Warm weather has roused turkey hunters from their slumber, sending them afield for dawn patrols on lonely roads listening for gobbles.
Finding and patterning turkeys is helpful, but it's also premature. Turkeys today are not necessarily where they will be in late April. Right now, the most valuable thing you can do is to pattern your shotgun.
Patterning your shotgun with the exact load and choke you will use during the season is Lesson One of Turkey Hunting 101. I learned it the hard way in my first solo turkey hunt, and it cost me a trophy gobbler. I used a premier 3-inch Winchester turkey load, a premier extra-full turkey choke and a Winchester 1300 12-gauge shotgun. All of my turkey hunting friends told me this combination would throw a tea-saucer size pattern to 35-40 yards. I believed them.
Don't believe anybody. That's Lesson Two of Turkey Hunting 101. Believe your own eyes only.
There are a lot of differences in shotgun barrels and choke tubes. You can test the same load in 10 different guns all fitted with the same choke tube, and all of them will pattern that load differently. Adding different choke tubes to the mix widens the variables considerably. Adding different loads to the mix will thoroughly confuse you.
I have seen premier barrels and premier tubes that would not throw a lethal pattern with premier turkey loads. I have seen ordinary, run-of-the-mill field guns with plain Invector chokes throw wickedly dense patterns with standard pheasant loads, which are more than sufficient for killing turkeys.
The advent of HeviShot and the more recent arrival of Tungsten Super Shot (TSS) changed shotgun ballistics far beyond the capabilities of what was possible with standard lead shot. The biggest effect of TSS is that it made the 12-gauge obsolete for turkey hunting. You can make an equally compelling argument that it also made the 20-gauge obsolete while elevating the 28-gauge and .410-bore to legitimate turkey killing platforms.
On Monday, an employee at Mack's Prairie Wings in Stuttgart showed me .410 TSS patterns on turkey targets from 15-42 yards. At 15-25 yards, the TSS obliterated the turkey's head. A lot fewer shots hit the head at 42 yards, but it was still a dead turkey. We also noticed that much of the 42-yard pattern clustered in the shoulder area. If the shooter had aimed higher, more of the pattern would have clustered in the head area.
Last spring, I killed a gobbler with TSS fired from a 20-gauge at a range where I quit counting at 69 steps. That was a one-shot, plow-down kill, too. The gobbler did not so much as twitch.
Up until then, I was a big believer in Hevi-Shot, which I used only with a 12-gauge. I still am, and I will exhaust my supply of Hevi-Shot after I exhaust my supply of 20-gauge TSS.
The downside of TSS is its price. It costs about $10 a shell. You definitely want to know your pattern before you fire something that rich at a turkey.
Choke tubes
Over the years, I have tested a lot of choke tubes from all of the premier choke tube makers. For my 20-gauge, I use a Trulock Heavyweight 7 tube with a .565-inch constriction. Trulock made this choke to be used with Federal No. 7 TSS ammo.
At 30 and 42 laser-verified yards, this combination thoroughly ventilates the head and neck of a turkey target. The pattern loosens considerably at 50 yards, but there are still quite enough hits in the head and neck to kill a turkey. The combination works even better with Federal #9 TSS.
I use a Trulock choke with my SX3 12-gauge, too, but I have only patterned Hevi-Shot with it.
The downside of purchasing boutique choke tubes is that if it doesn't perform to expectations, you're stuck with it. An exception is Jeb's Choke Tubes, which guarantees satisfaction.
Sights
Enhanced optics are very important for turkey hunting. I got by for years with only a factory bead sight, but I always felt like it was a liability. Unlike wingshooting, which is all about swing and fluidity, turkey hunting is an aiming game. It's rifle hunting with multiple projectiles. You need a sight conceived, designed and built for aiming.
You can go as expensive as you like, but I have nothing but good things to say about Truglo optics. For years I have used a Truglo Gobble Stop fiber optic on my SX3 12-gauge. The front sight is red and the rear sight is green. It is very bright in low light. Sighted at 30 yards, it patterns tight as far as 45 yards. That's about the maximum distance I would knowingly shoot at a turkey. I shot at a previously mentioned long-distance gobbler only because I believed it was much closer.
For my 20-gauge SX3, I use a Truglo open dot reflex sight. It has multiple reticles, which for turkey hunting are unnecessary. A 5 minute-of-angle dot is all you need. It also has red and green reticles. I prefer green because I see it better than red.
All of those elements add up to peace of mind. When I pull the trigger, I know I will kill a turkey.
Getting to that point involves many other preparations. Scouting will help get you in the right places. Our calling skills need to be sharp. That's why I keep a couple of diaphragms in my my truck at all times. That's why all of my gear is organized and ready to go.
Until then, we're all counting the hours until April 18, opening day of spring turkey season.
Paired with a Winchester SX3 20-gauge, a Truglo Open Dot Reflex Sight and No. 9 TSS squeezed through a Trulock Heavyweight 7 choke tube produces dense patterns out to 42 yards, and lethal patterns beyond 65 yards to kill this Arkansas gobbler. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Bryan Hendricks)