Been turkey hunting for 28 years, and just like like deer hunting, I had no one to show me ANYTHING so I learned 100% on my own. Went my first two seasons with out ever even seeing a bird less than a 1000 yards away, and between my 2nd and 3rd seasons wised up and began educating myself on turkey hunting from every source I could find from books, to magazines to videos and the few people I knew at that time that were accomplished turkey hunters.
By my third season I had learned enough that I put myself in a position to call in not one but two big 2 or 3 year old Toms to my hen decoys and proceeded to miss both. First one at about 40 yards the second one at about 30 yards. I didn't at that time own a dedicated turkey gun and at a friends insistence was using his 12 gauge 3" Winchester model 1300 NWTF special edition. Beautiful gun with rich mat laminated furniture and a lovely embossed NWTF emblem on the stock.
Later that afternoon of that same day I was telling my story to a friend of my mine who owned the farm next to the one I was hunting on. That was the first time I ever heard of patterning your shotgun. After some thought on it I procured some paper grocery bags from the local GFS, used my clenched fist and arm to draw a template to use as a representation of a Tom's head, but some dirt clods on the bags to hold them in place and patterned the my friends gun I was using. The gun's sighting system was simply two metal beads one at the end of the vent rib and one located a few inches from the receiver.
Decided 30 yards was good starting point. Using the hood of my truck and using sand bags and a blanket to shoot off I commenced to patterning. To say I was jaw droppingly amazed at the results was an understatement. At 30 yards I had less than 10 pellets from a 12 gauge 3" magnum 1 7/8oz of no# 5 shot of Winchester Supreme Turkey loads in the crude rendering of a turkeys head I drew. I carefully fired of 5 more shots and quickly learned if I planned on killing any turkeys with this gun I had better keep my shots at or under 25 yards and aim at least 6" to the right of the turkey's head.
Thankfully by the grace of God the next morning I set my turkey decoys at 15 yards and called in a big beautiful 2 year old tom and at 12 yards dropped him stone dead. The day after I got home I bought a A/M deer slug barrel for my 870 Express that featured Remington's Invector choke system and iron sights. Same shopping trip I bought a Remington EX/Full turkey choke and I was all set. Patterned that gun and over the next 20 years hunting in IL and IN between Jakes and Toms I took over 30 Turkeys without a miss.
In America bigger is always better so eight years ago I upgraded to a 870 Express Supermag 12 gauge 3.5" and used it to take another 10 or 12 turkeys from IL and IN again without a miss. For 27 consecutive seasons I faithfully without exception patterned not only my turkey gun, but those of my sons as well. Well along comes the 2017 turkey season and for what ever the unacceptable reason was ,for the first time in 27 seasons I did NOT pattern my turkey gun, and you guess it. I missed not one bit two turkey in the same morning less than 40 minuets apart. The fact they were both huge beautiful Toms didn't exactly help ease the sting, the second one was a absolute brute of a Tom we had seen in seasons past we nicked named 'Ole Paint brush".
That same day I patterned my gun using photographically perfect turkey targets complete with over lay of vital areas like brain and spinal column you can download for free. The same year I bought the 870 E/SM I installed color contrast A/M steel fiber optic front and rear sights, the rear being fully adjustable for wind and elevation. They provided me with a excellent sight picture. Once again history repeated itself and at 30 yards less than 5 pellets struck the head area and none in a vital spot. At least I drew comfort in knowing I most likely didn't seriously injure either Tom and both should've been no worse for the wear. I honestly can not explain what happened to cause such a huge shift in my POI, but targets don't lie. Because I now have a bit of a stigmatism for this year I went to a scope on my turkey gun. I pulled a Vari-XII shotgun scope off a slug gun I no longer use as it is about perfect with a 2-7x magnification and mounted it on my gun.
Works great and I'm very happy with the this set up is working, but I can see where I could be handicapped if I need to make a shot on a fast moving bird.
So if you haven't already done it, pattern that turkey gun as my failure to do so caused me to go with a unfilled turkey tag for the first time in 27 years.
By my third season I had learned enough that I put myself in a position to call in not one but two big 2 or 3 year old Toms to my hen decoys and proceeded to miss both. First one at about 40 yards the second one at about 30 yards. I didn't at that time own a dedicated turkey gun and at a friends insistence was using his 12 gauge 3" Winchester model 1300 NWTF special edition. Beautiful gun with rich mat laminated furniture and a lovely embossed NWTF emblem on the stock.
Later that afternoon of that same day I was telling my story to a friend of my mine who owned the farm next to the one I was hunting on. That was the first time I ever heard of patterning your shotgun. After some thought on it I procured some paper grocery bags from the local GFS, used my clenched fist and arm to draw a template to use as a representation of a Tom's head, but some dirt clods on the bags to hold them in place and patterned the my friends gun I was using. The gun's sighting system was simply two metal beads one at the end of the vent rib and one located a few inches from the receiver.
Decided 30 yards was good starting point. Using the hood of my truck and using sand bags and a blanket to shoot off I commenced to patterning. To say I was jaw droppingly amazed at the results was an understatement. At 30 yards I had less than 10 pellets from a 12 gauge 3" magnum 1 7/8oz of no# 5 shot of Winchester Supreme Turkey loads in the crude rendering of a turkeys head I drew. I carefully fired of 5 more shots and quickly learned if I planned on killing any turkeys with this gun I had better keep my shots at or under 25 yards and aim at least 6" to the right of the turkey's head.
Thankfully by the grace of God the next morning I set my turkey decoys at 15 yards and called in a big beautiful 2 year old tom and at 12 yards dropped him stone dead. The day after I got home I bought a A/M deer slug barrel for my 870 Express that featured Remington's Invector choke system and iron sights. Same shopping trip I bought a Remington EX/Full turkey choke and I was all set. Patterned that gun and over the next 20 years hunting in IL and IN between Jakes and Toms I took over 30 Turkeys without a miss.
In America bigger is always better so eight years ago I upgraded to a 870 Express Supermag 12 gauge 3.5" and used it to take another 10 or 12 turkeys from IL and IN again without a miss. For 27 consecutive seasons I faithfully without exception patterned not only my turkey gun, but those of my sons as well. Well along comes the 2017 turkey season and for what ever the unacceptable reason was ,for the first time in 27 seasons I did NOT pattern my turkey gun, and you guess it. I missed not one bit two turkey in the same morning less than 40 minuets apart. The fact they were both huge beautiful Toms didn't exactly help ease the sting, the second one was a absolute brute of a Tom we had seen in seasons past we nicked named 'Ole Paint brush".
That same day I patterned my gun using photographically perfect turkey targets complete with over lay of vital areas like brain and spinal column you can download for free. The same year I bought the 870 E/SM I installed color contrast A/M steel fiber optic front and rear sights, the rear being fully adjustable for wind and elevation. They provided me with a excellent sight picture. Once again history repeated itself and at 30 yards less than 5 pellets struck the head area and none in a vital spot. At least I drew comfort in knowing I most likely didn't seriously injure either Tom and both should've been no worse for the wear. I honestly can not explain what happened to cause such a huge shift in my POI, but targets don't lie. Because I now have a bit of a stigmatism for this year I went to a scope on my turkey gun. I pulled a Vari-XII shotgun scope off a slug gun I no longer use as it is about perfect with a 2-7x magnification and mounted it on my gun.
Works great and I'm very happy with the this set up is working, but I can see where I could be handicapped if I need to make a shot on a fast moving bird.
So if you haven't already done it, pattern that turkey gun as my failure to do so caused me to go with a unfilled turkey tag for the first time in 27 years.
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