Thanksgiving Turkey? (Warning: involves butchering talk)

Maybe this should go in the recipies section, but not all of it has to do with cooking. I'm looking for tips, tricks and advice. Im hoping to provide the Thanksgiving Bird this year out of my five Burbon Reds. I've never buthered Turkey's before, is there anything I should do different than chickens? Whats the best way to do them in? We normally chop the chickens heads off with a sharp hatchet, those turkey necks look a little thick for that...
Is there anything different about plucking these giants? (Use the usual scalding with electric plucker for the chickens).

And how slow, at what temp. should I roast these beasts? I cant give you an accurate weight, their this springs birds, feel massive compared to the chickens, but not nearly as massive as some of the production white turks I've seen. Any spices recomended?

We just butchered our turkeys and did it the same as we did with the chickens. The only thing we did differently was how we culled them due to their size. I'm not a hack/slash person (and it's fine if you are!), so we just shot them close range in the head with a .22 rifle. First one dropped fast, the other dropped strangely, don't think the bullet did the entirety of it's job, so we did one more to be sure. I can say that it would be nicer to have a way to grab or hold the legs for the shot, because I have a scar from being kicked now LOL, but it's a learning experience.

Our birds dressed out to 35lbs OI. I just talked to our local restaurant owner to ask if he had a roaster big enough and so on. He said he just uses a high-sided baking sheet and wraps the bird in tin-foil and it bastes itself. 30 minutes a pound, and for our sized birds, about 3 days in the fridge to thaw before cooking, starting the night before day 1.

I hope this helps.

turkeys are very strong birds, i have tried cutting the head off with the bird in a sack but the bird really flapped. I find the best way is in a killing cone but you probably don't have one. Hopefully someone has advice on that.

They pluck like a chicken, I use a metal garbage can to boil the water in if the bird is too big for my metal bucket. They are very easy to pluck and gut. I couldn't use a chicken plucker because they were to heavy but easy to hand pluck.

I brine my turkey, put it in the brine the day before cook day. Rinse it before cooking, stuff and cook at 350 for 15 minutes a pound.

Here is the brine recipe i use:

heat the following enough to dissolve sugar and salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup kosher or 1/2 cup table salt
12 cups water
Some pepper corns
Bay leafs
Garlic
Spices for flavouring if you wish.
Let brine cool

Put the turkey in a bag and fill with the liquid. Take the air our of the bag, seal and refrigerate between 10-24 hrs.
Rinse bird for at least 30 seconds before cooking

Best of luck, I am sure it will be delicious

We have only butchered 1 turkey ever so dont have a lot of experience but this is what we did.
We secured twine to the bucket of the tractor, two spread apart, about the width of the turkey. Then attach each piece to each foot so the turkey is hanging upside down and legs spread shoulder width apart. We then took a sharp knife and slit his throat right under the jaw line straight to the back of the neck. There was only twitching, a bit of wing flapping but nothing major. The key is to keep it so the bird cannot swing in circles, so the legs spread apart accomplishes this.

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Thanks for the responses everyone! If it wasn't raining and howling outside I might have done him in tonight, oh well, guess if their getting "free" Turkey, nobody can complain (too loudly!)