Proper handling of a turkey begins even before you shoot it.  In many cases, turkey hunters are operating from a tent camp with no electricity or running water, sometimes hundreds of miles from home.  Even when you are close to home, "close" is a relative term.  It may be half a day before you can get the bird to the house.  And it's usually pretty warm during turkey season.

Getting the gobbler cooled down is of primary importance.  This can be a problem when the air temperature is in the 80s.  All of us are duty-bound to do a little admiring and picture-taking with a turkey, but don't drag it out until you ruin the flavor of your bird.  If possible, get the turkey out of sunlight immediately and keep it in the shade while you take photos and show it off.

Hanging a gobbler up by one (not both) feet in a well-ventilated, shady place is the best way to get rid of excess body heat.  Hanging him by one foot allows his free leg to fall away from the body, and it also causes his feathers to fall away and expose his skin to the air.  Despite what you see on turkey videos, it's advisable to hang a gobbler this way before you stuff him in your vest or sling him over a shoulder and haul him out.  Twenty minutes hanging upside down will cool a gobbler considerably.  Packing him into a vest or bag right after shooting him traps feathers and wings against body and holds heat in, not to mention adding heat from your back as you walk.

If you're much more than an hour from where you can dress the bird, field-dressing it afield is a good idea, in which case you can eliminate the hanging-him-up routine.  However, once you open a turkey's body cavity, you open the possibility for flies and other insects to invade it, so be mindful.

To field-dress a gobbler, pluck feathers around the vent so you can see what you're doing.  Cut through the skin into the body cavity between the vent and the pointed end of his breast, extend the cut in a circle around the vent, and remove the intestines and body organs all the way up to the crop.  Be careful not to cut the intestines, to prevent contaminating the body cavity with bacteria-loaded fecal matter.

If you want to save the giblets (highly recommended for roasting recipes), separate the heart, gizzard and liver from the guts and store them in a plastic bag.  Wipe excess blood out of the body cavity with a clean absorbent rag like an old T-shirt, but do not wash the body cavity out with water until you get the turkey to a place where you can complete the preparation process.

The trophy of your hunt can make excellent table fare.

If you're planning to roast or deep-fry the turkey, pluck it, don't skin it.  The longer you wait, the harder it'll be.  Some recommend scalding the bird with hot, soapy water to loosen feathers.  While this definitely makes the picking chore easier, it's not really a good idea -- especially that part about the soap.  If you want a turkey that tastes like a bar of Dial, go ahead.  Scalding with clean hot water is acceptable if don't overdo it and parboil the skin, but this is a risk and will damage the flavor of your bird.  The best way is the old-fashioned, slow, a few feathers at a time way, with a dry turkey.

To prevent ripping the skin, don't try to pull too many feathers at once.  Grasp a few firmly, use the other hand to hold down the skin near the feather roots, and snatch them out "with the grain" (i.e. in the direction the feathers are growing).  Pick the wings out to the first joint, and then cut them off at that joint.

Washing the turkey is the next step, anyway. The best place is the bathtub, since a big gobbler is too much for the average kitchen sink.  Wash the body cavity thoroughly, scrubbing it with a vegetable brush to loosen dried blood and unwanted tissue.

If you're in camp, you probably won't have a bathtub at your disposal.  In this case, do the best you can with a 5-gallon bucket or other large container.  Rinse the bird thoroughly inside and out with clean water once you're through scrubbing it, and then prop it upright and let the body cavity drain for a few minutes.  Then, put the bird in at least two, preferably three, large white unscented plastic bags, tying each bag separately, and get it on ice or into a freezer.  Keep the bird well-iced until you can freeze it, and keep the melted water drained.

If you're not going to roast or deep-fry the turkey, you can simply fillet the breasts and cut off the legs.  Wash and drain the parts like you would a whole turkey, and get them on ice as soon as possible.  By separating drumsticks from the thighs, you can fit both breasts and both legs of a 20-pound gobbler into a gallon freezer bag and get it zipped.  When you get home, freeze each breast in a separate bag, and freeze one thigh and one drumstick in separate packages for making soup.