The ol' '97, like the hammer of Thor!

[buck460XVR]

Once again I decided to take my dad's 100+ year old model 97 to the turkey woods. Second year in a row. Second shot in two years resulted in a second bird. I've been hunting turkeys since the early 80s with a variety of shotguns. Mossberg 500s, Remington 870s, both with full/extra full chokes and 3" magnums. Nuttin' seems to hit 'em as hard as this long piped, full choked '97 with 2 3/4" #5 pheasant loads. This morning's bird was @30 yards and it was like you hit him in the head with a maul. Was 19 degrees when I left the jeep @ 4:45 this morning. The pictures were taken @ 6:05. Yep....we hunt turkeys in the snow here in Wisconsin.

 

[Bull Nutria]

those are 2 great photos!!nice bird and shotgun!!

Bull

 

[earlthegoat2]

Love the shotgun and the turkey.

Love your load choice even more. 2 3/4” #5 Pheasant loads.

That is someone who actually patterns their gun and knows full well that if you are giving up anything to a modern shotgun with 3 or 3.5s, it is not much.

 

[Cemetery21]

My buddy has the mate to yours. I used to borrow it for turkey shoots 40 years ago. Shooting at paper with an X, closest pellet to the center wins. I know it's luck, but that old gun would win a turkey or ham about every other round. I've taken my 870 Trap with xtra full choke a few times and could not equal the old '97. Of course, he won't sell it.

 

[entropy]

The chokes on the old 30" full 97's are incredible! My Dad had a 16 ga. 30" full that I first learned why Trap shooters use the term "smokeball" for a well-hit target with. I dropped a few pheasant with it, also, when I could get it away from my Dad. My cousin bought it from him, and over the years my Dad tried to buy it back, doubling and tripling his offer.
We have one guy in our Trap league that shoots his old 97, which, though the finish is worn where he handles it, is in fantastic shape. He doesn't have the best avarage, but when he hits a clay, it smokeballs every time.

Nice turkey, and great pics.

 

[1KPerDay]

Beautiful bird! Glad someone is getting out.

 

[Bfh_auto]

Love the shotgun and the turkey.

Love your load choice even more. 2 3/4” #5 Pheasant loads.

That is someone who actually patterns their gun and knows full well that if you are giving up anything to a modern shotgun with 3 or 3.5s, it is not much.

That's my brother's load also. He bought a 3 1/2 gun only to find out his 2 3/4 loads patterned tighter with half the recoil.

 

[jmr40]

Good to see the old gun still being used.

 

[Kingcreek]

Thanks for the pics.
My grandpa hunted with one just like it. He could drop a Nebraska ringneck way the heck out there after everybody else had shot and was reloading.
He got busted up in a car wreck in 1964 and didn’t walk well so he always posted the end of the fields as the rest of us pushed towards him. He hunted with us until he was almost 80 years old.
Never found out what became of his only shotgun.