Couestracker Report post Posted March 11, 2013 I finally got my 2011 San Carlos turkey fan mount finished. First off, I should tell the hunt story...this was my first time hunting turkey on the San Carlos Reservation. I had an absolute blast! Called one in early on the hunt, missed him from 25 yds! DO NOT KNOW how I did that, but not even a feather went flying. Had a hen visit me on two different days, looking for "that other hen". She was close enough to touch a few times. She was yelping her head off! That was fun. Called her back after she walked away 50 yds, in disgust of not finding her "friend", 3 times one day and twice the second. I saw the biggest tom ever one evening, he was huge. Beard dragging the ground and waddled when he walked. Called him into the clear right at dusk, thought he was 80 yds away, so I didn't shoot. After he left, ranged the spot to 60 yds! I've taken a tom at 70 yds with my Browning....should have ranged spots when I sat down that day for sure. On the last day of the hunt, I hauled butt to some gobbles I heard at first light and set-up. There were a few gobblers roosted across a small meadow and were responding well to my calling. They flew down out of sight and circled around through the woods and brush, again, out of my sight, but close. As they circled around, I had to turn around so I was looking over the fallen tree I had been leaning against. I caught some movement through the brush, then a tom came out into the clear and stopped, cranning his neck and looking my way. I was froze. Then he started walking more to my right, and as he got behind a small bush I brought up my shotgun. I followed his movement until he got between two bushes and then fired. My first Apache turkey! It turned out to be a 60 yd shot. Ok, back to the mount post....I wanted to make something different, so I decided to replicate the Apache highway arrowhead sign from ADOT's blueprint into a plaque. My friend Carl has a laser cutting and engraving machine, so he cut the shape, routed it for me and did the engraving too. He also has a cool machine that can make emblems-not sure what the process is called, but it's more durable than paint and it moulds to an aluminum disc. So I had him make the San Carlos Tribal seal, the Apache NDE Nation seal and the Recreation and Wildlife Dept. seal. Once the plaque was ready, Sven at Wildlife Wings mounted the tail fan, wings, beard and spurs on it for me. Thanks for looking! Tommy Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tjhunt2 Report post Posted March 11, 2013 Congratulations on your turkey Tommy. That is the nicest mount I've ever seen for sure. Great idea thinking that one up. Thanks for sharing it with us. TJ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CouesWhitetail Report post Posted March 11, 2013 Congratulations! Very nice way to mount it! The turkey in the series of pics in my signature is my 2011 San Carlos turkey fun hunt! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bonecollector Report post Posted March 11, 2013 Cool looking mount. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
