Turkey or hornets nest

[moose30273]

Here is your chance to berate the new guy or say "no big deal". I decided this year I will hunt turkeys here in GA. So I have bought calls, been practicing. As I am not much of a shotgun man I figured my .40 cal caplock would be great. Headshots at 40 yards or less, no big deal. Well, after talking to people and reading other stuff here on the net I have to ask. Am I a horrible baby eating monster? It is legal, I have the same basic range as the shotgun. Why such strong feelings against rifles and turkey?

 

[Brent]

I think a head shot on a turkey at 40 yds would be damn difficult.

Good luck.

Brent

 

[Swampman]

If it's legal, I'd do it in a second. Meat is meat.

 

[paulvallandigham]

In a lot of states, using a rifle to shoot turkeys is NOT legal. So, check with your state's game department before spending a lot of time getting the wrong gun ready for Turkey season.

 

[Little Wattsy]

In a lot of states, using a rifle to shoot turkeys is NOT legal. So, check with your state's game department before spending a lot of time getting the wrong gun ready for Turkey season.

I'll Ditto that.

Hunting SHOULD be a personal sport (within the legalities of your area) BUT ALOT of people just cant be content with their own miserable little lives....They feel a need to worry about others instead. Rifle hunters worry about bowhunters. Bowhunters worry about crossbow hunters. Muzzleloader hunters worray about rifle hunters, etc, etc, etc.

YOU go hunting for yourself (and maybe your imediate family) PERIOD. If you are haveing legal fun then SCREW-EM who ever they are!

 

[Pork Chop]

As Moose stated, it IS legal in Georgia. The regulations, under the section regarding legal firearms, read:

TURKEY FIREARMS: Shotguns with No. 2 or smaller shot and any muzzleloading firearm.

To review the regs, here is a link - they are on page 7:
http://www.georgiawildlife.com/Assets/Documents/Hunting_Regulations/08-09_Hunting_Regs.pdf

 

[moose30273]

Hey, thanks for the reality check guys. I was just hearing all sorts of nastyness about using a rifle for turkeys. I personally thought a .36 or .40 cal rifle would be perfect for turkeys. I admit to maybe being optimistic about the head shot thing. Going to sit down here in the next few weeks and try shooting golf balls at various ranges. We shall see.

 

[Brent]

I think where rifling turkey gets a bad image is from the folks that want to shoot them at 200 yds with a .220 Swift and a 20x scope. An ironsighted rifle at 40 yds is a whole'nother deal. I think it would be damn challenging. I would probably aim for the base of the neck as it moves less than the head. Esp, from a head-on or back shot. Rifling one with a pasture poodle rifle at 200+ yds would be more or less like shooting a small garbage can.


BTW, if you started practicing on golfballs at our range, you would have your butt booted really fast. They can, apparently, send bullets in crazy directions - and make a mess.

Brent

 

[nchawkeye]

The first turkey I ever killed was in 1979, in Virginia where it is perfectly legal to hunt turkeys with a rifle...I used my Bob Watts flintlock in .45 caliber with 50grs of Goex FFF and called him in with a wingbone call that I had made...The shot was about 35 yards and I hit him where the wing joins the chest...

It was one of the most memorable hunts that I have ever had...Sure wish I could use the same rifle here in NC...I have since converted that rifle to a .40, a true turkey caliber...

Good Luck and enjoy...

 

[paulvallandigham]

I am happy to know its legal to use a rifle to kill turkeys in Georgia. Head shots, no matter where the turkey is located, are low percentage shots, just as they are in gunfighting. A better aiming point is where the neck joins the body. YOu can still miss, but if you miss the neck towards the check, you will at least hold him long enough to get a second shot into him.

Just be doubly sure of your background before taking the shot. with everyone wandering the woods wearing camouflage material, it would be a tragedy to have your ball pass through the turkey and hurt or kill another hunter, or nature lover.

 

[Travis Gregory]

I really wish the turkey regs here in Arkansas were like the ones in GA. I have to agree with a lot of people in that hunting turks with a scoped rifle would be no challenge at all. But with and iron sighted ML I think it would be very fun. Either way if it is legal and fun for you then do it. I love hunting deer with my CVA mountain rifle but you can bet that there will be times during modern rifle season when Ill be on the edge of fields with my .270Win just because I can.

 

[Homesteader]

Sgt York of The Great War fame said it was nothing at all to shoot Germans in the head after the turkey shoots he participated in as a kid. They used front stuffers back then, and would put a turkey in a box with a hole in it. The gobbler stuck his head out to look around, and the shooter would try to take it with a round ball from 100 yards.

Purely anecdotal, but one heckuva story, eh?

(If I'm not mistaken, he also stopped a charge by a German squad with his Colt 1911 by shooting them one at a time, the furthest from him first. Worked his way to the nearest. Didn't want them to know they were being killed and perhaps stop to shoot back.)

 

[roundball]

"...A LOT of people just cant be content with their own miserable little lives....They feel a need to worry about others instead. Rifle hunters worry about bowhunters. Bowhunters worry about crossbow hunters. Muzzleloader hunters worray about rifle hunters, etc, etc, etc..."

A refreshing voice of reason Wattsy...we have a handful of folks here on the MLF with some of that same mentality...I've dared to have a Flintlock built with a couple wrinkles different from what a few experts think I should be building...(ie: no patchbox)...so you can imagine.

On the matter of rifles for turkey...I agree if its legal people can do as they wish. I suspect whatever grief dished out was by those who feel its a greater challenge to call one in close enough to take them with birdshot headshots.

Same kind of heat I took when I used decoys to help bag a couple with my Flintlock smoothbore, calling them to my general area knowing they'd see my decoy set, and I shot each of them as they were concentrating on the jake decoy.
I was thrilled at bagging a couple of turkeys with a bare bore Flintlock, then some tried to rain on my parade by implying using decoys made it too easy, a non-accomplishment.
I suggested they remember that in the fall when they shoot deer standing knee deep in corn piles.
:grin:

Some of the resistance might have also been driven by a concern over having someone shooting a rifle at ground level when other camo hunters might be in the area...more and more states seem to be restricting turkey hunting to birdshot for that reason...ie: rifles are not legal here in NC.

FWIW, I personally think a rifle head shot is very high risk...and worse than a miss is the chance that a wounded bird might get away but die later. Toms twitch and jerk their heads around even more than a whitetail...and the kill zone is not all that big amount of skin and jelly around the head area...its the tiny walnut sized brain, half the size of a golf ball.

IMO, enjoy your rifle but at least consider an alternative shot placement...getting the ball into the vitals under the leading edge point of either wing, or right into the middle of the back.

 

[wvbuckbuster]

Here in WV it is legal to use rifles to hunt turkeys. It has been brought up a few times but has not been outlawed. As for using a .40 GO FOR IT! It works. Forget about being Alvin York and aim for the wing butts and you will make a quick kill and will have taken a turkey with a ML in a time honored way. :thumbsup:

 

[dgold]

Sgt York of The Great War fame said it was nothing at all to shoot Germans in the head after the turkey shoots he participated in as a kid. They used front stuffers back then, and would put a turkey in a box with a hole in it. The gobbler stuck his head out to look around, and the shooter would try to take it with a round ball from 100 yards.

Purely anecdotal, but one heckuva story, eh?

(If I'm not mistaken, he also stopped a charge by a German squad with his Colt 1911 by shooting them one at a time, the furthest from him first. Worked his way to the nearest. Didn't want them to know they were being killed and perhaps stop to shoot back.)

What a wussy eh! Didn't want to be shot at. Actually, they don't make very many men like that anymore. A real hero.
My real reason for posting here is to remark on an article I read about 30 years ago in some firearms book. I don't live within 500 miles of a turkey so I know nothing about it. This article discussed "turkey rifles." They were from the early 1900's and had large caliber, low velocity cartridges that were used for just turkeys. This is all I remember about them.

 

[chuck c.]

I hunt turkeys spring and fall with a .36 cal flintlock. Does a real good job! Aim at the wing butt, your going to find that a turkey never holds it's head still! In my opinion a .40 is a little too much gun. I think you'll find that you'll do more hunting than killing but it's pretty satisfying when you get one.

 

[chance]

I love turkey hunting. Since it is legal go for it and if someone does not like it the heck with them they are just jealous because they problly cant load a good front stuffer. Good luck and great hunting.

 

[XXX]

This is a hotbutton type issue for dedicated turkey hunters. Some observations;

- Most 18th century longhunters took turkeys and most everything else with longrifles shooting prb's.

- Noted Turkey hunter Dwain Bland wrote a whole chapter on taking turkeys with a rifle in his "Turkey Hunter's Digest". His conclusion was that a head shot is difficult due to constant movement and that the only certain rifle shot was the wing butt. Bland spoke of often finding rifle wounded turkeys that had been hit too low or too far back and escaped.

- The main advantage to a head shot is that a miss will result in an uninjured bird that can be hunted another day. A hit will usually drop the bird right there.


My view is that the sub .50 cal roundball shooter is an ideal turkey or deer/turkey/small game rifle. The charge can be downloaded to some extent when a smaller species is being targeted and there is a reasonable amount of overlap with the bigger calibers to allow taking a deer or a turkey with the same charge if a target of opportunity comes along.

Centerfire rifles on the other hand do not lend themselves to downloading the charge, tend to destroy a lot of meat, and encourage long range shots when scoped that are dangerous to other hunters and can be low percentage turkey killers. It is probabaly these concerns with the centerfire rifle that give the turkey hunting world fits and leads to "rifles" being banned for turkeys by most states. I think that if state game agencies were educated and responsible, a case could be made that unscoped Ml's shooting PRB only should be legal for taking turkey in most states.

 

[roundball]

And.....although this would be circumventing the spirit of the law, since our state law only says:
"rifles not allowed" ...someone could literally use a .62cal smoothbore with three .490's and be legal...I've actually pattern tested them and they make nice consistent 4-5" groups at 40yds

 

[No Deer]

And.....although this would be circumventing the spirit of the law, since our state law only says:
"rifles not allowed" ...someone could literally use a .62cal smoothbore with three .490's and be legal...I've actually pattern tested them and they make nice consistent 4-5" groups at 40yds

Would really like to be able to take a turkey with a rifle, but here in Michigan it specifically says no single projectile, and shot can be no bigger than #4.