Eighteen years ago I visited Cally Morris at his business then in Kirksville, Missouri, and he told me, “I am going to show you and your readers every step I know about and use for mounting turkeys.” In 1997 Cally was the first to win a Best in World Bird with an eastern wild turkey and at that time there was only one world title for birds, not four as we have today. This article series became one of the most popular we ever published and today some of those issues are sold out.

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For years I have made copper into art for both my customers’ trophies and competition entries. Copper is a beautiful malleable metal that can be worked and shaped into many different things. When heated, the molecules are hyperextended, and when cooled quickly copper remains soft and bendable. This process may be necessary for applications using thicker copper. In this article I will show you how to make a leaf using copper sheeting. There are two way of going about this, and your method depends on the number of leaves you wish to make.

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Ted Richmond is shown with a juniper log, 31⁄2 years before it was judged Best of Show at the 2017 World Fish Carving Championships, before many drastic alterations, a lot of sanding, and more than a few bits broken during the carving and finishing process.This 67-pound piece of juniper now weighs just 26 pounds. Can you see the life-size beaver, four brook trout, and the aspen branch with six stoneflies in there? Hint, the bulge on the bottom of the piece of juniper is the beaver’s back paw.

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Competition exists because your customers have many options and limited time, money, and attention. It’s important to know your competitors so that when you’re asked, “Why should I spend my money with you?” you can differentiate yourself and speak confidently about it. That “something” may not be the core of your business, but it will help you stand out from the rest. It all comes down to perception and what customers think of you and your business. What do you want them to remember?

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We are going to start with the cast that is so commonly called a blank in the industry. In the next few pages I will show you how we assemble a reproduction, taking you through the steps of grinding and detailing a cast: installing the mouth, eyes, and fins, to ready it for the paint work that completes the mount. It’s not as hard as you might think.

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