Turkey hunting and BS welcome!

Nice those birds always look so beautiful.

 

Turkey roaming around a friends house a few miles away from here . It is with a couple normal hens and a Tom .

 

It's about over here so I am back to tinkering. My 20 gauge 1187 was purchased when Remington was really suffering QA issues some years back right before they went under. I even called them about the first barrel and they sent me a replacement with no questions asked. Unfortunately, both barrels were rough as a cob inside with bad tool marks. I polished them up as best I could, patterned to get average 150-160 in 10" with TSS and hunted it some. The last few years I've hunted it exclusively, light, maneuverable and a pleasure to carry. Still, the patterns were well below what other friends get with similar factory loads. So, I broke down and bought a bore gauge and a honing set. Found I had .001-.002" variation, high spots, in several spots in the barrel. Worked those with the hone and then followed up with a light polish job just this weekend. Shot a few shells today and am pleased with the improvement. This is about where I want to be, no need to go any further. Appears to have helped pull some pellets in for a denser core and 20". Could have bought another gun I guess, but Lord knows I need another shotgun.
Before with TSS Browning #7&9s and Remington #7s:


After with same loads:

 

That pattern looks pretty good to me. What choke are you using?

 

That’s a trulock .565

 

I run a .585 trulock on my retay 20 it is a inertia driven semi auto benelli knock off. It has the same issue most of the 20 Guage inertia driven guns have including benelli it does not consistently cycle 3 inch turkey loads. My gun will cycle every other 3 inch shell I put in it. I bought every 3 inch 20 Guage shell sportsman's and cabelas had last summer not a single hang up, first turkey load after 30ish different 3 inch rounds hung up. So after some research I find that this is a pretty well documented issue with the inertia guns. So I start reaching out on some of the forums and find that most of the guys running these guns hand load so they can trim there shells down and still shoot TSS. So after about 8 months trying to procure all the components I loaded my own this spring. The good news is the gun has cycles flawless with these loads and the patterns are amazing. The bad news is it was expensive getting an the stuff I didn't have to do the loading. The actual shells I can load for 3ish bucks a piece. The rest of the reloading stuff in into for around 250. The one thing I found that shocked me was how inconsistent the top of the line factory load weights were. So I got done with 10 shells and weighed them they were 59.08 to 60. 05 I was a little miffed how there was that much difference so I threw some of the apex loads on and they went from 61.14 to 63.33. The reality is I don't care that much as long as turkeys fall over when I pull the trigger. I should have just stuck with my old pump Acton 12 but as I get older I really don't like to carry that much gun across hells half acre.

 

I should be hand loading. I grew up with Remington so maybe that explains my efforts to improve the last one I bought. I have a .585 and may try it again. Previous patterning with it just threw more open patterns. The bore is now .616 as best I can tell, still a little unevenness but less than .001. May be able to level it further when I have more time. Am convinced it’s better now.

I had a jam with my 12 gauge Franchi a couple years ago, did not cycle federal tss loads. Friend found the same with his 20 gauge Franchi and federal tss load. We both had patterned only firing one shell at a time. The failure to cycle came at a bad time. Those federal shells for both gauges are a little longer with that roll crimp. All other loads cycled fine. I was under the impression it was a dimensional issue rather than the inertia action. My franchi 12 ga is my go to duck gun and will eat any magnum duck load fine, all regular crimp.

 

Tagged out today
18 pounds
9” beard
1” spurs

 

Great bird congratulations

 

Nice! Congrats!

 

Thanks

 

Thanks Darin

 

Congrats!

 

Thanks

 

530 am. 16 1/2 lbs. 6 1/2 inch beard
4 came in to my decoy 3 walked away






19 yards

 

Nice congratulations

 

Congrats

 

Nice congrats!

 

You know what's bad? No tags and hearing turkeys roost gobbling from the driveway and no dang gunner to take after them.