Turkey Shoot Win with a Colerain Turley Choked Barrel

[user 48702]

A friend and I attended a local turkey shoot this past Saturday. There were three relays of 15 shooters each, and targets were set at 30 yards. I shot using a half stock flint with a 44" Colerain Turkey Barrel, and a friend shot using his Jackie Brown 20 gauge fowler (he had never loaded it nor had he ever shot a flintlock). I won one of the relays in a shoot off with my friend, and he won the 2nd relay with me shooting off against him. I also came in second in the third relay against a guy who was shooting a Browning A5. Everyone was really interested in our two flintlocks and really enjoyed watching them at work. They were laughing and ribbing us with a lot of Boone and Crockett jokes when we showed up at the shoot, but they were scratching their heads when we left. It will be interesting to see if there are any complaints between now and their next shoot, which is this Saturday. What we did was load our guns with 80 grains of 2F, which was equivalent to their field loads they were providing. We placed a thin card over powder, then cut the crimp off one of their provided Federal 12 gauge 1 oz. field loads (#7.5 shot), dumping the shot down the barrel with a lubed fiber wad over the shot, basically a "Skychief" load. Both of us either won or came in 2nd. So in the end, both of us won two of the three relays, and I came in 2nd on the third. Not too bad for our first time out at a turkey shoot, and we are still playing around with loads.

I have tried the turkey barrel with wasp nest, and have found that in using wasp nest or other soft wadding, it opens up the pattern considerably, similar to a modified choke at 20 to 25 yards. A couple of weeks ago, I shot two squirrels with #5 shot at about 20 yards, and had less than 10 pellets in each squirrel, with each having several pellets in the head or shoulders. I'm finding the turkey choke barrel very versatile, just depends on how you load it according to what type of game you are hunting.

 

[Flanders]

That is a fun story, thanks for sharing.

 

[sheriff john]

Were these scored "pellet closest to the 'x'" or most pellets in a circle? Most around here are "hole closest to the 'x'".

 

[BillinOregon]

Nice job, Gunny. What gauge is your Colerain barrel?
I bought one of Jackie's 20-gauge fowlers years ago from a guy on this forum, and it was the first flinter I had ever shot that was truly fast and reliable. The guy I bought it from missed it so terribly that I sold it back to him.

 

[user 48702]

Were these scored "pellet closest to the 'x'" or most pellets in a circle? Most around here are "hole closest to the 'x'".

Pellet closest to the X. I think targets set up at 30 yds is more luck when it's the pellet closest to the X, but I was still getting about 10 to 12 pellets if they were counting in a 3" circle. If the targets were set at 21 yards, I think the "Skychief" load would have destroyed the target. A while back, I shot a 1 gallon can at 20 yds, w/80grs 2F and 1 1/4 oz #5 shot and you could have used it as a flour sifter.

 

[user 48702]

Nice job, Gunny. What gauge is your Colerain barrel?
I bought one of Jackie's 20-gauge fowlers years ago from a guy on this forum, and it was the first flinter I had ever shot that was truly fast and reliable. The guy I bought it from missed it so terribly that I sold it back to him.

It's a 20 gauge choked down to 24 gauge.

 

[sheriff john]

I (and I know I'm not alone) am quite impressed. Those unfamiliar with turkey shoots of this type may not realize the depth of competition. Some competitors spend serious money on meat shoot guns shooting patterns that require rifle sights. Re-chambering a 12 gauge to a 16 in single-barrels or bolt actions is fairly common and special chokes not rare. Cheaters will "palm" the shotshell provided and use a specially-loaded one brought from home.

For Gunny to beat those guys is really quite a feat. Hope he goes again and posts the results.

 

[nhmoose]

I will bet you are disqualified from shooting next week for Un fairness as you cannot use the shell provided.

 

[user 48702]

I will bet you are disqualified from shooting next week for Un fairness as you cannot use the shell provided.

Nope, not a problem, shot again yesterday, both myself and a friend. Everybody was glad to see us, almost like being the bell of the ball. The shoot director said they had several new comers who came just to see the flintlock guys shoot. So, since it rained all morning, I guess in a way we helped boost their attendance. As a matter of fact, a handful of the shooters were asking how they could go about finding a flintlock and I told several about the forum.

As to using their provided shells, the shoot official takes one of their provided shells, cuts off the crimp and gives us the 1 oz, 7.5 shot to load with. Their provided shells are marked 3 drams equivalent, so they watch us measure out 80 grains of 2F which is just a hair under 3 drams. I came close a couple of times yesterday, but didn't win any relays. I had switched my wadding to wasp nest and it just doesn't hold as tight of a pattern as a fiber wad, but sure makes loading faster without having to swab every few shots. My partner used the same fiber wadding as last week and won one relay and came in second on another. We were invited back again next weekend as well as the first three Saturdays in December. I told them it was worth it just for the bacon and sausage biscuits.

 

[BillKilgore]

Good job, Gunny. Thanks for posting the story.

 

[S.Kenton]

That’s pretty cool!

 

[Stantheman86]

I was going to use my Parker-Hale P53 in a Turkey Shoot today, but I figured I didn't want to be up there with paper cartridges firing 5 shots against guys with match rifles with 32x scopes on them shooting at 50 yards and be the guy who makes everyone wait 5 minutes for me to finish......

So, I went a little forward in time and used a No.1 Mk III with iron sights and beat all the guys with match rifles and 32x scopes, for a turkey , a ham and a Lowe's gift card

 

[The Appalachian]

Back in the day I would get asked to leave some of the local "turkey shoots", shooting a T/C 54 cal Renegade against everybody else shooting scoped slug guns. Targets were always at 100 yards, and we shot one shot per relay from a bench using shot bags filled with sand.
The slug gun guys would do their level best to put a slug closest to the bull but very very few could get it in the 10 ring.
Here I come with iron sights and a patched roundball and hitting the 10 ring every time. After the first 3 or 4 relays they'd not let me sign up for any more, saying you're done for the day son. I'd grab my beef roasts, hams, turkeys, or whatever they were paying out with and go find another one to crash the party. Good times. Lol.

 

[Eterry]

I recall a turkey shoot across the street from the Courthouse. All modern rimfires. Some of the best shots in the county lined up offhand to shoot at lollipops at 25 yards. The best was a monster scoped thing using match ammo. Until this teenager using an iron sighted $60 autoloader stepped up and blasted 5 in a row, just like that. I walked to the truck as Mr big scope bet him $100 he couldn't repeat that.
I heard the kid left with the turkey and a crisp C note.