Turkey hunting and BS welcome!

Nice birds!

 

My season doesn't even open till Saturday.

 

Got the red dot sighted in . Ordered up a new choke this will be the 4th choke I own . With the Mossberg accuchoke in my 535 I got 25 pellets in the head and neck target @30 yards . Going to shoot at 40 and 50 when the new choke arrives .

 

I had a patternmaster in my 835 it was a great choke. I went to a rob Robert's in my Browning maxxus and now in my retay 20 I have a truchoke pinhoti project it has a fantastic pattern at 40 with number 9 tss.

 

Those TSS are too much for my wallet . Using Winchester Longbeard XR . I also have some Federal shells I’m going to shoot and Remington Nitro turkey . . I have a Carlson choke that’s made for the XR shells and a Rhino choke tube and the Mossberg Accu -choke . As soon as the new choke arrives I have to shoot some more . It’s a lot of shooting trying to find what’s best
30 yards ,Longbeard XRs #5s 25 pellets in the head of turkey target so far .
I need to shoot out to 40 yards yet .

 

The tss are way out of my price range as well if i buy them off the shelf but I'm hand rolling mine for around 5 bucks a shell which is a little better than the longbeards xr I buy for my kid and about 15 bucks a box better than the hevi shot I used for years

 

Lynyrd I'd suggest a different patterning strategy. I used to do the head and neck pellet counts in the old days and rolled with anything I could get 12+ strikes with to 40 yards. These days I use large paper and put a 3" dot in the middle (sharpie drawn around a can or such and color in a bit). I use 24" X 36" old construction prints I salvage from work. You can use 24" carpenters paper you can get rolls of from Lowes or Home depot. I use the dot for the aiming point. Then I use a clear plastic 10" circle to find the densest center portion of the pattern and circle it. I also use a 10" piece of wire with loops in each end to draw a 20" circle. From those I get 10" & 20" pellet counts. A common rule of thumb is don't shoot further than where you can still put 100 pellet strikes in the 10". Some folks take it even further and draw line to quarter the 10" pattern and get counts there for uniformity. I just look it over to make sure the pattern isn't blown, with holes in it as if over choked and also to make sure it agrees with my red dot for point of impact.

I've used 12ga 3" Winchester LBs in the past and could get 150s with #5s and 180s with #6s at 40 yards. It's a good load but it's still lead. 3" Mag blends seemed to perform a little better with 180s and were more apt to produce a "broke neck shuffle" to 40 yards consistently while still giving a little insurance on range estimation errors. For the last few years I've been using a 20ga with Browning TSS 7&9s, 180s in 10" at 40 yards and don't miss the pounding of the 12ga. It's also a pleasure to carry, red dot suits my aging eyesight too. Some folks consider those pellet counts low but 180s in 10" with a decent even 20" will kill turkeys the live long day and especially for a guy who might wiggle a little at the shot. I could get better counts with straight #9s but the 7&9 load patterned where I wanted so haven't experimented further. Dead is dead.

I was slow to embrace hevi shot, held out with lead for years. Ditto on slow to embrace TSS. I don't like the cost either but we ain't talking about a dove shoot here. 3 shots this spring and all were dead certain. That cost of it pales in comparison to all the loads I've shot over the years patterning with a variety of guns, other loads and a multitude of chokes. Good luck to you this spring.

 

I have been putting a large white blank paper behind the turkey head target just to see the density of the pattern . But yes all these different shells and chokes gets to be a lot of shooting .

 

Turkeys all over this morning. Slid open the sliding glass door out front to take a look and a bunch were about 50 yards . Couple big Toms too
Bunch of jakes ganging up on a Tom

 

They were crossing to my side but I didn’t see them until I opened the door and the flew back to the other side

 

Pic from my recliner

 

Bearded hen out there also

 

https://youtu.be/fUuQCp9RXyM

 

Called one in for my brother this afternoon.

 

Saw a lone hen...in our back yard

 

Turkeys gobbling in the dark /rain this morning!

 

Not hunting today or tomorrow ...... because of SNOW. The birds here really feel like they are behind in the breeding process. The one I called in for my brother wasn't hot we just made a huge loop and got in front of him. Then I sweet talked him into coming about 25 yards to have a look.
Yesterday in one of my spots that always holds birds had birds but they were still grouped up on private land. It sounded like a group of 7 to 10 Jake's and 5 or 6 Tom's in another group. I couldn't see them but I listened to 5 of 6 fights in the Tom group and at least 10 in the Jake group. They gobbled their heads off but never at any of the hens and never once at my calls. Lucky for me I have 3 weeks off I will stay after them but I feel anything I harvest in the next week or so will be more luck than anything.

 

We are ahead here. Green up was a full week earlier than I've ever seen. Full foliage second week of season. Still birds being killed but they are acting like late season. We run till May 10th here. And best of luck to you.

 

We get April 15th to May 31st

 

Everything is just starting to green up here. Mowed some weeds/grass in yard. Trees are maybe 1/2 leafed out