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Dedicated Turkey Gun
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<blockquote data-quote="Teri Anne" data-source="post: 2403199" data-attributes="member: 118816"><p>My first question is, "What is a dedicated Turkey Shotgun?" To my way of thinking it's pretty much any shotgun that has a bead front sight and is chambered tor a 12 ga 2 3/4 or larger shot shell. (sometimes even smaller gauges) Any shotgun is in fact a Turkey gun. The term Turkey Gun is yet another hype from firearms manufacturers to get you to buy yet another gun that you will only use once a year and then let it sit in a Gun Safe for the next 6 or 12 months until the next turkey season comes around. In preparation for my first Turkey hunt in Wisconsin hearing all of the horror stories about how hard it was to kill a turkey I went out and bought a new Remington 11-87 Super Mag. Since there was much talk about putting an optic on turkey guns I went out and got a BSquare scope mount for the 11-87 and put a Burris 4X scope on it. I sighted the shotgun in, well as much as one could sight in a scope on a shotgun and was ready for opening day. It came and several hours later two Tom's on the move together spotted my two cheap foam hen decoys and started to make their moves. It was funny as they reacted like most guys do in a bar on a Friday or Saturday night, moving in on the hot chicks down at the other end of the bar. They came in to about 70 yards and decided to divide and conquer. In a predictable tactical move they circled the hen decoys and started moving in for the kill so to speak (Got to keep this clean here) The one coming in from the left came into his sweetie first and at 30 yards with a full turkey choke lost his head to a single shot of, no not any of the so called suburb specialized turkey loads, but to a single round of Federal Black Cloud #4 steel shot Waterfowl loads. Now one would think that his buddy would immediately be scared sh****** and run for the hills, but no. Seeing his buddy flopping around on the ground the second Tom came over to investigate trying to figure out what new dance his buddy was using to entice the hens. I had a second turkey tag and after watching the second Tom going through his death throes and trying to let him know that it was time to quit fooling around and, Hit the Hens," I couldn't take it anymore and let fly another deadly load of steel #4 shot which ended the entire Turkey seduction dance for the day. OK now you are probably wondering how this relates to dedicated Turkey Guns. Well before the manufacturers decided that they needed to entice you with yet another reason to buy yet another shotgun to be used and configured for a specific purpose while leaving the other shotguns home alone so to speak I had found out that Turkeys were no harder to kill than a Pheasant, had to be coerced into range and a sufficient amount of shot, lead or steel into its head to cleanly kill it, I decided that a dedicated Turkey gun was not needed. My old Remington 1100 3" mag did just as good a job and at the ranges being shot at, 30 to 50 yards the bead on the front sight suitably centered on the beak of an extended head (Ya know they have to peek and see who the competition is) and let loose with a suitable round consisting of 1 1/4 oz of #4 steel shot travelling at 1500 FPS (Federal Black Cloud) and Mr. Tom Turkey will succumb to becoming Thanksgiving dinner in less than 2/10th of a second. The point here is that any shotgun, in my case 12 ga 3 inch or more is fully capable of sending any turkey to his demise. Now the big push is for 20 ga, and even .410 bore shotguns being designated as, "Turkey Guns." It is all hype. to sell guns. Don't waste your money on buying a 410 bore Turkey gun for your 12 year old. Buy him/her a 20 ga 3 inch which will be much more effective. Take your shotgun, stick either a full choke or yes I will give in to a Turkey (or goose choke) and go Turkey hunting. You don't need a specialized Turkey Gun. Think about it, back in the day an old black powder blunderbuss killed about as many Turkeys, (Among other birds) as all the fancy new magnums do today. Don't be Hyped. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite3" alt=":(" title="Frown :(" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":(" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Teri Anne, post: 2403199, member: 118816"] My first question is, "What is a dedicated Turkey Shotgun?" To my way of thinking it's pretty much any shotgun that has a bead front sight and is chambered tor a 12 ga 2 3/4 or larger shot shell. (sometimes even smaller gauges) Any shotgun is in fact a Turkey gun. The term Turkey Gun is yet another hype from firearms manufacturers to get you to buy yet another gun that you will only use once a year and then let it sit in a Gun Safe for the next 6 or 12 months until the next turkey season comes around. In preparation for my first Turkey hunt in Wisconsin hearing all of the horror stories about how hard it was to kill a turkey I went out and bought a new Remington 11-87 Super Mag. Since there was much talk about putting an optic on turkey guns I went out and got a BSquare scope mount for the 11-87 and put a Burris 4X scope on it. I sighted the shotgun in, well as much as one could sight in a scope on a shotgun and was ready for opening day. It came and several hours later two Tom's on the move together spotted my two cheap foam hen decoys and started to make their moves. It was funny as they reacted like most guys do in a bar on a Friday or Saturday night, moving in on the hot chicks down at the other end of the bar. They came in to about 70 yards and decided to divide and conquer. In a predictable tactical move they circled the hen decoys and started moving in for the kill so to speak (Got to keep this clean here) The one coming in from the left came into his sweetie first and at 30 yards with a full turkey choke lost his head to a single shot of, no not any of the so called suburb specialized turkey loads, but to a single round of Federal Black Cloud #4 steel shot Waterfowl loads. Now one would think that his buddy would immediately be scared sh****** and run for the hills, but no. Seeing his buddy flopping around on the ground the second Tom came over to investigate trying to figure out what new dance his buddy was using to entice the hens. I had a second turkey tag and after watching the second Tom going through his death throes and trying to let him know that it was time to quit fooling around and, Hit the Hens," I couldn't take it anymore and let fly another deadly load of steel #4 shot which ended the entire Turkey seduction dance for the day. OK now you are probably wondering how this relates to dedicated Turkey Guns. Well before the manufacturers decided that they needed to entice you with yet another reason to buy yet another shotgun to be used and configured for a specific purpose while leaving the other shotguns home alone so to speak I had found out that Turkeys were no harder to kill than a Pheasant, had to be coerced into range and a sufficient amount of shot, lead or steel into its head to cleanly kill it, I decided that a dedicated Turkey gun was not needed. My old Remington 1100 3" mag did just as good a job and at the ranges being shot at, 30 to 50 yards the bead on the front sight suitably centered on the beak of an extended head (Ya know they have to peek and see who the competition is) and let loose with a suitable round consisting of 1 1/4 oz of #4 steel shot travelling at 1500 FPS (Federal Black Cloud) and Mr. Tom Turkey will succumb to becoming Thanksgiving dinner in less than 2/10th of a second. The point here is that any shotgun, in my case 12 ga 3 inch or more is fully capable of sending any turkey to his demise. Now the big push is for 20 ga, and even .410 bore shotguns being designated as, "Turkey Guns." It is all hype. to sell guns. Don't waste your money on buying a 410 bore Turkey gun for your 12 year old. Buy him/her a 20 ga 3 inch which will be much more effective. Take your shotgun, stick either a full choke or yes I will give in to a Turkey (or goose choke) and go Turkey hunting. You don't need a specialized Turkey Gun. Think about it, back in the day an old black powder blunderbuss killed about as many Turkeys, (Among other birds) as all the fancy new magnums do today. Don't be Hyped. :( [/QUOTE]
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