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Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 7,003
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OP
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Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 7,003 |
Once again drew my fall turkey permit here in Colorado. The past two years, have scored using my .22 Hornet and 45 gr. softpoints. What is everyone else using, for calibers and bullets?
I'd rather be a free man in my grave, than living as a puppet or a slave....
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Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 584
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 584 |
I use a Remington 5mm Magnum the most, then my Ruger 22 Hornet, using 45gr Barnes XLC (I have a lot of them), and, once in a while, a Sako in 222RemMag with reduced loads.
I'm thinking of using my Ruger Security Six in 357mag this fall.
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Joined: Nov 2013
Posts: 28,778
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Nov 2013
Posts: 28,778 |
My notion, as yet unfulfilled, is to use 46gr Speer HPs designed for the .218 in my Hornet at about 2000-2200. Have the bullets, just need the load. Only get a short season in this county, so I may have to branch out a bit if I want to give it a serious go.
What fresh Hell is this?
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Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 11,322
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 11,322 |
Here in TN we have not got a rifle season. Never used one on a turkey so I am not sure how I feel about using one,
I may not be smart but I can lift heavy objects
I have a shotgun so I have no need for a 30-06.....
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Joined: May 2021
Posts: 3,511
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: May 2021
Posts: 3,511 |
Rifles were allowed in Mississippi years back....took them years before they figured out people were shooting turkeys off the roads and outlawed their use.
Turkeys shot at long distance with a rifle is not considered turkey hunting by most all turkey hunters.
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Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 1,899
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 1,899 |
221 fireball with 50 grain. But no more, rifles now illegal for next fall here due to lower populations. Shotgun only in spring and now fall. Thing is, I doubt rifle hunters take that many to make much difference one way or the other.
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Joined: Dec 2016
Posts: 5,769
Campfire Tracker
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Joined: Dec 2016
Posts: 5,769 |
No rifles for turkey here in Illinois, deer either. But I can go coyote hunting with anything I want! Lol!
It isn't what happens to you that defines you, it's what you DO about what happens to you that defines you!
NRA life member
Illinois State Rifle Association member
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Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 17,783
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 17,783 |
I like my .222 or .22-250.. As the great hunter Davis said, because I hunt for sport and not meat, I use a rifle... For years I used only a rifle, then tried a shotgun.. Wow that is pure murder.. About as difficult as hitting aBud can on a fence post.... TRY calling in a bird and shooting it with a rifle!!!
Molon Labe
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Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 17,783
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 17,783 |
The Pa. decision is crap.. Bowhunters and the Wild Turkey Fed. is behind that move.. Pa. caters to what ever these two want.. Glad my days there are over...
Molon Labe
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Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 2,543
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 2,543 |
The Pa. decision is crap.. Bowhunters and the Wild Turkey Fed. is behind that move.. Pa. caters to what ever these two want.. Glad my days there are over... Yes sir, you are right!. I got a nice gobbler a couple of years ago with my 17 hornet.
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Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 1,164
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 1,164 |
took first bird with 22 hornet at about 140 yards. everybody gave me a bunch of poop, so the next year same rifle but snuck up to about 10 yards. that stoped the poop flow really quick. pre war mod. 70 by the way. D O M I T !
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Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 7,757
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 7,757 |
Rifles are legal in Virginia and I hunted turkeys exclusively with a Ruger mod 77 Ultralight in .223 Rem for several years but I found that for the terrain I hunt a shotgun is a much better turkey slayer so I have not hunted turkeys with a rifle for a couple decades now. If I were to take up a rifle for turkeys again it would likely be chambered in 22 Hornet.....Good hunting...Hb
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Joined: Nov 2013
Posts: 28,778
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Nov 2013
Posts: 28,778 |
The old-timey rounds like .32/20, .25/20, and even the original .22 Hornet are classic turkey cartridges, used at woods ranges, not for sniping at long range. Another good choice is a .36-.45 caliber roundball, fired from a classy ML, or an equivalent fired from a centerfire. Back in the day, such loads were commonly put together by one-gun hunters, and there were even some factory small-game loads for classic deer cartridges. Now, everyone has a special rifle for every conceivable use.
Old gunwriter Jim Carmichael wrote of calling turkeys in close and shooting them in the head or neck with “a cleverly concocted rifle cartridge”, certainly at least as sporting as greasing them with a double handful of birdshot at the same ranges. No one is openly advocating treating turkeys like big, feathered woodchucks, but slobs are going to do what they do regardless of the law. Doesn’t make sense to penalize everyone for what a few do.
What fresh Hell is this?
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Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 594
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Oct 2008
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The Pa. decision is crap.. Bowhunters and the Wild Turkey Fed. is behind that move.. Pa. caters to what ever these two want.. Glad my days there are over... Yep and there are a lot of unhappy PA turkey hunters who had no input.
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Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 5,513
Campfire Tracker
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Joined: Mar 2010
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Yep and there are a lot of unhappy PA turkey hunters who had no input.
PA is famous for stupid game laws and not giving a rat's a-hole for hunter input. That's how we got antler restrictions. But for decades............... it was legal for me to use a .220 Swift, 7-STW or .460 Weatherby for fall birds. But NOT #2 lead shot in a shotgun. I, personally, am a shotgun guy for turkeys through and through. But the one time I carried a rifle in the fall, I took a 5mm Remington Magnum out for about an hour. It was just a nostalgic whim.
Wollen nicht krank dein feind. Planen es.
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Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 5,615
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 5,615 |
I wish we could hunt them with rifles here. If given the chance, I'd carry a Marlin .25/20 or Marlin 62 .30 Carbine. Actually, I'd love to shoot one at shotgun range with my Great Grandad's old Hopkins & Allen .32 RF falling block. The bore is rough but I think I could manage a body shot at 30 yards.
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Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 7,757
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 7,757 |
I think a cool turkey rifle would be a classic lever action chambered in .44 Magnum, maybe a Henry Big Boy 👍......Hb
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Joined: Oct 2013
Posts: 3,619
Campfire Tracker
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Joined: Oct 2013
Posts: 3,619 |
I like my .222 or .22-250.. As the great hunter Davis said, because I hunt for sport and not meat, I use a rifle... For years I used only a rifle, then tried a shotgun.. Wow that is pure murder.. About as difficult as hitting aBud can on a fence post.... TRY calling in a bird and shooting it with a rifle!!! Well, depends on where you shoot them……head is certainly more difficult, but I had no issues calling them into certain shotgun range and putting a 22 rimfire in their head…..mostly with open sights…..but I was far younger, too. Rifles used to be legal in AL, with open sights only. Texas didn’t seem to care. Plenty of folks used more gun and shot the top of the back, and saved the breast.
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Joined: May 2021
Posts: 3,511
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: May 2021
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I like my .222 or .22-250.. As the great hunter Davis said, because I hunt for sport and not meat, I use a rifle... For years I used only a rifle, then tried a shotgun.. Wow that is pure murder.. About as difficult as hitting aBud can on a fence post.... TRY calling in a bird and shooting it with a rifle!!! Only Turkey stories I recall reading by Davis were about him shooting turkeys out of trees with rifles.
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Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 17,783
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 17,783 |
He has abook called The American Wild Turkey.. Very hard to find and very costly and full of information on turkeys.. Much of what the old timers did has been cast in a negative light by the Wild Turkey Fed.. The old timers felt only a dirt bag would kill a gobbler during mating season.. But they were hunters.. Hunting turkey like other game.. Not using its weakest time to kill them and think they have done something great...
Molon Labe
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