What load will you be using in your shotgun?

Twenty gauge single shot with TSS eights...Geo

Remington 2&3/4" Express no. 6 12 gauge.. RWTF

I've been using the Remington 2&3/4 inch 1&1/4 oz of 7.5s out to 40 yards, but I'm thinking of using the 20 ga my dad bought me 57 years ago if I can find a shell for it I think will work out to 30 yards.

Henry 20 ga. single with Federal #7 TSS.
JR

I have a handful of modified hammerless lightweight single shots from 3.25 lbs. in .410 to 4.25 lbs in 12 ga. with a 5.5 lb. 20 ga. The costs before modifying ranged from a $95 NIB Baikal 20 to a $150 NIB Yildiz TK12, 12 gauge with $129 in between Yildiz TK36 .410s. I exercise them yearly with TSS shot ranging in sizes from small to smaller. Some are equipped with red dots, some with adjustable peep sights. Depending on the year, some only enjoy armed walks in the spring woods with me, others do the jobs for which they were built. As in life, hope springs eternal once again this spring. The guns were made in Turkey or Russia, shooting Chinese TSS shot packed in French or Italian plastic or American brass hulls, aimed by a Cracker through either a Filipino built Burris red dot or an American made Skinner sight. All are aimed at the All American Wild Turkey. It's a globalist effort some would say. Gil

10 gauge 2 7/8 shells with 5's woohoo!

10 bore Damascus hammer gun, brass shells, black powder, bismuth.

TSS #9 in 20-gauge pump is my usual. Backup is a 12-gauge semi-auto also with TSS #9. I have killed a few with my 12-gauge LC Smith using high brass 2 3/4-inch factory shells before I learned better. If I use the Elsie again for turkey hunting, I will hand-load 7/8- or 1-oz #6 lead loads for it. I had the stock glass bedded last year and intend to be gentler with it.

either 80 gr of 3f and 1.25 oz of 7.5s or 1250 fps 1.5 oz Winchester SuperX #6.

From either a Greener FP or a Winchester 1897, respectively.

425 grain cross bow bolt so I don't make the neighbors mad.

300 WSM 180 gr monolithic @3200fps. I hope it anchors them…
Surely I jest, but last time I checked, that would be completely legal in Virginia yet the old Damascus 8 gauge is not. Very much a pity. That leaves me a traditional 12 gauge number fives.

For many, many years I carried a 12 ga. sxs of some persuasion for turkeys. None were very heavy, 7-7 1/2 lbs. roughly speaking. With the advent of pure tungsten shot, specifically Federal's TSS Heavyweight, I changed to a 20 ga. single shot Henry that weighs a little over 6 1/2 lbs. Such a pleasure to carry with a Galazan clip-on/slip-on sling, it has proved deadly as well. 26" barrel rides low on the shoulder and never snags on overhangs. Other than a desire to use a vintage gun, why anyone would lug a 9+ lb. gun through the turkey woods nowadays is hard for me to understand.

I have friend who is 75 and maybe 5 ft 4 in. tall and might weigh 150 lbs., who still totes an Ithaca Mag-10 that probably weighs over 10 lbs. He lugs that cannon around because he will still try one at 65+ yds., even though he's probably killed well over 100 turkeys in his life. Some people's blood lust never wanes...
JR

John, in addition to the NID 10 I recently sold to a local friend in the sales forum, I had a Spanish 10 sxs 3.5" and the Ithaca Mag 10 auto like your friend. Loaded, it weighed 12.75 lbs. I killed my first grown gobbler with it. In the past 40 years, I have not only grown older, but shorter and wider, and have no desire to tote a big double in the woods. That's why I now carry the lethal pipsqueaks. Gil

not sure which model the FP was....?

It is a Facile Princeps. A 40 guinea gun in this case. 12 gauge, of course.

I keep thinking I need a single shot gun like GLS, but so far, other things have sent me on chases in other directions. I hunt some ridiculously steep and slippery terrain for turkeys and a light gun on a sling would make a heck of a lot of sense.

For me 28 days Till I start my multi state hunt. Been killing old tom for 51 years this season. Lost my Turkey hunting partner (my dad) day after Christmas so the woods will not be the same going forward.

I'll carry my Remington 11-87, Winchester Long Beard 1 3/4 oz of 6s. Through Kicks, GT .665. Topped with a weaver kasper Turkey scope

Been looking at buying a Bennell ultra light in 28 gauge, top it with a reflex and run TSS for my new Turkey gun. I'll let you know if I pull the trigger on that set up.

Rich

I have only been hunting gobblers for three years( tried 30+ years ago without success) but have been able to get three so I tell myself I'm doing well. The first was gobbling his head off and I got him at 18 steps. the second I'll admit I began to worry when he started to veer away from my decoy and I killed him at a lazor ranged 40 yards. The third I shot at 31 yards and he was silent but strutting beautifully. I have been using my 11-87 with Remington 1&1/4 ounce lead 7&1/2s. I have a turkey choke I bought for the second season thinking I wouldn't get as lucky as the first year. I have an old, no longer-made Smith slate box call but I have made wing bone calls from my birds and killed last year's gobbler using one of those. The experience has been totally enjoyable. It is a great time of year to chase around after a great bird.

It is really great to kill one you call in on your own call. I build lots of box calls, and killed most of my birds with them and given away many of those calls to others that have killed birds with them. I'd like to make a wing bone call, but so far, I haven't gotten there.

I have collected some thin boards thinking I would try to make a box call, but it's a project I haven't gotten to.

Go for it. They are not hard to make and you can experiment with different dimensions to see what sounds best.

Just for a change of pace I think I’ll use my .40 flintlock rifle. And no, I won’t be aiming at the head—I’m too old to shoot that well anymore (as though I ever could).

That's awesome Joe. That would be might tasty for sure.

Joe Wood, That is something I have always wanted to do! I may post some pictures of my great-grandfather's rifles, both 36 calibers if I can get my cousins to let me photograph them. Here in PA rifles were made illegal for turkeys just a year ago and then they were only legal in the fall. Your flintlock is of the type I think of as a turkey rifle. My great-grandfather's are cap locks. Yours is a beauty.

Not a good photo but Spring Turkey in the Texas Panhandle several years ago. Rifle is a .50 rroundball flintlock in the style of JP Beck of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, circa 1790-1810.

Joe, do you head shoot a turkey with a round ball or just go for the vitals?

Despite what he implied on the forum, we always knew you were Amarillo Mike's star shooting student. Gil

Good job, Joe. My first time shooting at a gobbler with a roundball rifle was very humbling, and embarrassing. After winning several state championships (NMLRA) with my .36 cal. Poor Boy style longrifle I figured there was no way I could miss a gobbler inside 50 yards with it. I was told to shoot for the pinbone on the off side. So, when the big gobbler appeared at about 40 yards I waited until he stopped. He "blew up" and I touched it off. He immediately flew off. I was flabbergasted and sat there a few moments trying to figure how I had missed. I walked to where he had been standing and found a couple breast feathers my ball had cut off. I picked them up and saved them. They're in my shop above my workbench as a reminder to never shoot at a gobbler with a ball while he is in strut. He ain't nearly as big as he looks like he is when he's "blown up", and his pinbones aren't where you think they are, inside all those fluffed up feathers.

3 1/2" 12 gauge Hevi-Shot Magnum Blend 5,6,7

I have a couple of Bill Large rifles. One is .45 that I would love to hunt turkeys with. Just not legal here.

I know I'll be stepping on some toes with this, but anyone who uses a turkey decoy doesn't really know how to call a turkey, or have enough woodsman's skills to either. If you aren't capable of calling a gobbler to within 35 yards max, you do without. Decoys for turkey killing are an abomination to my way of thinking. Sorry, but it is what it is.
JR

I used a decoy the second year I hunted, and I had some hens I called in avoid it. My 2nd gobbler didn't like it causing a longer shot than I would have liked. I will not use one again so I'm learning. I have seen gobbler and hen setups bring birds from a long way off in videos, but the less I have to carry the better, so my decoy will stay in storage till someone else wants to try it.

On the other hand, I love my turkey decoy. I bought it the first year I hunted the Spring season here in 1988. The paint's all gone but it looks natural in the woods to me. The decoy is soft rubber which rolls up to fit in my game bag taking practically no room. It draws the gobbler's attention away from me whether it attracts any turkeys or not. Emily has sewed the seams up for me several different times. The decoy gives me something to call at while the real turkeys are all otherwise engaged...Geo

Good lord...
JR

True story. I have seen it in action.

Oh, I never doubted it being true.
JR

Maybe I should get a marking pen and draw a little smile on my hen decoy?;)

How about a little lipstick

Strange how much a few people care about how you hunt turkeys.

Joe Wood's segue to a flintlock rifle is interesting. Joe, come back and address the load you would use on the turkey. Perhaps give a little more about the rifle, rate of twist, etc.

I wish everyone success chasing the big birds and hope you'll post a synopsis of your hunt. I believe some seasons are already underway. PA's isn't till May.

I agree- hen decoys are "static"-and although turkeys, nor waterfowl have the power of scent, I just don't think they are that effective. I only hunt Toms on private farm lands here in Damn Yankee land, and learned many years ago the truth in this dictum: "Turkeys think every stump in the woods is a hunter, and every hunter is NOT a stump." RWTF

I stopped experimenting about 10 years ago and now use nothing except the SxS 20 gauge Yildiz with #9 TSS handloads. The gun weighs 5-6 so that is light enough and I have no desire for a single shot or smaller gauge. Calling the turkey is what it's all about to me, and I just want the shot to be anticlimactic.

I killed my first gobbler in 1966 with a 20 gauge Winchester 37 and still have the gun. I have thought that I would like to kill my last one with it too. I don't plan to get it out this year, but the time is getting closer.

This is how I heard it: "Deer sees a man sitting in the woods and thinks it's a stump. Turkey sees a stump in the woods and thinks it's a man."
If a person has mobility issues due to health or age, more power to them using decoys or blinds. They haven't given up. Gil
Gil

I hunt the gobble. KIlled a lot of birds that didn't gobble, but the one's that gobbled non-stop are the ones I remember the most. My least favorite time is about 1 minute after I pull the trigger and its over. Always a bit bittersweet, but I do love wild turkey fajitas with a passion.

I'd like to hear more about that first turkey with the 20ga Win model 37. I'm trying to wring as much out of the experiences I'm having because I started late. I have heard the drumsticks are often not used just the breast and I admit that they are on the tough side. I saw a youtube video by a group that calls themselves The Hunting Public, and they slow cook the legs for 24 hours and claim it was very good. This will be part of this year's experience if I'm lucky.

Liverwort, this link to Hank Shaw's site discusses use of wild turkey legs. If you stew them long enough, the meat separates from the bones and tendons and is very good. I have made the Southwest Turkey Leg stew several times and recommend it. If you make it, I would just use one leg and thigh rather than the two he recommends, unless you are feeding quite a few people. One leg and thigh yields about a double handful of surprisingly tender meat. Also I would reduce some of the peppers, chile powder, etc unless your taste runs to really spicy food. Frozen corn can be substituted for the chicos which are pretty hard to come by.
The secret to eating turkey legs is long cooking with moist heat.
Hank Shaw's turkey stew recipe

I am still fiddling with my load, but at the moment I am testing 2 1/4 oz #6 with various powder combos out of my 36" 8ga single with 3 1/4" brass and a small pistol primer. I have tried Swiss FFg but have not been able to achieve an acceptable pattern. If anyone has a good Blud Dot Turkey (or Pheasant) load along these lines, please PM me!

The legs are the best part. But don't tell your buddies. Tell them that your dog loves them and you would be happy to take the legs from their birds.

Turkey drumsticks, thighs, and wing meat are the most precious part of the bird.

You go from this



to this



to this

I've got a new Ithaca 10 I hope to christen on a turkey. Got some hand loads and also getting factory no. 4's. I also have a LC Smith Long Range I just had restored and would not mind getting one with it too. Will probably use some factory 5's or 6's for it

I'm collecting my components and planning on making some black powder 12 gauge loads for my Fox Sterlingworth. The plan is 3&1/4 drams of 3F and 1&1/4 ounces of #6 shot. I have to pattern them and decide where to fit the Fox in but it's all about the fun.

The story of the model 37 might seem unusual today, but at the time it was the sort of thing that happened with most boys who grew up in rural AL. I got the gun in 1964 at age 9, and mainly hunted squirrels with it. My dad bought it used for $20. My family wasn't starving, but we did count on game and fish for a large part of our meat diet, and I understood that the primary purpose of hunting was to feed the family.

I was very lucky to get a deer with the gun in 1965, but had been unable to get a gobbler. My father called one up for me in the spring of 65, but the turkey saw me before I could shoot and I missed as he was running off. He tried to call for me some other times, but he said I wasn't still enough and started letting me hunt alone.

He put me out on a big pasture before daylight with instructions on where I could go, and he went on down the road away from me. I remember that I heard 4 different gobblers and decided to set up between a couple of them. I did my calling with a homemade box that he made for me, and was careful to not overdo the calling. I was facing one of the gobblers that was still gobbling in the woods in front of me, when a gobbler clucked behind me and walked up to within 15 yards. I was hid well and able to shoot him before he saw me. It was only a jake, but I couldn't have been happier!

Coosa, thank you. That's what I call easy reading! I remember being a little proud of making a contribution to the dinner table, as a kid.

6 of the 12 kids have shown up with some stud birds so far this morning for the Lowndes County Longspurs Jakes hunt. What a morning!

I previously mentioned that I was experimenting with a Black powder load for my Fox double. I used some paper hulls 90 grains of 3F and 1&1/4 ounces of #6 shot. Hard card wad over the powder and a fiber wad on top then the shot. I tested it at 30 yards using a facsimile of a turkey's head. The pattern was a little left but both shots I fired would have been killing shots, as there were pellets to the brain and vertebrae. Only a couple of pellets though in each, with a few more that would have caused trauma. Definitely is not anything like a TSS pattern. Stout kickers too! I also tested the exact load in a plastic hull, and for some reason, it patterned poorly. I think I'll try a modification using a plastic shot cup on top of the hard cardboard over the powder wad.

I only tested the left full choke barrel.

2 inch 7/8 oz in a Burgess or 2 1/2 inch 1 oz in Daw SXS…

shrapnel, at what range? I favor the hunters that call them in close as opposed to the long-range shooters.

The bird with the Burgess was sneaking up within 20 yards, the Daw was calling the bird in to about 20 yards. Light loads require stealth and some luck…

Here's a story I wrote years ago about a turkey hunt in 1968. I went turkey hunting this morning and walked by the place where it happened. I didn't hear a turkey this morning, but I still have the memories from hunts long ago:


I honestly can’t remember getting up that morning – it was 42 years ago and my memory ain’t that good. But I’m sure I was excited when my dad called me to get up and get ready to go turkey hunting with him. I was in the 8th grade and it was a school day, but school didn’t start until 7:45. We would have a couple of hours to hunt before he had to go to work and I had to go to school. He went nearly every morning, but he didn’t often let me go with him during the week. I could get up and go by myself around the house, but I usually didn’t hear anything when I did that. Today, I was going to a place loaded with turkeys.

My dad put me out in the dark at an old road at the bottom of a hill, and he went a little further down the road. He told me to be back by 7 a.m., and under no circumstances was I to be late. I was on my own, and he was putting a lot of trust in me. I had my 20 gauge pump, a homemade box call, and a brown canvas hunting coat. I probably had on blue jeans, but really can’t remember. I remember being excited at getting to go to such a good place. It was a tract of land that was covered with big hardwoods and a few big pines, with an old field on top of the hill. I had killed 2 jakes in my turkey hunting career, but I desperately wanted a longbeard, and I thought this might be the day to get him.

I climbed the hill to the top and listened in old field. Right at dawn, a turkey gobbled to the west and I went to him and set up. I yelped at him on my box and got a response, but then a hen started yelping between us. I had excellent hearing back then, and after listening to the calling for a while, I decided that it was my uncle yelping on a Lynch box. I knew that he was coming into the area from the other side some days, and I was convinced that was him, and not a hen.

I was trying to decide if I should leave and go somewhere else, when I heard the strangest gobble I’d ever heard back to the east. He started out strong, but about halfway through the gobble he switched to what sounded like a cough. I’ve heard thousands of turkeys since then, but never heard another gobble quite like this. I’d heard jakes before, and I knew this turkey was different. I quickly started thinking of him as the Turkey With The Messed Up Gobble – TWTMUG.

As soon as I heard him, I left the first bird and headed his direction. I distinctly remember fighting through the briers in the old field, but that was the quickest way to him and that’s the way I was going. The first setup on him didn’t work out. He gobbled several times at my calls, but went the other way. But he was gobbling at everything, so I didn’t know if he was really interested in me or not. I finally moved up several hundred yards and eased up to the hardwoods from the edge of the old field. As I was looking down into the bottom, he suddenly gobbled just out of sight. I had to just sit down on the ground, without a chance to hide or sit against a tree. I yelped at him and he answered, and in a moment I saw him! He had a nice long beard and was a beautiful turkey; it was just his gobble that was unique.

I was hoping he would come right to me, but instead he climbed the hill to my south and stood in the edge of the old field about 100 yds away. I yelped again, and he answered again, and then started to me, coming through the big hardwoods toward me. He went down into a dip, then started up the hill coming right at me. He sure wasn’t in a hurry, but he was definitely on his way.

It was at this moment that I remember looking at my watch – it was 6:50. I was a 10 minute walk from the meeting place. I rationalized that it could be a 5 minute run, so if the turkey would come on, I could still make it. He didn’t. He stopped about 50 yds below me and gobbled and strutted and drummed. I now had to make a decision. The responsible thing to do was to get up, run back to the meeting place, and hope that I could get him another day. Or I could stay and try for the turkey, and then face the consequences. The consequences would be steep – a certain whipping, a ban from hunting the rest of the season, a 0 on the English test I had first period, and everybody around would be mad at me. But the possible reward was getting to carry out TWTMUG. It was a difficult decision for an almost 14 year-old to make, especially under such intense pressure.

And so I made my decision – I would stay after the turkey and face the consequences later. There was just no way I could stand up and flush my prize gobbler and watch him fly off; not when I was so close to success. I forced my punishment out of my mind and focused on the turkey. There was no way to call again; he was staring directly at me and he would surely see me if I tried to use the box. I waited, and finally he started toward me again. I knew that I need him at 30 yds for the 20 gauge to kill him, and he only needed to take a few more steps. At 35 yds, he started to go behind a big oak, and I had my gun aimed at the other side of it. Just before his head went out of sight, he stopped and started staring a hole right through me. I wasn’t camouflaged, and he knew something wasn’t right. I knew he was suspicious, but I was afraid that if I tried to move the gun and shoot him there he would get behind the tree and be gone. And the range was iffy too. I made the responsible decision this time; I would wait.

Finally, the head disappeared and I got ready. As soon as he came out, I would shoot him and then hurry down the hill, grab my turkey, and sprint for the truck. 30 seconds went by and he didn’t appear. A minute – no turkey. 2 minutes, and a sick feeling came into my stomach. I finally slid around on the ground so that I could see behind the tree and my worst fears were confirmed – my turkey was gone. He had put the big tree between us and than ran about 75 yards and gone over the hill, without me even catching a glimpse of him. It was one of the biggest disappointments I’d ever experienced.

I got to the meeting place at 7:20. Daddy had left me, and there was a note on the ground with a rock on it. There were no pleasantries in the note – it simply said, “Stay here and wait on your mother.” I did. She came up in the car in about 20 minutes. She was mad. She carried me to school and the principal was mad. My English teacher was really mad. That night I got the expected whipping, and the ban for the rest of the season was pronounced. I didn’t complain about any of the punishment – I knew it was coming as soon as I decided to stay after the turkey.

I never heard the TWTMUG again. But I think of him often. And I think of what I learned from the experience – things about responsibility, dependability, and the consequences for failure to live up to the expectations placed upon us. I think about those things and I wonder if my experiences and wisdom gained over the past 42 years would lead me to a different decision today. Are you kidding? My only regret is that the turkey got away!

Steve, a great story with a moral at the end which is: To a turkey hunter, the hope and expectation was worth the punishment and that one has no chance at killing a turkey while sitting in school. .As Tom Kelly wrote in the Tenth Legion, careers have been wrecked and funerals of close relatives have been missed as a result of the obsession. My small bird hunting partner after observing my obsession with turkey hunting in the early years saw what it was doing to me so he has never gone. Gil

That is one awesome story.

I didn't turkey hunt until I was in my 30s. No one I knew hunted them and it took a long time to kill my first.

Great story, well told. As my username suggests, I'm a fellow miscreant.