mountains. Use this time of year to do your research for your upcoming hunting season and remember the NWTF is stating the wild turkey population is at an all time high so you should be able to find a good place to hunt this spring.
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