Is A 28 ga Enough?

[Beerd2]

The idea of eating a turkey I brought home from the field sits well with me.

just don't be expecting it to eat like a Butterball.
..

 

[Swamp Rat]

LOL that for sure don't ask for a drum stick you might be chewing for a while. My favorite is the cut across the grain of the breast in 1" strips and coat with cracker meal and fry like chicken fingers. Have not found anyone that did not want more after the first bite.

 

[rodwha]

Hmmm...I love the drum sticks! I love to smoke 'em on my pit. The whole turkey for that matter.

I suppose one of these days I'll have to find out what the difference is between that Butterball and the turkey creeping around in the woods.

What is the best ways to cook wild turkey?

 

Very interesting proposition for a speed reload. I think I might try it.

 

[redwing]

The big difference is? That little "Pop Up" device on the Butter ball is missing from the wild birds. I think.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

actually you can find those in packs of 12 at a cook's supply store, and add them to any bird that doesn't have one already installed. :grin:

Because the birds are leaner than a domestic bird, there is much less fat to moisten the meat. I'd rather have a larded venison roast, myself.

LD

 

[rodwha]

I had figured there has to be a difference such as with wild/domestic pigs. I prefer the wild meat, but the fat is terrible! And you won't find bacon on a wild hog. Mmmmm...bacon!

 

[Britsmoothy]

This is turning into a food discussion....soon we will be discusing soap or something :rotf:

B :hatsoff:

 

[crockett]

Well...let's remember that a shotgun pellet is a shotgun pellet. A single pellet from a 410 hits just as hard as a single pellet from a 10 magnum; so, the whole deal is how many pellets your particular shotgun puts into the kill zone. The more pellets the better but a poor pattern out of a 10 mag isn't as good as a tight pattern out of a 410.
(now that's going to start a big talk :grin: )
I've hit low on a turkey- in the chest area with 6's at 45 yards and the bird absorbed the load and ran off. I think 5's are good and 4's okay if you have a tight pattern. I usually use 4's.
So, on the 28 gauge- not many pellets in the payload but if they pattern really tight they would be okay but generally, I would think you may want to strongly consider a larger gauge with more pellets unless your particular gun is a rare jewel that patterns really well.

 

[nchawkeye]

I filet the breast off, cut them into pieces and fry like chicken...I have roasted a few in the oven, just come out a bit dry, gravy helps with that though..

 

[rodwha]

Being a muzzleloader would give me the ability to up the pellets to what you'd see in a typical 20 ga load (1 1/4 oz or so).

I'd guess that, even with a slightly reduced powder charge it ought to give a fair amount of velocity. Just doing a rough guesstimate by what a .54 cal load with a nearly 1 oz Maxi (over 1400 fps).

I'm guessing I'd need about 1200 fps to keep those pellets useful to 30-35 yds. i also figured larger pellets would penetrate deeper, though I'd lose some density.

 

[BrownBear]

Is a 28 ga using 1 oz of #4 or 5 shot be enough for turkey? It's legal here, but sounds minimal at best.

It's all going to depend on the range at which you can generate a killing pattern, specific to the gun and load.

My only frame of reference since I'm not a turkey hunter is about 40 years using modern 28 gauges for upland birds. We were hunting pheasants in a field bordering a meandering creek with lots of brush. I'm a quick shooter, so it was my job to switch to skeet chokes and drop down into the creek bed while everyone else stayed up in the field. Since there was a chance for ducks at close range, I dropped in a couple of bismuth #7 1/2's and went to sneaking.

Jumped and dumped three mallards in the first quarter mile. Things got quiet for a while, then I jumped and dumped a pair of really big honkers, the first at about 15' and the second and around 20'. Took head and neck shots, and they folded as pretty as pheasants.

Man-o-man-o-man!!!!!! My 28 gauge Ruger Red Label is a surenuff duck and goose gun ain't it! :rotf:

Better try it for turkeys next. :wink:

 

[George]

I'm guessing I'd need about 1200 fps to keep those pellets useful to 30-35 yds.

If you make this decision assuming you will be able to reliably kill turkey at 30-35 yards with a cylinder bore 28 gauge, I'm afraid you are going to be very disappointed. I can't depend on doing that with my 20 gauge cylinder bore loaded with two full ounces of shot, using all the tricks I know.

Spence

 

[roundball]

For what it's worth, this is a comparison photo of three 3.5" tuna cans at 25yds.
The barrel is a 42" Rice .54cal(.28ga) flint smoothbore / cylinder bore.

60grn measure of Goex 3F
Full 1/2" cushion wad (yes, oddly, this barrel patterns tighter with full 1/2" wad)
Left=100grn measure of chilled #5s
Middle=100grn measure of mag #6s
Right=90grns measure mag #7.5s

Note a few 'dents' are appearing where the 7.5s didn't punch through...and as a result I wouldn't use it with 60grns on turkeys. But if another 10grns of powder doesn't thin out the pattern too much, it should turn those dents into holes and be a good #7.5 load to 20-25yds max.

Of the three, the #6s would be my choice for turkey head/neck shots in my 28ga.
The #5s load is for squirrels.

 

[rodwha]

I've seen a chart before in which (IIRC) a cylinder bore only patterned well enough to about 25 yds. But I've heard that using more shot to powder decreased the speed at which it spread. And by adding much more shot and of larger shot size I wondered about it patterning and hitting hard enough further.

 

[George]

I've never found turkeys hard to kill if you hit them in the skull or neck bones, so the power would probably be adequate.at the ranges you mention. The pattern with most cylinder bores gets pretty spotty at those ranges, though, and I've never found any consistent, repeatable way around that. I don't hunt turkeys with my 28 ga., it's not legal for me, but I find the same to be true with a 20 gauge, and my powder/shot ratio in that gun is pretty heavy on the shot end. If that makes a difference, it's not a big one in my guns.

Spence

 

[Roguedog]

There's nothing worse for me than shooting an animal and not putting it down with authority and having it run/fly away and not be recoverd. As a result, I figure out what my effective range is and then try to stay under that if possible. I would suppose if the 28 gauge is legal and you restrict your range, that it would likely do the job. While turkeys when hit right are not that hard to kill, they are some tough old birds and unless you hammer them, they can get away quite quickly.

Jeff

 

[Tony Logan]

Cant you shoot turkeys with a rifle in Texas? If that's the case, the 54 round ball in the base of the wing should work nice.

 

[Lorne Johnson]

Is a 28 ga using 1 oz of #4 or 5 shot be enough for turkey? It's legal here, but sounds minimal at best.

It's all going to depend on the range at which you can generate a killing pattern, specific to the gun and load.

My only frame of reference since I'm not a turkey hunter is about 40 years using modern 28 gauges for upland birds. We were hunting pheasants in a field bordering a meandering creek with lots of brush. I'm a quick shooter, so it was my job to switch to skeet chokes and drop down into the creek bed while everyone else stayed up in the field. Since there was a chance for ducks at close range, I dropped in a couple of bismuth #7 1/2's and went to sneaking.

Jumped and dumped three mallards in the first quarter mile. Things got quiet for a while, then I jumped and dumped a pair of really big honkers, the first at about 15' and the second and around 20'. Took head and neck shots, and they folded as pretty as pheasants.

Man-o-man-o-man!!!!!! My 28 gauge Ruger Red Label is a surenuff duck and goose gun ain't it! :rotf:

Better try it for turkeys next. :wink:

This is a great post and story. But, it is really a testament to Brown Bear's skill and experience, not to the 28's general desireability as a goose and turkey gun.

 

[BrownBear]

Ha! :rotf:

At 15 feet and 20 feet, hitting the honkers was like hitting a beach ball with a baseball bat. The ducks were much the same. Quick reflexes sure, but the close ranges made it much easier than my buds were doing with pheasants in the open field!

Thanks for the doubtful kudos in any case! :grin: