My first turkey shoot.

[WhiteKnight]

I went to a turkey shoot for the first time tonight on a whim on my way back from shooting clays with friends all afternoon.

I think I'm pretty much hooked.


I do have a few questions. I used a factory Remington Super-Full turkey choke in my 870 Wingmaster, which gave it excellent patterns. I was narrowed down to the top 5-6 targets out of all but one round that I shot.

Any tips? The place I went specifies that their Federal Premium 2 3/4 #9 shells must be used.

Should I look into a ported aftermarket turkey choke? Would that offer any better patterns than the Remington factory super-full one that I have now?

 

[Dave McCracken]

Nice pic. Card or turkey shotos are lots of fun, and oft the winner is holding a quite specialized tool useless for aught else. Scopes, custom barrels, set triggers etc abound.

But, one can do OK with a setup like yours. If you're in the top 5 most of the time, there's not much minor stuff you can do to improve things. A cone job will help keep pellets round, and sights of some type may aid things.

Aftermarkets chokes are iffy, one may do the job, or things may worsen. Shotgunning still has murky areas where cut and try is still the best method.

HTH....

 

[Fred Fuller]

WK,

Looks like you brought home the bacon- or bird as the case might be. Congrats- good to know there are still opportunities for today's yute to participate in this traditional southern shooting sport. It's great fun, glad to hear you enjoyed it.

If you have a RemChoke Full choke tube, give that a try too- it is possible to overchoke. You know the stated distance now, and the load they use, so you can experiment some. There are choke tubes made specifically for 'card shooting' or turkey shoots, you could give one of those a try if the regular Full choke tube didn't help. My old neighbors at Colonial Arms offer card shooting tubes for $25.50 plus shipping- check at http://www.colonialarms.com/ct02.html to see them. These tubes are set up to best pattern swarms of small shot. As always, every shotgun barrel is pretty much a law unto itself, and it is best to experiment with yours to see what works best. It has been my experience, as Dave mentioned, that getting the forcing cone extended is the single most reliable modification to improve patterns. 'Red' Lyles at Colonial does my barrel work, and I recommend them for that as well as a source for tubes.

Some sort of sighting system might help, some guns throw patterns with 'sweet spots' which might not be in the center of the spread. Lots of folk 'game' turkey shoots to an incredible degree, but no matter what apparent advantages mods to equipment offer, there is still a lot of luck involved- hope you have your share!

lpl/nc

 

[cliffjr]

I went to my second one last night and was able to bag another bird. The first shoot I shot a Remington full choke and last night used a turkey full. I did see a small difference in the pattern but overall both seemed to work just fine. Saw some with what must have been improved cylinder and had less than 20 pellets on the paper.

 

[WhiteKnight]

Mr. Lapin, I called Colonial today and inquired about their card shooting tubes. Here's what I found out:

From Remington models, they have the following:
Model One (.660)
Model Two (.654)


Remington offers the following turkey chokes, of which I have the Super Full:
Turkey Extended Super Full (Lead Only) 0.665
Turkey Extended X-Full (Lead Only) 0.687

Would purchasing the Model Two from Colonial offer much of a performance increase over the choke that I have now?

Nice pic. Card or turkey shotos are lots of fun, and oft the winner is holding a quite specialized tool useless for aught else. Scopes, custom barrels, set triggers etc abound.

To be honest with you, [much to my surprise] it seemd that most of the guys there were simply "good ole' boys" with their hunting guns. From looking at the targets as the head fella scored them, it seemed it was only myself and two other guys out of 16 that were shooting chokes tigher than full. Everyone else, it seemed had modified or full.


Also, I plan to bring along my Full choke to the shoot this Thursday and shoot a few practice shots before committing to using one tube or the other for the evening. If the full offers better performance..

 

[kudu]

Each induvidual choke tube and barrel will act differently, even two from the same manufacturer that are supposedly identical. Your best bet is to try them out on paper to see what does what.

The longer tube may help push the shot together gradually and result in a better and tighter pattern, but you won't know untill you try.

Good luck.

 

[Fred Fuller]

WK,

The 'turkey' choke tubes are intended for folks who want to shoot the actual birds- most of the time they will be using larger shot sizes (#6 on up) or duplex loads. Turkey hunters are aiming for the head and neck, and they have to get pellets into the neuro column to put the bird down instantly. Those choke tubes are configured internally in an attempt to produce the best patterns with those larger shot sizes, as much as this can be an exact science (and little enough to do with shotgun patterning IS an exact science).

What a lot of it comes down to is the ratio of the different diameters of bore and choke, and the degree of angle of the 'funnels' transitioning the shot from diameter to diameter (chamber to bore to choke). All this seems pretty arcane, somewhat akin to magic, and it might _be_ magic for all I know. Doing the experimentation I did for a while with buckshot it sure seemed that way sometimes, anyway.

The 'card' tubes will be configured internally in an attempt to give the best possible results with tiny pellets (#9 or #8) since that's what most venues use for their required house supplied ammunition. There is more to it than just the degree of choke in the tube-- the acuteness of the 'funnel' and the length of the tube at the choke diameter matter to some degree as well. How much I can't say with any degree of reliability, only experimentation will tell.

I pointed you at Colonial because they charge less for their tubes than some of the "high priced spread" manufacturers with more gimmicks to sell, and I know they do quality stuff. Their tubes might do better for you, they might perform about the same as what you have, or they might not do as well, but it is better to be disappointed in a $25 choke tube than in a $100 one...

Good luck, happy experimenting,

lpl/nc (currently exploring the preferences of an 18" fixed IC barrel with bead sight on a retired 870 Police Magnum)