Month: March 2024

Putting a red dot or other optic on a turkey hunting shotgun solves one of the greatest inherent problems that turkey hunters face. This can help hunters miss fewer gobblers at all ranges and it has nothing to do with skill or experience. On this episode I go in-depth on why optics make a huge difference for the turkey hunter. Tetra Hearing protection – Get 10% off with the code: NHG2410

To aim a shotgun, you must align your eye with the barrel and the front bead, your eye then serves as the rear sight of the gun. When standing and shouldering the shotgun normally, this works fairly consistently. But the moment you sit down, things change. When sitting you mount the shotgun differently because your body position is constrained by your seated position. Sometimes your sitting position is relatively harmless, sometimes it creates large problems.

If you were shooting an open choke at flying birds, the seated position would be a handicap but not so terrible of one. When you at shooting at turkeys with very tight chokes at close range, the margin of error is very small. So poor shooting position moving your pattern by a few inches may be ok when shooting at a flying duck, but it can cause you to completely miss a turkey at 20 yards on the ground.

A red dot, scope, or other optic solves this by creating a fixed point of aim that is independent of your body position.  Where ever the dot is, that is where the shotgun pattern will go, even if your body position is off by a bit. This can be of tremendous benefit at any range and under any conditions. A simple sight like this can help you take more turkeys by virtue of fewer missed shots due to poor body position. Lately I have been using and very much liking the Holosun 507k X2 Red Dot which Holosun was kind enough to send me for testing last year.

A red dot or scope can also be a benefit if you have poor eyesight or cannot see as well in low light. This can be enable some hunters to better see and aim. 

Now, I am not saying you need to just go out and buy a red dot. You can absolutely hunt without them, people did for hundreds of years. But especially with tight shooting modern turkey loads and chokes, missing has become a widespread problem. If you have your other bases covered and have already invested in all the more important hunting gear you need, a red dot or other optic may be the next logical step to consider in order to improve your shot to hit ratio.

Listen to the full podcast episode to hear more!

There is no best turkey hunting shotgun out there, but there is a best or an ideal one for you. In fact, there are probably many. But to choose a good one, you need to know what elements make a good turkey gun and how your personal hunting style and preferences impact the features that would help you most. On this episode I talk through several big points to help you select the right turkey hunting shotgun for you. Tetra Hearing protection – Get 10% off with the code: NHG2410

 Here is the video mentioned in this episode.

There are several factors to consider in order to find the best turkey hunting shotgun, including:

Size – A shorter barrel is often desirable for turkey hunting, but this is not an automatic characteristic, how you hunt will determine the best barrel length for you. If you hunt short range birds in very thick woods, then an 18″ barrel may be best for you. If you hunt wide fields from the edge of cover then you may prefer a longer 28″ barrel to slightly velocity, sighting, and pattern.

Weight – For those hunting in a blind, shotgun weight may not matter at all, but if you are running and gunning, you may want a lighter gun. Likewise, your body size plays an important role in determining how heavy of a gun you can comfortably carry.  To get a lighter gun, you will need to consider a 20 gauge or smaller shotgun. However, sub gauges come with other various tradeoffs.

Recoil – For some, recoil is no object. For most, recoil matters, and to those who are recoil sensitive, it matters a lot. I recommend against getting a sub gauge shotgun to reduce recoil. The lighter the gun the more pronounced the felt recoil is to the shooter. I have shot magnum .410s that hurt my shoulder more than 12-gauge loads.  The best way to reduce recoil for those who are recoil sensitive is to maintain gun weight while reducing the shotgun shell’s potency. A 12-gauge loaded with 1 oz of TSS at 1150 FPS will have less recoil than a target load and much less recoil than a 28 gauge with the same load because of the weight. 

Action – For turkey hunting, action matters perhaps least of all because it is generally a one-shot sport. A single shot, pump action, semi auto, over under, or even bolt action shotgun will all work fine. What is best for you depends on your preferences and style, and perhaps budget. A semi-auto will reduce felt recoil a little which may make it more desirable to some but ultimately there is no best action, just what serves you best.

Gauge – It is very popular to hunt with sub gauges today, and that is fine, if it is the right option for you. Modern TSS ammo makes sub gauges very viable. There are 20 gauge loads today that are better than the 12 gauge loads of yesterday. Those two can be used almost interchangeably. Going smaller than that will likely begin to limit your range which may or may not matter depending on how you hunt. A .410 turkey gun is viable with TSS but you have more range potential with a 12 or 20 gauge.

Listen to the whole episode to hear more about how to choose the best turkey hunting shotgun for you.

Can you effectively hunt the same spot or even the same bird twice in one day? What about if you spooked that bird? Most people would say no, but most people would be wrong. Not only is it possible to take a second pass at a spot but at times it can be your best prospect to bring home a nice gobbler. On this episode I talk about when and how to hunt spots and birds twice in the same day. Tetra Hearing protection – Get 10% off with the code: NHG2410

There are numerous scenarios where you might want to hunt a spot twice in the same day. 

Perhaps a gobbler came off the roost and started towards you but was pulled another way by hens, or maybe the bird came off the roost in the opposite direction of you and never even looked your way. He may come back later once he has finished mating and look for that early hen he heard but did not go to. This is very common.

Maybe you are in an area that has a lot of turkey activity but there were no birds there that morning, it was completely vacant and quiet. It may very well be that you are in a good spot that birds come to, it is in their regular territory, and they will move into that area later in the day. If you have good sign, you have good reason to hang out or come back later.

Say you spooked a bird early in the morning and it ran away. As long as the bird did not catch you calling and trying to impersonate another turkey, there is a chance that after a couple hours it will return, hoping the threat has moved on, and look for that hen. Many things spook turkeys, every day, constantly. They may run, wait, or hide, until the danger passes and then they continue on, perhaps with more caution but eventually they get back to normal. As long as the bird thinks the calling it heard was another turkey, it may wait out the threat and come back when it seems safe. 

There are many other factors beyond breakfast that contribute to why you may want to leave a spot and come back as well. Perhaps you have turkeys in the area in the morning, but none came towards you. You have a great area for running and gunning that you want to go to after the initial morning action dies down. After that, your best prospect may be to return to the area that had the initial action because you know there are birds in the area.

For much more detail and information, listen to the entire podcast episode! 

It is time to re-evaluate a lot of media and marketing driven propaganda to find the simple truth behind turkey hunting chokes and strategy. So many lies, half-truths, and half-baked ideas have filled the internet and turkey hunting culture about what a good choke tube, pattern, and ideal distance is, that many have forgotten the reality of what usually happens in a turkey hunt. In this episode I interview Jimmy Muller from Muller Chokes.

You can find Jimmy’s chokes at MullerChokes.com 

Turkey hunters are taught from early on that the best possible pattern in the tightest possible pattern. This does two main things, it gives you the longest possible maximum range, and reduces the chance of putting pellets in the breast meat. We are told that tighter patterns mean we take more birds. But what if there was more to the story than this? What if this line of turkey hunting doctrine was nothing more than a heavily marketing induced fallacy? What if tighter patterns and increased range actually resulted in taking fewer total birds?

While it seems like a good idea to be able to shoot out to 60 yards, the truth is most turkeys are shot within 30 yards.  And an ideal pattern at 60 yards is a very bad pattern at 15-30 yards. Only rarely does the average turkey hunter take a bird at extended range. So to be able to boost the odds of getting that occasional bird, we are damaging our odds at taking all other birds.

You see to put 400 pellets in a 10″ circle at 50 yards, our pattern has to be very tight, similar to a baseball at 20 yards. A pattern that tight makes it very difficult to hit a turkey at close range. Any off variable can cause a miss, from sitting at an angle when you mount your shotgun to the turkey moving or gobbling. Many turkeys are missed at close range because the choke and ammo selection is optimized for maximum range.

Also, you do not need 400 pellets of TSS in a 10″ at 50 yards. That is a waste of pattern potential. You only need 100 pellets in that circle to do the maximum among of damage needed. Significantly more than that is waste. You would be better off with a bigger pattern giving more margin of error at all ranges. Of course, that leads to moans and groans from turkey hunters who are concerned about getting stray pellets in the breast meat.

Consider this, those hunting ducks, geese, pheasants, doves, and just about all other birds routinely put pellets in the breast meat and do not think anything of it. Why is the turkey the one game bird where such a thing is viewed as sacrilege? Why not just remove the pellets, assuming they do not travel all the way through the meat and out the back of the turkey as many modern TSS loads do. Why are people so concerned about getting a pellet in the breast meat?

In short, this is TV driven, and marketing propaganda. At 25 yards, target loads with a modified choke are just as effective at taking a turkey, maybe even more so, than TSS with a tight turkey choke. I am not opposed to TSS ammo, but I am opposed to hurting the odds of taking birds at normal ranges due to over choking for ranges that turkeys are rarely shot at. Why risk missing 5 birds out of 10 to get a better shot at 1 bird out of 10?

In this episode I talk with Jimmy Muller in depth about these issues and what turkey hunters can do in order maximize their changes to take turkeys at all range.

Here is the video I mentioned in this podcast episode: