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By M. D. Beale (HPD Ret)
Weather's miserable - cold, wet and drizzling again! Gunny Rock is getting insubordinate and hard to live with since hunting season's over. When I threatened him with NJP (Non-Judicial Punishment), him he just looked at me.
If he's not careful he'll be having his 5th Captain's Mast and another permanent reduction in grade along with forfeiture of all pay and allowances for three months with confinement to quarters or time in the brig. He doesn't seem to care much one way or another and I figure he'll go AWOL again anyway, if he gets the chance. I'd put him on report but it's just not worth the effort. Besides, he knows I feel the same way.
A Kaleidoscopic Fowl
Dove and quail season's over and there's no waterfowl to speak of. The only hunters that have anything to really look forward to are the spring turkey hunters.
I really don't know much about turkey hunting, but I never let a little thing like that stop me from voicing an opinion. After all, I have seen a couple of hundred turkeys over the years, the wild ones usually while hunting deer. That ought to qualify me as an expert.
The last wild ones I saw came by the deer feeder early one cold, frosty winter morning just as bright sunrays streaked over and through the bare, gray tree tops. I was totally unprepared for the hypnotic light show of flashing iridescent gold, green, blue and red colors that sparkled and danced in a kaleidoscopic patch work all over the apparently black feathers. Absolutely spectacular.
They are big. If I'd've shot three of them I'd've had as much meat as a small deer. I know from talking to folks that have shot turkey that they are hard to kill. I can well imagine!
When I consider how hard it is to kill a pigeon, or a chukar, or a pheasant - not to mention a duck or goose - it's no wonder that the current turkey loads are made of the very best (and most expensive) components.
It seems reasonable that a rifle would be the best hunting arm to take these large birds - something light with a full metal jacketed bullet to keep from tearing up too much meat. A .30 caliber Carbine comes to mind as about ideal, or maybe something like a .22 Hornet. If you could make a head shot like the old hunters, so much the better.
But, current restrictions on hunting turkey in Texas, I believe, require shotguns to be used. This pretty well limits shots to a relatively short range. It appears that a turkey hunter needs to be something of a cross between a sniper and an English punt gunner... get as close as possible undetected and shoot a whole double handful of shot.
My grandmother raised turkeys for market when I was a young lad. I can tell you from personal experience that outside of wild geese, there is absolutely nothing harder to get close to. Deer are relatively easy compared to wild turkeys or geese on the ground.
To bag one you either have to put enough shot in a turkey's head or you have to get enough pellets through a mass of feathers, muscle and bone. Either way, we're talking about enough gunpowder and shot to get the job done and that means recoil. Sitting and shooting a shotgun that fires a shot charge that weighs half again more than a bullet used to kill elephant isn't something you want to do on a regular basis.
I have shot 3.5-inch 12 gauge shells in a Browning Gold semi-auto (one of the "softest" shooting guns around) doing some pattern testing. It's bad enough standing up. Shooting it while sitting down on the ground with my back to a tree takes more "tough" than I think I have anymore. Pain hurts me now. Can't imagine using a pump, double barrel or single barrel at all with these "roman candles."
Size of the Shell
Steve Powers at Briley's told me some time back that the 3.5-inch 12 gauge shells didn't pattern quite as well as the three-inch shells did. He's right. We shot all three lengths of steel and lead shells through the Browning Gold with a factory full choke tube. At a measured 50 yards the No. 6 buffered lead three-inch magnum load patterned the tightest and the most even. There were still a couple of holes in the pattern big enough to miss a turkey head.
There's a whole bunch of the big 12 gauge and bigger 10 gauge guns specific to turkey hunting on the market. Most are cammy colored, with shorter barrels than their waterfowl siblings and with super tight chokes.
It's been a number of years since I've owned and patterned a 10 gauge, but based on my experience patterning the 3.5-inch 12 gauge, I think I'd either go with a 10 gauge, or I'd stick with the three-inch 12 gauge. I think a 10 gauge has less apparent recoil, probably because the guns all weigh substantially more and fire only marginally heavier shot charges.
To shoot effectively at extended ranges (+45 yards) it looks to me like pattern testing with a turkey shotgun is as important as zeroing in a deer rifle. You need a very tight choke/load combination that will put enough shot in a turkey's head at 50 yards or so, and the only way you're going to find it is to spend some time at the range testing different loads. Special extra full choke tubes would be well worth the money if they work.
You need a good dose of large shot to get effective penetration for a body shot on these big birds - something like hard No. 2 B, BB, BBB, T, or F (.22 cal I believe) sized shot. Probably the Hevi-Shot type pellets would work better than lead. If you could get the smaller buck shot (Nos. 4, 3, 2, or 1 buckshot) to pattern at that distance it might work best of all.
Once you have it figured out, I'd think a box of 25, or even a box of 10 shells, would last for a pretty good while ‘cause, unless someone's as big and strong as a middle linebacker, or there's something seriously wrong with them, nobody's going to be shooting these for fun.
On the other hand, if you find some factory shells that do work good, I'd advise you to buy enough to last as long as you plan to hunt turkeys, or at least as many boxes as you can afford, because as sure as night follows day, the factory will decide, for some unknown reason, to quit making them about the same time you run out.
Well, at least that's what I think, for whatever it might be worth.
Gunny Rock's got his 782 gear squared away for inspection and he's piled up in his rack reading a TM (Training Manual) on retrieving, his favorite subject. Looks like two more days of bad weather. Hope I can stand it.
Stay safe and we'll see you at the range or in the field.
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