(Originally appeared 5/12/97)

The Perfect Turkey Gun

by Joel M. Vance

The perfect turkey gun is the one with which you kill the turkey every time, without fail, roll that bird over in the leaves dead as a bucket of rocks.

Unfortunately, there are multiple versions of the perfect turkey gun and some of them aren't.

My choice is a Model 12 Winchester 12-gauge with a 32-inch barrel, full choke, through which I shoot Winchester Super X Double X No. 6 shot. It would hold seven shells if I wanted to put seven in there--but anyone who needs seven shells to drop a turkey shouldn't be turkey hunting.

Turkeys are tough birds to kill. It does the bird no favor to hunt under-gunned. There is sport in subduing a large trout with tiny flies. There is sport in hunting some birds with tiny-gauge guns because those guns will do the job if pointed accurately; there is no sport in using guns that will not kill cleanly except by accident.

I decided to find out what the experts use. Is there a consensus among the nation's leading turkey experts on a gun-load combination? What I found was that experts universally believe crippling is a combination of two problems: shooting at long ranges and poor aim.

It doesn't matter if you have an 8-gauge full choked shotgun with magnum three-inch shells, you aren't likely to kill a turkey 100 yards away, maybe not even 50 yards off. It is just too far away for a killing shot.

And it doesn't matter if it is six feet away if you don't put the point-of-aim on the bird.

Dr. Frank Wissmath killed turkeys in Missouri's last two "oldtime" seasons (1934 and 1935) before the season was closed. He has killed nearly 40 turkeys since modern seasons began in 1960. He uses a 10-gauge bolt-action Marlin with a one-power scope.

This cannon weighs 11 pounds. "The scope helps me put the point of aim right where it should be, on the turkey's head," Dr. Wissmath says.

"At the range you should shoot a turkey, that pattern isn't big and you can miss one pretty easily--I missed a couple until I got the scope and I haven't missed one since. From the turkey's standpoint, the advantage is you either miss it or kill it."

Gary West, of the National Wild Turkey Federation, Edgefield, South Carolina, thinks 35-40 yards is maximum range "with the head and neck exposed."

"The potential for crippling without those elements is so real that it's alarming," he says.

Rob Keck, director of the Turkey Federation, makes a subtle point. He feels the emphasis in advertising turkey guns and loads is on extending the gun's range. "Many times I could have killed a turkey twice as far off as where I finally killed it," he says. "You set your limits, you establish a comfort factor with the gun you choose to hunt with. You can kill turkeys with a 2-3/4 inch chambered 20-gauge...but you have to set your limits and be comfortable that the gun will kill the bird within the range you've set."

Keck's point is well-taken--advertising that leads you to believe you can kill birds (and waterfowl are as vulnerable to this as are turkeys) at extreme ranges doesn't do the resource any favors and, for that matter, the hunter either.

The hottest, hardest-shooting load on the market has its best application at close range where it kills a turkey instantly, not at extreme ranges where it cripples a bird that a softer load wouldn't have touched.

Keck once killed a turkey with a borrowed .410 (it was a situation where that was the only choice), but he called the bird to within 15 steps. "I made up my mind I wasn't going to shoot if I couldn't get it that close," he says.

I couldn't count the times I've heard people talk about shooting and "missing" a turkey which ran off and, sad to say, I've done it myself. It's a comfort to the hunter to say he "missed" the bird; chances are he did not miss, but actually put shot in the bird.

Chances also are that the turkey will recover. Turkeys not only are tough to kill; they are tough, period. I've heard stories of turkeys shot hard enough to roll them over that then escaped...and were gobbling the next morning.

On the other hand, the mortally-wounded turkey well may run off to hide and the hunter will be convinced he missed it. I've seen turkeys shot and knocked down that ran or flew off and were lost to the hunter...and that quite possibly died of their wounds. Perhaps some were back on station, gobbling, but perhaps the gobbling bird was a different one and the hunter was making himself feel better.

Every turkey hunting expert advocates shooting at the head and neck, but all too often, the hunter, discombobulated by turkey fever, does the equivalent of a flustered hunter on a quail covey rise--he flock shoots. He shoots at the turkey, not the turkey's head.

Keck advocates an aiming device for the perfect turkey gun--a tube or other sighting aid which allows the hunter to aim the shotgun like a rifle. A turkey's head and neck is a small target and it's vital to put the center of the shot pattern right on it, not somewhere else on the body. A sight is the only way to insure an accurate point.

Keck's favorite is the Weaver Accusight, a tube with an orange prism inside. "I say to myself 'head and neck orange' when the bird is coming in," Keck says. "When I don't see a full orange dot, I know I'm not into the gun."

Other sighting devices can be as simple as two beads on the sighting ramp of the shotgun that, lined up, give the shooter an accurate point.

When you miss a turkey, it's easy to blame the gun, but the chances are you committed one of two major mistakes: (1) You didn't get down into the gun and aim it like a rifle and you actually did miss the bird or; (2) You hit it and sent it over the hill with a possibly lethal wound.

Gary West tells of a hunter who switched to a 10-gauge magnum which should have been enough to drop an elephant...and he missed five straight birds.

"Many beginning hunters feel they don't have calling skills, so they want to compensate for it in other ways," says Keck. "So the hunter says to himself if I can't call the bird in, I need a big gun to reach out and get him."

West recommends patterning the shotgun through a screen of brush...because often that's the way a turkey will be shot.

Turkey head-and-neck targets are widely available for patterning. Use them. There is no need to shoot anything larger than No. 4 shot. I prefer No. 6 shot because there are nearly 100 more pellets per ounce than there are in an ounce of No. 4.

Some hunters use No. 6 for the first shot; No. 4 for any backup shots.

Buffered, copper-plated shot is usual in a hot turkey load because it deforms less than regular lead shot. My Model 12 has a 2-3/4 inch chamber, so I can't shoot 3-inch shells, but most modern guns are chambered for the longer shell. You can get loads that hold two ounces of shot, which is a hail of No. 6 pellets (about 450).

Keep in mind that almost certainly more than 440 of those pellets will be wasted. They won't hit the turkey. So it doesn't matter as much how many pellets you throw at the bird as it does how accurately you do it.

The duplex load, a combination of smaller shot and BBs, is illegal in my home, Missouri, where nothing larger than No. 4 shot is allowed. If a turkey is truly within range, there is no need to shoot a duplex load at it; if it isn't, shooting duplex shells to compensate for long-distance shots is downright unsporting.

If you shoot at a turkey within 30 yards and the point of aim and impact is dead-on his chin, he is Thanksgiving dinner.

And it doesn't much matter what gun or load you use to do it.


Copyright (c) 1997 Joel M. Vance. All rights reserved.