I love hunting, but I hate wasting any meat that is usable. The breasts and legs are definitely the prime parts of a turkey.
After pulling those parts, I found there was quite a bit of meat left on the carcass, but it was the meat I was most likely not going to utilize for cooking purposes.
My challenge became this…how could I utilize every last bit of meat from my birds? Here's my solution.
This year, I hit the hills in pursuit of a beautiful Colorado Merriam.
I was able to seal the deal on the second day of the season with the largest tom I have harvested to date.
Once home, I breasted him, recovered the drumsticks, pulled the wings to dry for feathers, removed his fan, removed his beard, and removed his head so I could boil the skull. 
After all of this, I skinned what remained of the carcass and removed as much meat as I could possibly get. There was a surprisingly large amount of it!
When the meat was removed, I cut it into small strips and put it in the dehydrator at 150 degrees for four hours. I let the meat sit for the night to make sure it was
completely dry. Should you try this and the meat is not completely dry, make sure to dehydrate for another hour or so.
I was able to produce a large quantity of turkey jerky snacks for the dogs and wasted none of the bird! I keep them in the dog biscuit bin by the door and the dogs absolutely love them. It’s worth a little extra work.
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