Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting 3" vs 3.5"--settle it!

Yeah...it's one of his performance shop guns. The Long Beard pattern appeared to be tighter, but I'm not necessarily wanting a really tight pattern.

I'll do a little more patterning this weekend.

And my 3.5" patterns great, he's so hard headed though it drives me nuts, so I opt to shoot birds with the not so powerful 3" magnums..grins..

Hard to beat gitem 12's 50 yard Mossberg pattern. I personally like the 3.5" Mag Blend load, I have two turkey guns, a Browning Gold (Indian Creek)and a Remington 11-87 (Jelly Head) and they both pattern the 3.5 shells better. I have only shot a handful of birds, most were 50 yards or over. My calling sucks.

My original SBE with a 24" barrel give great patterns with a Trulock choke and Fed Heavyweight #7's out to 50 yards, but give even better patterns with the 3.5" shell. In other words, the 3" will easily get it done, but the 3.5" gets it done mo betta.

A pain in the ass to sight in from the bench, but so what. I wear a Past recoil pad.

I don't know if they are that much better or not. I've fired a few of the 3.5" shells and quickly decided I didn't really want a turkey bad enough to put up with the recoil. My testing ended pretty quickly.

3" shells from a 7.5 lb shotgun are bad enough at about 40 ft lbs of recoil. 3.5" shells are over 70 ft lbs. A 300 WM tops out in the low 30's and people constantly talk about how its added performance isn't worth the recoil, but double that recoil is worth it for an extra 5-10 yards in turkey hunting.

I agree to a point. It's only a shot or 2 each season (we have a 2 bird limit) once the sight-in hell is done.

I'll take less punishment of the 3" 12's and even less of the 3" 20 ga!$

3 1/2's are better...........in my 10 BPS.
I rarely carry my 10 these days, maybe 1 hunt a year if I set up on a hay field or cattle pasture, just don't need it most times. I have killed my 3 closest birds with it, 3 steps, 12 steps and 18 steps. Give me a good 3" load that has a good even 24" pattern at 40 and I am happy man.

2.75 in a 12 is where it's at for easy good patterns and light recoil.

Yeah, plain old Rem 2 1/4 oz #4 will make em drop and not wiggle. I, on the other hand, tend to drop, wiggle & moan. Dang BPS with the Goodyear recoil enhancer has probably done its last damage to me. But it's a killer. After having the ProPort done you can see the shot hit the turkey. Shot one at IIRC 17 steps and half way to the bird there was an inch and a half sapling shot in two. Didn't seem to have mattered. Bird just dropped.

This year I'm thinking of going retro with a 30" full choke round knob A5 shooting the Fed Flitecontrol 2 3/4" #4 or #5. Shot a jake with it years ago at about 25 using Win mag #6. Need to let the old guy hunt again. Scouted last week and the hardwood area I want to hunt in the NC mountains is being turned upside down by turkey birds scratching acorns. Hunting there with a gun older than me will be a treat. Might just carry a box and slate to add to the karma.

I agree! Hunting in central WI with my uncle about 6-7 years ago he popped one at 61 yards with his 2 3/4" Rem 870 and a full choke barrel. This was back when you had to take a bird in to register. We were at the station and a gun came in with a bird bragging on how he popped it with a 10 ga and 3.5" mags at 30 yards!! He just couldn't believe that Uncle Jeff could get one at that range with a little ol 2 3/4" 12ga! some peoples kids...

I have no use for 3.5" guns. If I feel the need to shoot at a turkey past 35 yards I'll use a rifle.

10 yards is more fun than 50 any day of the week.

I'll be taking the .22Magnum/.410 for walks this spring. It's a damn bird; I don't need a cannon to kill it.

100' and in, and it gets a load of 7 1/2 shot to the face. Past that, or in case I can't get the right look at the head, and it gets a .22Magnum DynaPoint to the neck/body junction, wing butts, or in the back.

No mossberg needed. Here's your skinny barreled shotgun slinging a wicked pattern with a factory load. SBEII with an Indian Creek BDS and hevi 13 3.5 inch 7's. The longbeard shells I shot last year were awesome as well. I'll take some pics of those this year, didn't have time last year.