Very, very, very nice bird, congrats! Great pics, too.
...at a total distance of 12yds. Well, with my 870 20g, TSS, and the Indian Creek 555 choke tube, 12 yds is entirely TOO CLOSE. You see where is going dont you? I missed unfortunately. I was completely disheartened and I let not only myself down...
I feel your pain.
I've been using Hanks calls too. Very well made and sound great. I've had one or two with me all four of my hunts this year, along with one of their Dymondwood strikers.
What's the gun and the scope set up?
I love Hanks and Halloran both. Im a pot call kind of guy anyways, I rarely use a mouth call or a box call.
The gun is a Baikal IZH 94 combination gun that is a 12 ga top barrel, and a 223 rem bottom barrel. Its legal to use rifles here in WV, and I bought this gun about 7 yrs ago as my answer to a hung up bird. I keep the 223 loaded down to 22 hornet or 222 velocities. Its nice to have it as an option when a turkey wont come closer than 55yds, or when a coyote shows up. I have used the shotgun barrel more than the rifle barrel, but I have killed about 4 birds with the rifle barrel. All of the rifle kills were birds that were still called in and everyone of them was less than 60 yds. I did kill a fall jake once that was around 200yds but that was an opportunity kill and less of a hunt.
The shotgun isnt choked overly tight and I will not waste my money on TSS for a 12ga. So, I shoot lots of 2.75in turkey magnums and some 3in mags if it patterns to 35 /40 yds, The current choke is a COMP - N - CHOKE that loves #5s. I have some old ACTIV 2.75 magnums that are loaded with nickel plated 5s that it really likes, as well as some of the old olive hull Remington Premier Mags also in #5. I found a box of Federal 15cc/g HvWt that came out before TSS was being loaded and they patterned decent, so I decided to try them on a bird this spring. I only had a box of 5, patterned 1, and killed this bird with with 1 so Im down to 3 and Federal no longer loads the 15cc/g. I also have this weird thing where I save all my hulls that I killed birds with and put them on a shelf, and I like to try to use different brands of shells.
The scope is an old Nikon ProStaff Shotgun/Muzz scope. Its a 2-7x32 i think. Its nice and clear and holds up to the recoil of the shotgun. The gun itself is actually blue/walnut however, I always toyed with the idea of painting it but I was afraid to due to ruining the value of it. I looked into those vinyl skins and found a website called GunSkins.com. I put those on this gun and I can take it off without a residue anytime I decide to do so.
