I agree that most of the time the snoods are long and thin . From a freeze drying standpoint, there is not a step that over inflates them--you have to inject them to make them bigger. For most of the heads I dry, I inject them to make them look a little more full because it sells better and people expect it BUT if it is my own turkey or if a client request it not injected It is simple not to inject it and keep it thin-actually easier.

I ask this because I have had three different freeze dry companies do heads for me in the standing alert snood down pose and one gave me back what amounts to be a large carrot. It is bigger around and twice as long than my thumb. Another gave me a snood that is fairly thick but not distracting and one gave me a snood that looks like the ones in the pics of live turkeys.

When I ask customers to pick the turkey head out of the three that looks most alive, they always pick the one with the thin snood and shutter at the one that has a carrot on it's face and that is the one that is the best looking one minus the carrot.

When I google freeze dried turkey heads, almost all of them have really thick inflated snoods. I have very few pics out of hundreds that show a thick diameter snood. The videos I have seen also show strutting toms with long thin floppy snoods and not thick diameter snoods.

Is there some process that make the snoods really thick in freeze drying that is hard to get away from or am I misinterpreting all these pic's and video's?

Here are a couple of more options for you.

Joe Kulis has done quite a bit for me in the past: http://www.kulisbaitshopbedfordoh.com/

Steve is a great guy to work with also: http://stevespettaxidermy.com/