Pheasant  (or most upland birds)

_______Have customer fill out and sign the top part of taxidermy reporting form.

_______Before customer leaves, and while he is watching, examine pheasant for damage.  Look for damage to primary         

                flight feathers to determine whether or not bird would be a feasible flying mount.  If damaged, suggest a standing pose.

_______Write up order on taxidermy reporting form.  Thank your customer.  Tag bird with identifying information, and put him promptly into the freezer.

_______When you know you’re going to have time to work on  him,  remember to lay him out several hours beforehand to thaw before skinning.

_______Put on  latex gloves.

_______Roll out a sheet of waxed paper to skin him on.

_______Place bird on his back.

_______Skin from the point of the breastbone to the vent.

_______Work hands inside to separate skin from carcass as far across the front and down the sides as you can.

_______Loosen skin around legs.

_______Detach drumstick from thigh.

_______Cut through leg meat to skin on other side.

_______Skin back past pelvic bones. 

_______Cut straight down to vertebrae that holds tail.

_______Snip through tail, being careful to not cut skin on other side.

_______Turn bird over to rest on breast side.

_______Skin down back to wings and legs.

_______Turn bird back over to rest on back. 

_______Cut diagonally across breast meat to expose shoulder joint.

_______Separate joint.  Cut through all meat to detach wing from carcass.  Do both wings.

_______Slide skin up neck to reach base of skull.  Cut neck from skull close to base of skull.

_______Remove carcass.

_______Measure neck on carcass.  Record width and length measurements.

_______Take the meat off the drumsticks and out of the wings.

_______Clip ball off end of bone.  Use wire to force marrow from leg bones.

_______Turn head inside out.

_______Skin head up to beak.  Don’t detach head from skull.

_______Remove eyes and brains and oil gland above tail.

_______Snip out bone between quills of tail.

_______Flesh until quills are sharp and no yellow remains on skin.

_______Turn bird completely inside out, exposing skin on back, front, legs, and neck.

_______Wash and rinse 10 times inside out, using anti-bacterial Dawn, concentrating on getting the skin super clean.

_______Turn neck and legs back through so that bird is right side out.

_______Wash and rinse 10 times right side out, using anti-bacterial Dawn, concentrating on getting feathers clean.

_______Wash and rinse 5 times with shampoo.

_______Rinse 5 additional times, or until absolutely no bubbles are in water.

_______Hang bedraggled pheasant skin over the bicycle racks over your skin to drip dry a little.

_______If you don’t have a tumbler, soak pheasant in white gas for a minimum or 30 minutes.

_______If you have a tumbler, tumble a minimum of 10 minutes, depending on how wet your mix is.  (Tumbler mix recipe:   1 of 50-lb bag corn cob grit

                 and 1 of 50-lb bag corn cobb dust and 1 of 25-lb diatomaceous earth.  Mix these pro portions and have in a large barrel.  Scoop out of this to

                 fill tumbler.  Add in 1 of box of Borax to tumbler initially, and  as needed.)

_______Remove pheasant from tumbler and use hair-drier to blow dust off bird.

_______Sew holes.

_______Pull tendons out of legs.

_______Choose gauge of wire depending on pose, referring to chart.  Remember that the “action” will need to be supported by the heavier wire

                 (smaller the number the heavier the wire).  So, in a flying bird, the action is in the wings.  Use the heavier there.  In a standing bird, the legs support

                 the mount.  Use the heavier there.  You can safely err on the heavier side, remembering that heavier supports better, but that it is harder to insert,

                 and will wound you more if you impale yourself. 

_______Sharpen wires.

_______Wire wings and legs.  Zip tie wire to “forearm”.  Use electrical tape to bind wire to “upper arm”.  Use electrical tape to bind wires to legs. 

                 (*If a standing bird, only the legs require wire.)

_______Test fit body. 

_______Shave body to fit.  You want a loose enough fit that skin can be overlapped and held together with T-pins down the length of body.  Birds are funny.  

                You want the body small enough that feather ends are not mashed down flat against body.  If there is ample room inside the skin for feathers to rotate

                freely and to be able  to dry “standing up”, your bird will end up looking bigger, and fluffier.  Sometimes, a smaller form makes for a “bigger” bird. 

_______Neck Wire:  When your form is a good size, insert a sharpened wire through the body, bending it over, and pulling it    back through to anchor. 

_______Measuring from form, cut neck wire 1” shorter than the measurements you recorded for the neck length.

_______Using a needle-nosed plier, bend a loop in the head end of the wire.

_______Wrap neck.

_______Bondo neck wire into brain cavity of skull, making sure the “up” of the skull matches the “up” of the body.  (We mention this because it is possible

                to very carefully attach the  head upside down in relation to the body.  After you do it, you feel really stupid for how painstakingly you did it -wrong.  

                Don’t ask us how we know.)

_______Fill eye sockets with potter’s clay.

_______Press glass eyes into center of clay.

_______Rub borax on skin of head and neck and on the skull.

_______If a flying bird, stab the wing wires though the body at this time.  Cut wires and bend back and pound into body.

_______Stab leg wires through and secure.

_______Borax entire skin.

_______Sew from breast to vent.

_______Pull neck skin up.  Glue around beak.

_______Blow dry gently. 

_______Position feathers with masking tape. 

_______Standing birds:  Fold wings in and pin.  Attach bird to base with leg wires.  Distance between feet:  the inside toes should touch/toenails overlap.

_______Position eyes in clay.  (Make sure eyes are level to each other and that the pupil is centered.)

_______Card wattles.

_______Let pheasant dry several days, keeping an eye on feather patterns and adjusting daily against general settling. 

_______Finish by painting wattles with gill red.