Stop feeling bad about not field dressing your wild turkey.

Field dressing wild game is a great practice, often imperative during upland fall season when you are bagging birds all day, but rather unnecessary when you are only harvesting one spring tom and heading home.

Unless you have a drive longer than an hour and a half, there is no reason to field dress your bearded fowl. It is true the larger stature of turkeys insulate organs, thus delaying cooling, but, in my experience, there are no adverse results from waiting an hour or two to gut and clean your bird.

Before heading out for a spring tom, there are a few important after-shot techniques every turkey hunter should know, right after tagging the kill.