Long-range loads take turkeys at distances once considered unthinkable, but they are no magic bullet. Preparation and familiarity on the part of the hunter are essential. (Photo by Scott Haugen)
May 02, 2024
By Scott Haugen
"Zero for eight so far ... great start!” came a text at the end of opening day of turkey season last spring. I called my longtime hunting buddy and one of the West’s top turkey guides, Jody Smith, to get the scoop, figuring he was going to tell me that multiple clients had all missed shots. Instead, what I heard from a frustrated Smith left me shaking my head.
“All the misses were from one guy shooting his brand-new 28 gauge with TSS loads,” he said. “I called in four toms in different spots, and all the shots were inside 20 yards. He fired eight shells and didn’t touch a bird.”
Other guides I’ve known for years echo the same stories of hunters missing turkeys because they’re unaware of how modern-day shotguns, chokes and loads are supposed to work.
If you plan to use a red-dot or reflex optic, choose one that sits low enough on the gun to allow for a comfortable cheek weld and a full sight picture. (Photo by Scott Haugen) WHY WE MISS Many of today’s turkey shotguns are built for maneuverability, with a short barrel and an inline stock, be it a thumbhole or pistol-grip frame. The more compact a turkey hunting shotgun is, the more recoil it has. Add an extra-full turkey choke that restricts the payload as it leaves the barrel, along with amped-up turkey loads with propellants that greatly enhance the kick, and it’s no surprise we’re seeing more whiffs. Based on my own observations, nothing has caused more misses by turkey hunters in the last decade than a fear of recoil.
Advertisement
The turkey guides I talk with from all around the country are good indicators of what’s happening, as they take dozens of hunters afield every spring, and their stories of misses are very similar. Fortunately there is a fix to this budding epidemic of missing.
GET DIALED IN Start by sighting in your shotgun as you would a rifle. Do this on a bench with the gun nestled into sandbags. I’ve watched turkey hunters sight-in their shotguns on shooting sticks and they simply don’t hold steady enough.
Pick the choke you want to shoot, then test various loads through it. Not all shotguns and chokes shoot all loads the same. Last spring I tested three brands of TSS .410 loads before I found one I liked—and then proceeded to fill three tags in three shots with it.
Advertisement
Once you choose your load, pattern it on paper at 20 yards to see where the center of the shot string hits. If it’s not spot-on, adjust the sights and/or shims to make the point of impact dead-center.
After getting sighted in at 20 yards, shoot it at 30, 40 and even 50 yards (if you’re comfortable shooting that far) to see how the pattern performs at those distances. Finally, shoot it at 10 yards to see how tight the pattern is up close.
“Most of our misses happen close,” says Smith. “A lot of hunters don’t realize how tight the patterns are. If you’re aim isn’t on, you’ll miss.” Whenever new hunters arrive in camp, Smith usually has them shoot their gun at a paper target before they go hunting.
“I want to see where their gun is hitting, and I want to watch how they react to the recoil,” he says. “If they’ve never shot the gun or load before, and it’s not close to where it should be, I give them a shotgun to use.”
Smith’s go-to turkey shotgun is a semi-auto that doesn’t pack too much punch and has an aftermarket recoil pad. It’s topped with a red-dot sight and the loads are not shoulder bruisers.
“Nothing turned the misses around faster than a red dot sight,” he says.
Every missed shot costs Smith time and money. Educating birds that he’s spent weeks patterning through scouting is exactly what he’s trying to prevent.
When choosing and mounting a red-dot sight, be sure to pick one that sits low on the shotgun. The higher it sits, the more you have to lift your head to locate the dot and the harder the gun will kick you in the face (I’m speaking from personal experience). You want your cheek tight to the gun when pulling the trigger on a turkey shotgun. This is a hunting application with magnum loads, after all, not a tactical situation with small-caliber rifle cartridges and minimal recoil.
Never have turkey hunters had so many shotshell options to choose from. Yes, those old 2 3/4-inch lead loads still work great, but if you pattern and understand the math behind tungsten super shot (TSS), bismuth, coated lead and blends thereof, your shot accuracy and lethality will be maximized.
TSS is today’s hot load. Some high-end options go for $12 a shell, but the payload is the heaviest among all the choices and performs extremely well. At 18 g/cc, you can downsize to No. 7, 8 or even 9 shot when shooting TSS. A higher density means you can go with smaller shot sizes, whereby increasing the number of pellets carried in each shell. And, of course, the more pellets in the shell, the greater the odds of hitting the target.
Bismuth is another option, but this metal is brittle and does not pattern well in all guns. If shooting a blend, be it any combination of TSS, bismuth, plated lead or anything else, be sure to pattern it before you take it to the woods.
A tom will typically approach a hen head-on, strutting his stuff in an effort to woo the potential mate. Position hen decoys in relation to your set-up spot accordingly. (Photo by Scott Haugen) ON THE HUNT With your turkey gun patterning perfectly, you’ll enter each hunt with utmost confidence. But don’t get lazy. The objective of spring turkey hunting is to call toms in close for a high-percentage shot.
To consistently bring gobblers into proximity, start with your positioning. If you’ve scouted an area, you likely know where to set up to increase the odds of a tom coming in without busting you. If you have to run-and-gun in your turkey quest, think about alignment when determining where to place a decoy in relation to where you’ll sit.
The first step is to find where the turkeys are and anticipate the route, they’ll likely take to reach you once calling commences. Next, consider where to sit. The more off-angle you can be to the decoy and where the birds are coming from, the less likely they are to see you.
Turkeys see in color and their vision is much more powerful than ours—equivalent to 8-power binoculars, in fact. Be sure your face and hands are fully camouflaged and keep movement to a minimum. The more angled you can set up to an approaching tom, the better, and having a wide tree to sit against helps break up your body’s outline.
If hunting open habitat, know that a turkey will see you working a box call from an astonishing distance. While you might start a tom with a box or slate call, having a diaphragm call in your mouth might be the only way to finish it.
If you’re not a fan of mouth calls, hunting from a pop-up ground blind is a great way to hide your movement when working friction calls. It’s also more comfortable sitting in a chair for three or four hours than on a cushion against a big tree in the open—especially if it’s raining.
When a tom hangs up beyond the decoys, a TSS load can give you the confidence to make a shot you might not attempt with a traditional lead load. (Photo by Scott Haugen) Decoys are another key component of calling in turkeys. With nearly four decades of turkey hunting experience under my belt, I can say without hesitation that my favorite decoy setup is nothing more than a lone hen. A relaxed, natural pose is a must, be it upright, walking, squatting or preening.
If bowhunting, I place the decoy 5 yards from my pop-up blind with the head facing either left or right. As a tom approaches the decoy it will often get in front of it in an effort get the hen’s attention, and that’s when I get a high-percentage broadside shot.
If hunting with a shotgun–depending on what gun and load I’m shooting and how it patterns–I generally like placing a decoy at 20 yards. If the setting allows for it and you’re comfortable with your shooting, you can locate a decoy 30 yards from where you’re sitting. The farther the decoy is from your position, the less likely a nervous tom is to bust you.
As the season progresses, I like to add a strutting tom decoy to my lone hen. A strutter often spurs an aggressive reaction, bringing toms on the run from surprising distances.
On windy days in thick cover, I usually go without a decoy because I want a tom to keep moving and searching for my sounds, not hang up out of range when it sees a decoy. Turkeys are on full alert in windy conditions, especially if predator numbers are high.
With your shotgun spitting tight patterns and the proper setup, you’re on your way to taking your turkey hunting success to another level. You’ll also discover how efficient and effective today’s modern turkey hunting gear really is.
GEARING UP Shotgun, load, call and decoy options to consider .I could speculate and write about new gear I think will work this turkey season, but I’d rather share what I know works for me.
In recent years, I’ve gravitated to sub-gauges for turkey hunting due to their reduced recoil and efficient payloads. I love my Browning Silver 20-gauge with 2 3/4-inch loads of HEVI-18 No. 9 shot, and Browning’s pump-action .410 combined with Apex TSS No. 9 1/2 shot. If I opt for a 12-gauge setup, I reach for my Mossberg 500 Turkey that’s topped with a Trijicon RMR and loaded with Federal Premium Grand Slam No. 6. I’m a fan of copper-plated lead and the FliteControl Flex wad.
My go-to decoys are Dave Smith’s Preening Hen, Leading Hen and Strutter. I’ve had outstanding success with Slayer Calls’ line of diaphragm calls and have called in nearly 200 turkeys with these the past two years, both for hunting and photography work.
I like traveling light yet efficient, and the ALPS Grand Slam turkey vest allows me to quickly and comfortably set up in a range of situations. It has plenty of gear pockets and a very comfy padded seat.
This article was featured in the April 2024 issue of Game & Fish magazine. Subscribe now .
