Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting Scopes for turkey guns

Been tossing around the idea of replacing my Burris ff3 with a scope.
Anybody using scopes, pros and cons for each please. Any info appreciated

Rookie turkey guy - stating that up front.

I went with a Nikon Turkey Pro scope with the circle reticle. IMHO, the circle gave me a better idea of the pattern impact at 30-40 yards, and where the density was going to be.

The thing I found challenging was getting a consistent pattern, before sighting in the scope. I really spent more time selecting the load, than dealing with the scope.

Shotgun is an older Mossberg 835 with a no-name "dead coyote" type choke, that has been a decent patterning combo with most loads.

I have not connected yet, but had it ready on a few birds over the past few years - haven't seen any reason that it needs changed.

I've taken turkeys with scoped and unscoped shotguns and much prefer using a scope. I have a Bushnell 1.75-4 with a circle x reticle and like AH64guy's Nikon it gives a real nice aiming point with the idea of where your pattern will impact. It also brightens up the woods and can make it easier to see a small beard on a Jake. A scope will also eliminate the problem of picking your head up off the stock to get a better look at the bird and resulting in missing high. I can't think of any cons.

I’ll have to check them out. The only ones I’ve looked through on a gun is the leaupold vxr and the trigicon.

Are either of y’all a illuminates?

I have illuminatede vxrs on my deer guns and thought that would be a good compromise of red dot and scope on a turkey gun.


I just put a burris FF3 on my franchi affinity and recently added a sumtoy mount trying to get it lower where you're going the opposite way.

I'll admit O like the weaver base if I take the red dot off and I can use it as a normal gun.

I am using, of all things, a $40 Tasco World Class 1.5-4.5 from walmart. Surprisingly clear. Has held zero under heavy recoil so far, but I may have got the only good one in existence. ymmv.

Not mine.When it's legal shooting hours, I can see the reticle just fine.

I like some sort of sight on a turkey gun because it eliminates the tendency to peek over the rib and shoot high. However, in turkey hunting you're shooting at ranges less than 50 yards at a more or less stationary target, with a shotgun. You've got a sweet spot that's 8-10 inches in diameter, not a fraction of an inch like with a rifle. Calling in a turkey is hard. Shooting one is the easiest shot in hunting. A set of fiber optic open sights is plenty, a red dot is a luxury and, IMO, a scope is just an extra pound of weight to lug around, mounted just where you want to wrap your hand to carry the gun.

Use to use scopes on most of my Turkey guns but now use a FF3 which I much prefer

Have a leupold 2x7 turkey and a vortex 1x which i prefer. 1x is plenty and it only weighs 6 oz.

Which are damned hard to find these days.

LMAO! I have on of those I put on my .45 Colt lever gun. Actually worked just fine. Have since replaced it with a Leupold 2-7x33mm Shotgun scope. Was pretty surprised how well that Tasco worked tho.

Not quite... my turkey gun is a 3-4 inch pattern at 30 yards. I run a Burris FFIII on a Speed Bead

.22 Hornet over 12 gauge with turkey scope- circle over cross hairs and if head fills circle, use shotgun! If body fits, use Hornet.

Rifle good for kills out to 125 yards or so. Have shot several gobblers feeding or running at 75 + yards. Rifle also good for coyotes, raccoons, and prairie dogs.

I use a Weaver 1.5X5 with a diamond reticle. It's an older scope and I don't believe they make it anymore, but it works great.

The wise man (not me) would have bought every one that Camofire had on sale a few years back...can't believe what they bring today.

I saw this one CDNN, and thought it might make a decent bird gun scope.

https://www.cdnnsports.com/bushnell-1-75-4x32-trophy-xlt-circle-x-realtree-ap.html#.XhiDVchKiCg

No - and I wouldn't need illumination were I would be hunting, as a rule.

Due to the unobtainium of the Nikon Turkey Pro and/or Leupold w/Turkey Plex, I grabbed a Konus 1.5-5. Haven't had an opportunity to shoot the gun with it mounted. Crossing my fingers that it holds up.

Konus 1.5-5

You must have a good one. I have the same in 223 & 12 gauge and the shot patter is quite a bit lower... about 6 inches so I have to hold up higher when using the shotgun.

I'm still experimenting with mine and think a lower red dot may help. Or high rings with a gap under them so I can see the iron sights or bead.

What in the world do you want to carry a scope around for? I walk too much to go adding weight.

I had a Leupold M8 Compact 2.5X on an Ithaca 37 for years. Shot hundreds of rounds through under it. Love it. I shot it so much that I tended to hold it very loose when patterning or switching to slugs for whitetail hunting. That scope has a 4in eye relief. I got hit twice with it. Blood running off the nose both times. Your Konus has an eye relief of 2.9 inches.That would be a bit short for me.
Jim

My 80 year old eyes need more help than my 80 year old feet.
I can carry a 6.5 oz. scope. Though it may be a burden for you it's OK for me. YMMV
Jim

The Bushnell from CDNN is your huckleberry. Great price!!!!

I would rather not have to carry that extra weight also but like mentioned that little bead just got too hard to find with my older eyes and mine are only 52.

Fiber optic front and rear sights for me. Must admit, a scope would be better, but just something else to carry or break

Any Suggestions on Fiber Optic sights on a Vent-Ribbed Encore or suggestions on how to put a red dot on a Vent-Rinbed Encore. I’m almost blind at 26 and seeing the little bead is hard for me with glasses.

Does Leupold still offer that "Turkey Ranger" reticle ? Put a Leupold 2.5x 20 mm compact with that reticle on a Mossberg 500 Turkey gun back in 2001 and it's still going strong. Parallax set at 40 yards. The reticle designed to subtend 9" from top of center post to crosshairs intersection at 40 yards. ( (9" = distance from top of average turkeys head to base of its neck ). And 2.5x is plenty of power for shotgun turkey hunting ranges. I may have heard that reticle is no longer around, but don't recall for sure. It's a nice setup IMO and would be a shame if it were discontinued.

I liked my williams fiber optioc sights with the rear sight as a ring and not a notch sight.

Weaver Kaspa sits on top of my only 12ga that I still hunt with. My eyes aren’t what they used to be and the scope really helps close the deal for me. No point and shoot with it. I actually aim and shoot it like a rifle. Knock on wood, I haven’t missed a bird with a scope.

No scope , but love my eotech

I use a Bushnell trophy 1.75-4 with a circle x reticle and the CDNN sale price for the scope, including BC scope covers, is a very good deal!

I use the tru glo brand fiber optic sight that clips on the vent rib, they make different sizes for different widths of vent ribs, they are cheap and they work well. I've bought several at wally world over the years for $10ish, has a front and rear sight.

I've used a Bushnell and also a BSA 1.5-4.5x the latter is what's on the shotgun now.

My eyes went bad decades ago, and I found it was hard to focus on the bead and the bird at the same time. I keep the magnification down around 2.5x

1.75 x 5 tasco world class, many turkeys and slugs for deer. Still working

I don't hunt with open sights anymore for the same reason. Get a set of fiber optic open sights. I can't focus on the bird and the sights, but I can put the red blur between the two green blurs well enough to hit a turkey's head every time. Remember your sweet spot is 10" in diameter. It requires a lot less precision than shooting a rifle.

Nope I have 2 turkey guns, both with fiber optic irons.. which I like. I thought about a scope for a second.. but 30-30yd shots.. nah don't need a scope.

I thought the same thing. Over the years I’ve had several opportunities get away from me because I couldn’t get on target or couldn’t tell for sure if a bird was legal. Once everything greens up here the understory can get thick. Having a 4x scope I know for a fact has added to my beard and fan collection.

While I love reflex sights, I only moved to them from scopes to shave weight and bulk. I've killed a bunch of turkeys with scoped rigs. I've got a Pentax Lightseeker 2.5x with circle ret at the house that I never mounted. It has the old Advantage camo on it. I bought it from a guy that had barely used it, so very good condition. Holler at me if that sounds like something you want to try.

I’ve never had not having a scope cost me a bird......but I’ve had some close calls at close range, where I clipped a neck with the edge of the golf ball sized pattern, inside 15yards. I intend to go to one, but think I’d prefer a scope over a red dot....just because I’m not a huge RD fan for hunting and didn’t like the FF2 I did try a while back. I’d think that Pentax 2.5 would be a heckuva start.

I ended up buying a leupold 1-4x20 hog with the hog plex reticle. I found it and guy made me a pretty decent deal so I decided to try it. I havnt had time to swap it yet but think I'll like the little,scope. Will post my opinion after it get it mounted.

Reloader7RM, would be interested in unloading the Pentax? I absolutely love that scope. I’ve used one for years and would like to find one to put in the daughters 20 gage. She wants mine but I ain’t giving it up...lol...I do like the reflex sights as well, and have a venom on my SXP...

Below is my Scoped Savage 24 combo Turkey gun: .22 Hornet over 12 ga. The scope has a circle and cross hairs. If the turkey head does not fit into the circle, use the shotgun and if it does use the Hornet out to 150 yards. A Hornet in the heart is always fatal.
This rig solved my worries with range and has ALWAYS done the job for me.


Works for prairie dogs out to 150 yards too.
I also have an 18 inch .45-70 insert barrel that slips into the 12 gauge barrel. It is deer hunting-accurate to 100 yards and muffles the report nicely.

I use a Leupold VX-3 1.5-5x20 on a Remington 11/87 and a 870

Well the follow up after a tough season. I killed a couple with it. I made one moving shot with ease. The scope is light and doesn’t after balance at all. I have been very pleased with it and don’t plan to make any changes. I do like to ability to turn it up to 4x and see more detail.
The only way I would change it would be if I found a deal on a trigacon with the green triangle