Primitive Archer

Main Discussion Area => Arrows => Topic started by: Prarie Bowyer on November 08, 2011, 02:22:56 am

Title: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: Prarie Bowyer on November 08, 2011, 02:22:56 am
Ok so one of you sent me a sample of Turkey Primaries, you know just a few. ;)

I had no idea they were that big.  I think I need a lesson in preping feathers.  OR, given the size and quantity I could just make a primitive hang glider. :laugh:
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: soy on November 08, 2011, 03:07:28 am
I would love to see the glider ;D
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: Prarie Bowyer on November 08, 2011, 03:10:44 am
Note to self.  DO NOT fly near sun.
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: sadiejane on November 08, 2011, 10:10:43 am
that hang glider sounds cool.
but if you run outta things to do with all those feathers,
i'd be glad to help ya put em to use....
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: bowtarist on November 08, 2011, 11:39:40 am
PB, Check out some of the old posts.  A lot of guys "strip" them off the quill, I've never tried it, but some like it and some say they loose their ridgidity.  Others stick a razor blade into a board and split them.  You'll have two separate feathers, keep them separate, they are different.  Once you split three freathers, you have fletching for one left wing and one right wing fletching job. Regardless of whitch wing was cut.  The quill will need to be ground down and some quill removed off the sides.  They sould be good to go.  Good luck and hopfull others will post more ideas for you.  dpgratz  If all else fails, Trial and Error Baby!!  ;)   
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: sadiejane on November 08, 2011, 01:37:34 pm
heres a pretty good vid about processing yr own turkey feathers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63s5WpXqWks (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63s5WpXqWks)
i'm one of those folks who has tried pulling the fletching off the quill.
personally prefer this fellas method of splitting with a good sharp knife.
 
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: Gus on November 08, 2011, 01:50:40 pm
:)

You may be able to get more than one fletch from each side of the bigger feathers.
Or you could make Ishi stile fletch... LONG, low slung feathers.

-gus
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: Prarie Bowyer on November 08, 2011, 06:40:01 pm
I was thinking about tangential fletching but now that I look at them I don't want to waste them.  I think I will get two from each feather.
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: bowtarist on November 08, 2011, 07:28:27 pm
I was thinking about tangential fletching but now that I look at them I don't want to waste them.  I think I will get two from each feather.


PB, not sure what "tangential fletching" is, but if it's like eastern woodland indian, w/ 2 feathers folded over, using the whole feather, then usually they use tail or secondary feathers for that.  Anybody else???
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: JW_Halverson on November 08, 2011, 08:11:52 pm
I'm one of those jokers that prefers to "strip" the fletching from the quill.  Yeah, it loses all it's rigidity and flops like a hank of overcooked low quality spaghetti.  But that's why I glue 'em to an arrow shaft!  Puts the rigidity right back into 'em!

Some of the feathers don't strip perfectly and will actually split the quill and then I have to grind them down.  Grinding is just extra work as far as I am concerned. 
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: Prarie Bowyer on November 08, 2011, 08:43:04 pm
Did you guys see the Japaneese bow builder hammering the quils to break them and then peel and sand them? Darn You tube is so big I can't find the video now.
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: Prarie Bowyer on November 08, 2011, 09:07:23 pm
What parts do I need to make this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=e2nQ8HXBQGs
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: sadiejane on November 09, 2011, 09:25:15 am
What parts do I need to make this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=e2nQ8HXBQGs

how bout this one. i have yet to do this, but have my pops old soldiering iron and will over winter.
http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,23329.15.html (http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,23329.15.html)
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: bubby on November 09, 2011, 06:45:34 pm
you need two bolts, 4 brass nuts, 4 brass washers, some piano wire or feather burner ribbons, a 6 volt battery charger and some wood for the stand, it's really simple, Bub
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: Prarie Bowyer on November 10, 2011, 03:01:10 am
What parts do I need to make this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=e2nQ8HXBQGs

how bout this one. i have yet to do this, but have my pops old soldiering iron and will over winter.
http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,23329.15.html (http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,23329.15.html)

That is nice!
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: Prarie Bowyer on November 10, 2011, 03:05:02 am
That darned economist in me is alwayse seeking the Adam Smith route to more efficient production.  BUT I'm not a commercial arrow maker.  99% of my arrow making is in the basement at night while the family sleeps.  That burnt feather smell has "Scott gets kicked out" written all over it.

Exacto and template it is for me.

However, one of the videos I stumbled across a guy was using what I ~THINK~ was Guinea Foul feathers. Those were lovely!  Jet black with tons of little white dots.  Kinda like a clear nights sky.  I bet Fly Shops would have that.... or Ebay, which I'm not on.
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: Rick Wallace on November 11, 2011, 01:54:24 am
Neigbors have a bunch of guinnys that roam all over my property,I cant run fast enough to catch one,but if I ever do ill get some!!  ;D
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: bowtarist on November 11, 2011, 02:50:39 am
Rick,

I doubt a guinny is any faster than a chicken...an arrow will work.  I use a broadhead, shoot em either @ the top of the breast/bottom of neck from the front or mid back if from behind, just try not to put it through the breast or a thigh.  huh, sounds like I've done that before....... >:D
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: Rick Wallace on November 11, 2011, 02:59:25 am
I thought about that,,dont really want to shoot one,dont really care if the neibers get mad or not,just like watchin them!!
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: bowtarist on November 11, 2011, 11:21:31 am
They eat a lot of bugs out of your yard too, but quite noisy.
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: Gus on November 12, 2011, 01:22:01 am
Mmmm.. Roasted Guinny is AWESOME!!!!

Yes they Did look like Guinny feathers... Heck I'd love to try some myself some day.
If they roost in a hen house, uncommon but not impossible, feathers can be harvested at night.
When I was a kid we used to clip the feathers on one wing to keep our birds in the Chicken Pen...
Guinnys make good guard birds. Nobody can sneak up on the place if you have a few around.
Kinda Like mini Peacocks.

-gus
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: Prarie Bowyer on November 12, 2011, 02:14:04 am
Neigbors have a bunch of guinnys that roam all over my property,I cant run fast enough to catch one,but if I ever do ill get some!!  ;D

I alwayse wanted Guineas on my property NOT when I took up fly tying, or hunting.  I ordered it off a menu at a resturant in NYC.  Like chicken injected with AWESOMENESS!
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: gstoneberg on November 12, 2011, 11:20:34 am
I used to raise guineas, they taste a lot like pheasant.  Unfortunately, the hens are broody as heck and will not nest in a coop.  As soon as they were ready to nest  they wouldn't come in at night and the coons got every one.  I had a beautiful blue one, the coon left blue feathers all over the yard chasing it down in the dark.  Too high maintenance for me.  Very loud too, sound a little like a machine gun when they get spooked...and they get spooked a lot.  The primary wing feathers are quite thin, I never even considered using one for an arrow.  Would be beautiful though.

George
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: Gus on November 13, 2011, 01:00:15 pm
Yes Sir,

Our guineafowl would roost up on some horizontal pipes and beams that made up part of the structure of the Chicken Pen...
The whole pen was enclosed with chicken wire to keep the varmints out and the birds in.
Some would even hang out on top of the Chicken Coop, even with a clipped wing.

I liked the flavor and the Prehistoric look of the birds. So that's what pheasant tastes like? :)
Wasn't making arrahs at the time so guineafowl fletch never crossed my mind.

-gus
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: gstoneberg on November 13, 2011, 04:36:23 pm
Pheasant is better than guinea Gus.  I would rate my favorite wild fowl in this order based on taste (chicken thrown in for reference):

There are other game birds that I don't have enough experience in to rate.  Never did much waterfowl hunting.  I'm sure others will have differing opinions.

George
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: JW_Halverson on November 14, 2011, 07:33:53 pm
Pheasant is about the bottom of my gamebird tasting list, too bland.  I really like the sharptail grouse, dove, and hun partridge. 
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: bubby on November 14, 2011, 09:17:35 pm
i'm a big fan of mountain quail and chucker, Bub
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: gstoneberg on November 14, 2011, 10:20:04 pm
Pheasant is about the bottom of my gamebird tasting list, too bland.  I really like the sharptail grouse, dove, and hun partridge.

Really???  Dove is without a doubt the worst tasting gamebird I've eaten.  It takes very skilful cooking to make it edible.  So far I haven't met a partridge I didn't love to eat.  I've only had chucker from a game farm and it was excellent.  Course it had a steady diet of corn I'll bet. Prairie chicken was pretty good too.  Grew up on pheasant and it is still my fav.

George
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: JW_Halverson on November 14, 2011, 10:56:08 pm
Try plucking the feathers from the breast of the dove, cut the breast loose from the bird with shears, and grill on a screaming hot grill bone side down for about a minute, flip over for 30 seconds and serve.  Dove when medium rare is incredible....when it gets past that point it is tough, dry, and tastes like bad liver!
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: gstoneberg on November 15, 2011, 12:20:29 am
Ah, maybe that was my problem.  They taste like bad liver to me almost every time.  The only way I like them is marinated in teriyaki overnight, wrapped in bacon and cooked on the grill.
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: Prarie Bowyer on November 15, 2011, 01:31:32 am
I only had phesant once which I bought and followed along with a Scottish recipet that involved raspberry stuffing.  It was ok.  I can see it had potential.  I think it's the novelty for me.  Won't be buying anymore.  WAY expensive for the scrawny bird and no feathers!

I've had quail only in resturants and can't get over the idea that they look like little mice on the plate.  Not keen on their flavor as I've had them but then fried I would think does them little justice.

I love ALL meat (ok most meat, I have no desire to try things like raccoon, common rat, mountain lion etc.  I only eat bear when I'm in a funky mood).  But when it comes to poultry there is one that just makes me sing.  He's not fancy.  He's not glamorous.  He certainly isn't smart (this begins to echo my wife's description of me), and he's common.  A turkey is realy all I need.  We grill 2-3 a year in the webber with a little smoke and an all day cook on as low as I can manage after an overnight brine.  If I could figure out how to make it into chewing gum I would.

I've alwayse wanted to try squab and dove.  I get doves in my driveway but I'm pretty sure as sure as I nail one the cops will be making a random trip down the alley.  I can almost see my dove impailed arrow stuck in their tire while I try to talk my way out of that.  And it seems like pidegeons flock to the cities. I think they are hard wired to poop near clean cars. I don't want trash eaters but some plump country pidgeon would be nice.

thanks,
Scott
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: Gus on November 15, 2011, 02:18:29 pm
Yes Sir,

Love Dove.
Fillet the breast halves out.
Roll them up in Bacon with a slice of San Marcos Jalapeno in with the breast meat and grill.... :)
or
Chicken fry the fillets, serve with cream gravy, rice, fresh green beans and fresh Mrs Baird's White Bread for sopping.
A limit will feed three to five folks.

Duck Gumbo! Takes me three days to make it, but DAMN!

Slow Smoked Wild Turkey... mmm!

Slow Smoked Molasses Crusted Snow Goose... Yowsah!

Smoked or Fried Wood Cock. This one is HARD to beat.

Chicken Fried Wood Duck... Amazing how good this was.

Chicken Fried, Smoked or Grilled Sandhill Crane... Sirloin of the Sky.

Have cooked and eaten many of the birds that frequent Southeast Texas, back when I was a young teen on solo trips into the thicket.
Quite a few that are questionable, suprising what tastes good when you haven't eaten in a few days... :)

Haven't had a chance to try some of the upland Game Birds yet but I willing!

-gus
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: JW_Halverson on November 15, 2011, 05:14:36 pm
My father once went on a snow goose hunt with a half dozen other guys.  After three days of getting the barrels of their shotguns too hot to touch it came time to divy up the birds.  Ever last son of a b---- declined to take a single bird.  I personally think they all should have been written up for "wanton waste of game".  So my dad, being the lifelong meat cutter says he'll take care of them.  He loads them all in his pickup (nearly 100 of 'em) and goes home.  He ended up breasting them out and deboning the thighs.  He ran the whole pile thru his grinder and added seasonings, stuffed 'em in casings and smoked them up.  Snowgoose summer sausage. 

Next spring they all get together at a guy's cabin at the lake for a little walleye fishing and he pulls out a 10 inch chunk of this snow goose summer sausage and slices it up.  He asks them to guess what it was.  They guess everything but snows.  When he told 'em they all start clamoring for a few sticks of this here sausage.  He just smiled and told 'em to enjoy what he little brought because that's all any of them would ever see, what's more it's more than he saw of any of them when it was time to do the work!

I just weep to think of all those wonderful primary flight feathers going to the dump.
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: Gus on November 15, 2011, 05:40:22 pm
I hear ya JW...

That would seem to Defy the ethics of Logical Use.

I have acquaintances that do the same thing with Dove, they like to shoot 'em but don't like to eat 'em.
If I hunt with these folks, the problem then becomes, WHAT do I tell the Game Warden if I were to get pulled over with two hundred birds in my cooler?
I've been put in this position before and don't like it one bit.
But I Do love to eat dove, and detest throwing good meat away.

-gus
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: bowtarist on November 15, 2011, 05:46:10 pm
Gus and JW, That sounds great, all of it.  I just like wild game.  When we sit down to eat and are having meat, my oldest boy, 7, likes to ask, "Papa, did you kill this meat?".  I love that part of dinner.  I like my dove bacon wrapped and grilled also. 

PB, you're gonna have to give them other meats a chance, the next time I catch a coon @ the chicken coop, it's already been decided by the family that Racoon is what's for dinner.  I was just reading about the Joy of Cookings history.  Up until the 1970 processing and cooking wild game was in there, including coon, muskrat and even opposom. :o I'm actually looking for an older edition if anyone has one and want to come off of it. 

Eat right, know where your meat comes from, dpgratz  ;D
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: JW_Halverson on November 15, 2011, 08:27:56 pm
  I was just reading about the Joy of Cookings history.  Up until the 1970 processing and cooking wild game was in there, including coon, muskrat and even opposom. :o I'm actually looking for an older edition if anyone has one and want to come off of it. 

You will want a copy of Joy of Cooking, 2nd Edition or 1st edition.  The third edition where the original author's grandchild picks up is all about how to microwave the take out from Hop Sing's Mexican/Chinese Fusion Restaurant. 

I have a copy of the 2nd Edition and they even explain how to take the glands off the 'coon!  There is also recipes in there for whale!  How un-PC is that?!?!?!  There are literally thousands of these books out there, check a used book store.  I bet they have a box full of 'em.
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: bubby on November 15, 2011, 09:20:21 pm
we take the dove and quail, slice it in strips and make fajitas, they are outstanding, Bub
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: Prarie Bowyer on November 15, 2011, 09:34:22 pm
Gus and JW, That sounds great, all of it.  I just like wild game.  When we sit down to eat and are having meat, my oldest boy, 7, likes to ask, "Papa, did you kill this meat?".  I love that part of dinner.  I like my dove bacon wrapped and grilled also. 

PB, you're gonna have to give them other meats a chance, the next time I catch a coon @ the chicken coop, it's already been decided by the family that Racoon is what's for dinner.  I was just reading about the Joy of Cookings history.  Up until the 1970 processing and cooking wild game was in there, including coon, muskrat and even opposom. :o I'm actually looking for an older edition if anyone has one and want to come off of it. 

Eat right, know where your meat comes from, dpgratz  ;D

I have a reprint of the original game stuff and I have a cook book of my grandmothers that talks about cooking raccoon, armadillo, oppossum etc.

Gus~ Sand Hill crane?  Is that legal?  I know people used to shoot herrons and cranes for their feathers.

I've heard that wood duck is the prime of the prime in duck.  Why fry it?  I'd think it would be greasy as heck.  Grill, pan seared and finished off in the oven would be ideal for duck.

I can't wait to try dove.  My neighbor has some property.  Told me I can take deer also but I have no place to put one.  A few rabbits and doves would be ideal :-)

I've had squirrel~ grandmother cooked it with a shake and bake recipet.
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: JW_Halverson on November 16, 2011, 02:12:34 am
Sandhill cranes are definitely legal to shoot in the central flyway.  They are considered by many to be as good eating as the finest Kobe beef!  I would say better. 

Kentucky is actually considering a sandhill crane season since the population is now risen to the point they are causing crop damage.  The Anti's are coming outa the woodwork claiming that if season opens that every last whooping crane will immediately be shot, eaten, and it's skin stuffed.  Considering a majority of all whooping cranes are in the central flyway and don't seem to get shot in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, or Saskatchewan, I seem to believe that with proper hunter education they will remain safe in Kentucky, too.
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: Gus on November 16, 2011, 03:37:17 am
Yes you have to request a Sandhill Crane stamp ($7) in addition to your license here in Texas.
The last one I took with number 6 shot at Goose height from my Ruger Red Label 12ga 30".
The guys watching were shocked I hit it at that range.
Bagged it and Tagged it.
Grilled/Smoked it that night for the camp.
No Leftovers.

Skinned the Wood Duck and stripped the fat.
Battered and Fried like chicken.
Considerably less greasy than Hearts Chicken.
And a WHOLE lot tastier.
No Leftovers.

I do most of the wild game cooking (and most other cooking for that matter) in my hunting circle and family.
Have stumbled onto many good dishes over the years.
Generally subscribing to the KISS school of thought in cooking, Seafood Gumbo or Duck/Andouille Sausage Gumbo not withstanding.

:)

-gus
Title: Re: Best use for new batch of feathers?
Post by: Prarie Bowyer on November 16, 2011, 06:47:19 pm
Huh, you learn something every day.