Displaying a Caped Pheasant

[Scott M]

I've got a couple of pheasants that I caped out this weekend. My buddy I thought did a pretty good job with his birds:

Anybody else have any good ideas of displaying a skin?

I don't have a router or much for wood working skills, where could I obtain a nice plaque to put the bird on?

[Powerstroke]

That looks pretty nice. I also tried to cape out one of my birds from a couple weeks ago. I didn't get the wings on it though. I would love to find a place that has plaques like that.

[Cheetah]

Any suggestions on how to properly handle the skin when it comes off the bird? I've done a couple turkey tail fans, but that's a no-brainer due to the small amount of actual area that needs to be dried. A whole pheasant skin though is another matter and I'd hate to have a ruined stinky mess before it is ready to go on the wall.

[Scott M]

They seem to skin pretty well. I rubbed 50/50 borax and salt onto the skin and stretch it to dry. I made cuts along the wings and rubbed in some more, because if you want the wings you can't really get rid of that little bit of meat. I also rubbed down the tailbase pretty well, because like a turkey fan, it has a good plug of meat on it.

Haven't had problems with rotting or stinkiness. If your salt mix isn't staying white and it's leaching up the fats and oils, it'll be discolored...just keep adding more salt till the skin is finally drying and keep those feathers pinned out to dry.

A chunk of cardboard and some pins works, otherwise I've used some plywood and some small nails when I need to go heavy duty.

[Cheetah]

I did some quick googling and found some other information that said pretty much the same thing. It's more or less just like how I did my turkey tail fans.

Thanks.

[uplander]

Nice work dachise! That looks awesome. I use to do that with grouse and pheasants back in college. Never had the wood plaque to make it look so nice..

[Scott M]

Not me, a friend of mine. He's a little more handy around the shop My skins are done and a fellow FMer is going to help me with a couple plaques. I'm trying to make mine look like my buddy's.

[Sifty]

Look's pretty good.

Nice work.

Sifty