If you're a turkey hunter, you're used to making decisions. And, after choosing the right turkey loads, camouflage, decoys and calls before entering the spring woods, it's a relief when the final decision of the hunt is how to care for and cook your bird.

Cleaning your turkey is the first step, and regardless of whether you plan to skin, pluck or breast out and cut up your bird, doing it properly is both quick and easy. Just follow these simple steps.

1. If you don't plan to cook your bird whole, start by laying the turkey on its back. Remove just enough breast feathers so as to expose the skin.

2. To remove the breast filets, pull or cut the skin back from the breast. Make cuts along each side of the breastbone as well as on the inside of both wings or the clavicle. To save the wings, peel the skin back and remove the wings from the cavity by cutting through the joint.

3. Find the breastbone and make an incision down each side of the breastbone to loosen the breast filet from the bone. Work from the rear of the breast forward, filleting off the breast by pulling the fillet and using the knife as needed. Repeat this for the other side of the breast.

4. To remove the thigh and leg, cut through the thigh muscle where it attaches to the back. Then grab the thigh or leg and pull up until you can feel the joint pop loose. Keep cutting through the thigh until it comes free from the turkey's body.