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| My little Remington 870 and Turkey |
Most hunters will easily recognize my common 870 Remington Express pump. I've been a gun nut for more than fifty years, yet I seldom hunt with a gun anymore. More often a recurved bow is in my hand and a slingshot is in my pocket. I like a hunting challenge more than a trophy challenge. But with that said it had been a while since I took any game home, so I took the shotgun.
This shotgun shoots little yellow shells, it's a 20 gauge. When I lined up on the turkey I'd thought the maximum range for my gun, load, and choke was about 35 yards. I only have IC and a Mod. Rem chokes since I consider full chokes a recipe to miss at anything less than maximum range. A good hunter never wants to shoot anything at maximum range if he can help it.
Yes, I know many turkey hunters use extra full chokes and try to make head shots only.
A 20 gauge, modified choke, 3 inch Winchester #5 shot turkey loads is nothing special. I'd hesitated to shoot because I thought he was about max range, but his body language said he was coming any closer and was ready to leave. After the shot I walked out to the turkey and realized I'd underestimated the range. I carefully stepped it off back to my seat; 43 long steps.
My point, if there is one... Turkey hunting doesn't require a special 3.5 inch 10 or 12 gauge turkey gun any more than you need a .300 magnum to hunt a whitetail. Use any reasonable shotgun you have and enjoy your hunting.
Oh Yea! I heard someone calling this bird late the day before from my camp. Then I saw a couple of serious looking turkey hunters leave empty handed. The next morning I got lucky and had him an hour after sunup :-)
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| You can see my ambush point at the top of this picture. |
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