Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting Let's see those magic fAiry dust patterns.

If I ever start hunting Hummingbirds I might try it.....should work great on bumble bees too.

I think.........maybe......... I see where you're coming from. To me, the HTL shot pellets are totally silly in 10 and 12 gauges unless you're into turkey sniping instead of turkey hunting. 40 yards has been the age-old threshold between having called a turkey in and beaten him or not. At 40 yards, any 12 or 10 that'll accept screw-in tubes can be made into a killer with #6 lead shot. It's when you choose to go sub-gauge that the heavier pellets aren't so silly. Aside from the Longbeard XR (which I have not patterned and don't know) which MAY carry enough pattern density in a 20 gauge to make it a reliable 40 yard gun.......lead offerings for 20's limit them back into the 30's of yards. It gets even less with the 28 and .410 until you throw some Heavy 7's or TSS 8's or 9's into the mix. The lethality of the fairy dusts is not even an argument anymore. The stuff patterns, penetrates and kills with authority. Kills the wallet, too. But in the grand scheme of things, a $7 or $9 shell is a pittance along side what is paid for guns, optics, license, trip expenses, etc.

Besides.........hummingbirds are really small. The added pattern density of the fairy dust pellets would really up your chances of not having them little boogers fly through a hole in your pattern.

The lethality of TSS at long ranges will always be in question....

I started turkey hunting with #4 shot because to me it made the most sense and was the biggest shot legal in my state.

I guess I read some article by some idiot outdoor writer that might have killed less turkeys than me and went to shooting some #6 shot. For a time I toted both in my vest. I ran into some penetration issues with #6 shot on a few turkeys and stopped shooting #6 shot years ago....I've dabbled with #5 shot and for a few years I got tricked into shooting Nitro ammo 4x5x7 Hevi shot (I was getting them for free) then went back to #4s.

I've killed a few turkeys with a really nice 1973 W.C.Scott 12ga.hammer gun with 20 ga. Full length Briley tubes in it....It patterned best with imp. mod chokes and Federal 2&3/4 lead #4 shot....I considered it a sure kill 35 yard gun.

My first shotgun was a 20ga....I dreamed of the day I was man enough to shoot a 12 ga.

I laugh when I see the old man riding a Harley....guess he never rode one when he was young.

I don't understand why you are having problems with #6 shot. Are you taking body shots at long ranges?

I don't use any optic on my shotguns, except a slug gun. I have TruGlo adjustable sights on the rib of my Winchester SX4. I just stick with the stock fiber optic on my A5. Same on my Ithaca. 40 yards is about as far as I would, or even could, shoot a turkey. Even at 40 yards that head looks awfully small. I know some folks hunt open land where a longer shot might be practical. In the bottomlands I hunt, I usually can't even see an approaching bird until it's inside 40 yards. Beyond that, he's usually out somewhere hidden by greenbrier brambles. There's some exceptions, but not many for me. At those ranges, and with decent shot placement, I have never had a problem with lethality of #4, #5 or #6 lead shot, whether it was coming from a 3 1/2" shell or a 2 3/4" shell. I have no doubt #9 TSS is just as lethal given proper placement and reasonable range.

I never shot #4 lead but did try #6 lead and it did the job for me but my gun patterned better with #5 lead so that is what I used when I shot 12 ga. I went from lead to Hevi #6 after seeing how much better the pattern was in my gun. I tried HW7 and it did ok in my 12 ga. but did not shine till I hand loaded it as opposed to shooting factory stuff. I think it was the wad that my gun/choke did not like with the factory stuff. After my first shoulder surgery and recovery, I tried the 12 ga at the pattern board and I could not take the recoil. My arm fell limp and stayed that way for over an hour. I thought I was screwed for life but after about an hour I could start to move it again. I was not sure what I was going to do about turkey hunting after that. A buddy sent me some 20 ga 1 7/16 TSS shells and told me to try them (they had been on my shelf in my reloading room for a few years as I could not see how they would work better than what I had) I remembered them and got one of my 20 gauges out and tried one shot on paper at 40 yards. The pattern was good and the recoil was no where near what I was getting form the 12 ga. so I was able to turkey hunt that spring. I have only killed 2 turkeys with a 12 ga since that time. Both were in TX after my red dot sight went down on my 20 ga. I could hardly move my arm afterword's. Fast forward 16 more years and had to have a second surgery on the same shoulder. I sold all my big mag. rifles, except a 257 WBY but the rest are gone.
During all this, I found that you do not have to be beat to death in order to hunt. The "Manly Gun" thing is BS, use good hunting skills, get the game in close, put the shot or bullet where it should be and you will bring the game home.
Once again shoot what you want and hunt the way you want and if at the end of the day you are happy, all is good.

I have never intentionally shot a turkey in the body at any range.

The problem I saw with #6 lead was at 40 yards they lacked penetration. Two gobblers came in 'one was doing all the gobbling'....boom he got up and ran off. I paced off the distance several times 40 long steps sat back down and scratched my head.

A couple hours later I got back to my truck hit my call one last time....a gobbler cut me off.

I reloaded with a #4 shell I suited back up and started towards him....it was very dry and noisy to walk so as I went up the hill I was scratching the leaves with one foot every few steps trying to sound like a turkey....he was gobbling like hell every step I took. I sat down just below the crest he gobbled just over the hill out of sight.....when he did I immediately called on top of his gobble with a diaphragm call he went nuts....no way I was going to screw this up.
There was two gobblers and 'one was doing all the gobbling'.

As they approached he was coming through some grape vines I figured they would go past the vines one dipped his head and came under the grape vines the shot was about 10 or 15 yards at most. I hit him at the base of the neck....tore the top of his breast and his beard up pretty good. Luck has it I shot the one that was doing all the gobbling.

When I cleaned him I found some #6 pellets in his breast that didn't penetrate to the vitals....from the earlier 40 yard shot.

Pullit if I physically had to shoot a 20 ga. I suspect would....

I hunted one spring with a fractured femur head I couldn't put my boots on by myself and had to walk on crutches in terrible pain (imagine a Bowie knife sticking in your hip joint) I figured I wouldn't kill a turkey that year but I went most every day and I killed 7 long beards that year.

Hopefully I won't ever reach the day I can't tote or shoot a 12 ga. if I do I suspect I'll tote a 20 ga. or just set on the porch.

I was hunting on a friends place and was going out a ridge calling, had one gobble back and I knew he was in a big food plot on out to my left. As I got to the finger that went to that food plot, I knew I could go no further as he would see me. I sat down and purred a little on my mouth call. I was on a little rise and thought he was going to walk straight out the logging road that lead to the food plot. Instead he was on the low side of the logging road and I could barely see his head as he stepped out onto the main ridge road. He looked up and down the ridge road and could not find "the hen" as was starting back the way he came when I shot him. I was so focused on him that I did not see some saplings between him and me. I walked over and picked him up and laid him on the finger road and went back the 25 or so yards to get my vest and cushion. That is when I noticed the back side of those 3/4" or so inch saplings. The TSS went clean thru to green saplings and sheared them up. I took pictures of the bird and the saplings and sent them to my buddy that I got the TSS from.
I am not saying that the same exact pellets that went thru the saplings were the same ones that killed the bird but there was no question TSS will penetrate after seeing what it did to those saplings. I have changed phones since then and no longer have those pictures or I would post them here.

Don't care who are, you hunt long enough and you will see some crazy things both good and bad when hunting.

I've shot some down with lead and killed turkeys too....

TN use to have a limit of 4 birds until this last year. One year I killed 8 in that year. I limited in TN and went to TX which also had a 4 bird limit. A guy that we know use to let us come hunt for free there in TX. He would tell us, "you know where the land is and where the property lines are, help yourself". In Tx you can kill all 4 birds at one time (if it works out) unlike TN where you can only kill one bird per day.
I killed 4 birds in a day and a half in TX 3 of the 4 were double beards. We did that for several years until he figured out he could lease out the turkey hunting rights.

Trust me. I was in the same school of thought until about 4 years ago. A comedy (it wasn't that funny) of errors and equipment failure on a Nebraska Merriam's hunt sidelined my SX3 (3 1/2" Longbeard XR #6's) and I was using my backup gun. It was a NEF Pardner 20 gauge that was tricked out by SumToy Customs. I was shooting 3" Federal Heavy 7's.

Called a beautiful snow tip down a mountain road over the course of an hour or better. Watched him coming for a couple hundred yards and had picked a spot at 35 yards where I was going to go hammertime. The rotten turd came about 600 yards down the road and decided to scale the mountainside just before he got to where I planned to shoot. As he started up the bank, I (call it a rookie mistake) still had him figured to be in range. I put the dot on the base of his neck and lit one off. The bird just fell over backwards and rolled down on to the road. Didn't even flop. When I got to him, his head was tore up. Exit wounds. I could have shown it to anyone and said "25 yards" and they'd have believed me. Truth of the matter is, not being used to hunting the wide open spaces, it was my worst case of range misestimation EVER. After the fact.........like a dumbass.........I lasered back to the tree I was sitting against when I shot. 53 yards. I was disappointed and ashamed of myself at the same time. My lifetime average across every turkey I've ever shot is a 28 1/2 yard shot. So this is a confession, not a brag in ANY WAY. But the fact of the matter is that the Heavy 7 pellets did (with authority) at 53 yards what no 20 gauge lead load would do short of having a rabbit's foot in your pocket and a horseshoe up your arse.

Having only shot TSS at paper from my .410, I have no experience to comment. Only opinion. But TSS is more dense than the original Federal Heavyweight shot. I would think you could get very similar results from TSS pellets 1 size smaller, at least.

That's a lot of birds. Va is a 3 bird yearly limit with no more than 2 in either the fall or the spring. And we have a lot of birds.

We have a regional airport nearby in my city and there are so many turkeys I see them in people's front yards. No hunting in the city. I guess they know that.

Carve THAT in a stone somewhere. Yep.

Yoder,
I have to admit to one myself. First time I hunted a 20 ga in TX, I was hunting a field that had a step that ran the full length of the field. There was about an 8-10 foot difference in elevation between the upper field and the lower field. I was just over the edge of the field on the lower section. I had a camera mounted to my gun and was going to film the hunt. I had a hen and 4 long breads heading my way in the upper field. Everything was going great but all I could see were the heads as they got closer. I turned on the camera and all of a sudden one of the gobblers decided to look over the edge of the step in the field. He was no more than maybe 5 yards from me when I shot him. The rest of the birds went everywhere in the field and I found my next bird and shot him. After that everything was way too far. I felt something at my feet and looked, it was the camera, the velcro came loose on the first shot and it had fallen at my feet. I picked up my first bird and the camera and there laid my second bird out in the field so I walked over to it and looked back where I had been, it was 57 yards. I could not see the ground from over the lip of the step and only saw the head and upper part of his body. I was shocked that the TSS had killed him dead without a wiggle, and was pissed at myself for having shot that far. I would have never shot that far if I had known. Without something to gauge off of I could not tell.
I went back and looked at the video on the first bird and since the camera was mounted under the barrel and all that was over the bank was the turkeys head, all the video showed was me mounting the gun, the camera was looking at the dirt and at the shot, it falling off and me kicking the camera around as I was setting up to shoot the second bird. To say it would not have made Realtree Outdoors video list was an understatement.

I can tell you that TSS will kill one stone dead at 57 yards. Will it do it every time, I hope to never find out as I hope to never shoot one anywhere near that far again.

The only time I worry about shooting too far, is when I'm shooting my 12 gauge with lead shot! Lol!

I just got my new 20 gauge "fairy dust spreader."

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I think I'll name her Tinkerbell.

I like it,
Is it just the picture or is the wood and metal matt finished? The only BPS I have ever seen have been high gloss wood and bright shiny blue.

Yeah, that's not a very good picture. The sun was glaring directly at my camera so there's flare in the picture. Here's a better one. The finish is matte. Not rough matte like Remingtons. Just a nice, smooth matter. It's also my only shotgun with a metal front bead. I need to find the right sized HiViz or TruGlo front fiber optic.



It's also got a 28" barrel. It's a general purpose gun I intend to use for turkey and small game. I would have gotten a 26" or 24" barrel but this is what I could find.

Nice guns.

I bought one for my grandson last year in an auction for $425 plus shipping...mint unfired factory engraved made in 1997 22 inch barrel standard invector choked woman's/youth model. I thought I pretty much stole it.