Artificial Turkey Head Reviews?|Bird Taxidermy|Forum|Taxidermy Talk

I would not hesitate to use the Cary Cochran heads from McKenzie. From what I have seen, they are pretty nice.

Anthony Eddy makes very realistic turkey heads, probably the best.

Van dykes makes good turkey heads and not so good ones, depending on what pose you want.

Research Mannikins makes some good heads, however, they come unpainted only.

Ferbee’s heads from McKenzie is the worse head I have purchased and it promptly went into the trash receptacle.

You can pluck the feathers from the real head and glue them onto the artificial head. I have done this with every feather on the head and it took me hours and the end result was worth it once. I haven’t done that since. Just a few feathers/ hairs will make it look more realistic.

If you are interested in freeze dried heads, I like to use them over artificial ones in most cases.

I haven’t done but three life size mounts, however, I have done a lot of mounts where I use 2/3 of a lifesize form to make like shoulder mounts that may or may not include the tail. I call them expensive beard holders. I do them in strut, feeding, gobbling, standing, what ever, so I use a lot of heads. 

I have used Anthony Eddy, Boondocks, Hazel Creek and soon to be added to that list will be from Stehling’s. They all have their pro’s and cons, however, all things considered, over all I would pick Hazel Creek. From customer service to the finished product, theirs had the fewest cons. None where painted, as I like to do that myself.

It is my hope that Stehling’s will take over as the top of my list. So far, they have been outstanding, so I have a good feeling that I will be impressed with the final product.

And from this point on, I will be giddy and just like a little kid the week before Christmas! I’m sure it will turn out great! Thanks