Moose Droppings

The turkey Gun and loads Originally posted 3/06

May 27, 2006 @ 08:23 pm by Moose

If you want to bag a bird this spring the issue of a shotgun and shells needs to be addressed. There are some nice turkey guns on the market be it Mossberg or Remington or others with all the bells and whistles but if your like me “lets see how much I like this turkey hunting before I drop anymore money on a gun”. If you’re an average hunter chances are you already own a shotgun that is perfectly up to the job.
Most modern shotguns have the ability to change choke tubes and that will be the most important thing. You preferably need a 12gauge shotgun with a full or extra full choke. A 20 gauge will also work but you will have to reduce the kill distance a bit to account for the smaller gauge. If you do not have a full or extra full choke tube after market tubes abound made especially for turkey hunting and they are far cheaper then a new gun.
The next thing you’ll need is shells and this is probably one of the biggest areas of improvement that has been made in the past few years. Spend the money on turkey shells even if you have some old gameloads laying around because the turkey loads will pattern better and give you better results. If you got a couple of buddies that are also getting into turkey hunting you can all buy different size shot and get together to see what patterns better through your guns.
Now your ready to sight your gun in, you should do it just like you do a rifle use a bench and sand bags. If your shotgun does not have adjustable sights then you will need to either add some, I recommend the fiber optic ones, or remember how to compensate when you aim your gun. I start at about 30 yards and check it out to 50 yards. You want to see at what distance your load does not deliver a good enough pattern to kill a gobbler. I use a target that has the turkey vitals drawn in and I count the pellets in the vitals. I like to see more then 20 pellets in the vitals. Lastly I check the load at 10 yards, why you ask, you need to know how big a pattern you got at that distance in case the gobbler gets in close.
My set up is a Mossberg 500 with and Undertaker Choke and 3 inch #5 Hevi Shot. I’m a firm believer in Hevi Shot and the downrange knockdown power.
Now you should be ready to hit the woods and bag you a gobbler. A couple of other tips in closing. When you line up on the gobbler aim for where the feathers and skin meet and you should deliver the deadly load and wait till his head is turned to the side. A straight on shot is a low percentage shot. Good Luck once again I have some links with additional readings. Tomorrow we’ll talk about some calls.

[color=darkred]Links[/color]
http://www.wildturkeyzone.com/hunting/shotguninfo.htm

http://www.hevishot.com/products_turkey.html

http://www.fieldandstream.com/fieldstream/shooting/shotguns/article/0,13199,1042672,00.html

http://www.gunsandammomag.com/long_guns/gobbler_0630/

Free Target Downloads

http://www.gunnersden.com/index.htm.free-turkey-target.html
http://mdc.mo.gov/nathis/birds/turkey/target.htm
http://www.remington.com/library/downloads/paper_targets.asp