Crow feather fletchings?

[JackCrafty]

The only birds NOT protected here are European starlings, pigeons, Eurasian collared doves, English sparrows, and maybe a few other invasive species.

[Dakota Kid]

I bumped this thread because today was the day of the shoot. I grabbed several dozen whole wings, two whole birds and a dozed feet. I'll be putting some up on the trade page as soon as they been treated for mites, salted, and dried.

I'll throw up some pics of the arrows I plan to make as soon as they're finished.

[Pat B]

You shouldn't have to salt feathers.

[Dakota Kid]

I usually just salt the end of the cut wing. It's an old habit.

[Pat B]

I try to remove the feathers from the wings to eliminate the possibility of damaging the feathers. A pair of side cutters makes short work out of removing the feathers. Salting the meat will help preserve them but salt also attracts moisture this time of the year so that can e a problem.

[JW_Halverson]

Just a note on the Lacey Act.  It is illegal to sell, barter, or trade migratory birds of any species, regardless of how they were collected. It's a federal statute.  And while he does not post, we do have an investigator for the USF&W that lurks on this site from time to time.

You can, however, make a gift of these parts when legally obtained, just so long as there is no expectation of any benefit or reimbursement.

[JacksonCash]

I've heard of a murder of crows...that is what a group of them is called. 
 You can do a tangential fletch using smaller feathers. works well.

[JW_Halverson]

I get that meme sent to me once a week.  Still love it!  Puns and birds.

[bow101]

There was a deal on the news a while ago about crows dive bombing people,  they are protecting their nests.   I have a few old crow feathers I will use for Flu-flus.

[Little John]

I have used raven primaries with very cool results, very nice medicine arrows. Wish I had a stash of them.

[stickbender]

     A murder of crows, a rafter of turkeys a gaggle of geese, I wonder who came up with these.  But who ever did, must have not cared for our political environment, at the time, and it is even more appropriate now, as the name for a group of Baboons is called a congress!
                                    Wayne

[Little John]

Well at least that one makes sense.

[Dakota Kid]

Just a note on the Lacey Act.  It is illegal to sell, barter, or trade migratory birds of any species, regardless of how they were collected. It's a federal statute.  And while he does not post, we do have an investigator for the USF&W that lurks on this site from time to time.

You can, however, make a gift of these parts when legally obtained, just so long as there is no expectation of any benefit or reimbursement.

I actually was aware, but figured I didn't need to go into all that before I put them up. Thank you though, it's appreciated. I'm used to that kind of thing. In PA, that's the way it is for all fish and game species. The only things that can be sold that I'm aware of are furs with the proper permits, snapping turtle with permit, and some non-native (invasive) species. They even send under cover WCO's out and they attempt to buy fish on occasion. Every once in a while someone who is unaware or new to the state will run an ad on craigslist or in the paper offering lake erie perch or walleye. The following day there's a story about the man who got arrested selling fish.

If I ever offer anything that I've harvested in PA it will have to be for free. If it wasn't from PA I will be sure to make that known. I was just happy to save from perfectly good feathers from rotting in the dirt. If anyone will put them to good use it's definitely a bunch of archers.

Pat: Some friends of mine prefer whole wings, so I dry the whole wing fully extended. After I pick out the nicest looking wings, I'll pluck the ones intended for fletchings. The whole dried wings make nice smudge fans for sage burning. I took two wings and a tail and attached them to a found deer skull. The skull was very old, bleached out and mossy. It hung like a regular skull mount with the wings coming from behind the eye socket area and the tail down by the nose. The size of a deer skull is about the size of a crow body, so it had a neat effect and seemed to just fit. Unfortunately I gifted it or I'd post a pic.