14 Nebraskaland • October 2025
The idea came from the lazy — albeit patient —
way of European mounting deer. Separate the buck's
head from the body, dig a hole and place the head in
the hole.
Once it is recovered with dirt and a container is
placed over the antlers to keep mice and other little
toothy mammals from eating, let the bugs do the rest.
Remove a year later, hose off and you're done.
Which begs the obvious question: Could the same
steps be taken to European mount a turkey foot?
The answer? Sort of.
After a successful spring turkey hunt two seasons
ago, we removed the turkey's feet with a pair of
shears where the feathers began. Then, imagining
a turkey foot is broken into multiple joints, in many
ways like a human's feet and hands, we dug a hole
and buried both feet in a lidless plastic container
and let the bugs go to work.
Nine months later, that was exactly the case, so
well that nothing was left but the bones from both
feet, with at least 30 individual bones to puzzle
together.
I gave an ornithologist friend a call to ask him
if he had a model detailing what turkey foot bone
attached to another bone, essentially the "knee
bone connected to the thigh bone, the thigh bone
connected …" type of question.
He instructed I fi nd something else to do with my
time.
I then found a diagram online and started to piece
my Frankenstein foot together like I was building a
puzzle with multiple answers. Once I had what I felt
was one modestly put-together turkey foot, I began
the superglueing process.
One fi nal touch of furniture polish on the claws
and my European turkey-mounted foot was
complete.
Just don't touch it. Ever. If I were you, I wouldn't
even breathe on it.
But man it looks cool.
IN THE FIELD
This European-mounted turkey foot is a combination of bones from two turkey feet.
JEFF KURRUS, NEBRASKALAND
By Jeff Kurrus
FRANKENSTEIN TURKEY FOOT
