Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting Red Dot sight range

Gonna put a Red Dot sight on my turkey gun. What range are you users sighting your sights at .Thank you

I go out to 40 yards because thats where it helps in precise placement way out there.

I have 5 guns that are topped with Fast Firs 3's. I start at 20 with dove loads. Then run it out to 40 w hand loaded TSS. Have always been close to 40. Left and right are no issue, I can see the barrels through the red dots.

I'll start close as well, inside 20 yards, to zero it and then check patterns with it out to 50 yards or so using 20ga 3" TSS turkey shells. Easier to "zero" it close, putting the dot in the center of your pattern (sometimes just one bigger hole if it's close enough with the turkey choke tube).

I zero close enough I get a distinct "hole" in the target. Usually 20 yards with my 10 gauge. I want to basically obliterate a 2" dot. Then I check pattern density and spread at 40 yards.

Put a full choke in the gun and start with a standard field/trap load at 13 yards. You will get a ragged hole in the target as if you are shooting a slug. Sight in to put that shot hole perfectly left/right and about 2" high at 13 yards. That shouldn't take more than a few shots. Now you can move out to 40 yards and shoot on a large area of paper/cardboard. Shoot and locate your center point of impact firing that same trap load. After sighting the trap load in at 40 yards, switch to the actual hunting load. It most likely won't take more than 3-5 of those expensive turkey loads to get you perfectly sighted in.

I am a 40 yard sighter inner guy myself.

Zero at 10 yards with cheap bird shot and fine tune at 40 yards with the ammo you’ll be hunting with.

Pretty much what everyone else said.

I shoot a few low brass at 20 to rough it in. Then go to my turkey loads at 40 for finer tuning.

Not much hidden rocket science to it.

Side question... Do you guys shoot one shot close and then adjust the dot to the center of the pattern?

I've done this with rifles, but never a red dot.

When I had a 9 moa dot sight on my shotgun, I did this: I measure the distance between the center of the bore and the center of the lense. Put 2 dots on a piece of paper that was that distance apart. Taped the paper to the wall. Put the muzzle on the bottom dot and adjust the sight to be on the top dot. I could see the tip of the muzzle in sight window so I knew the windage was going to be fairly good. Took it to the range. I fired it a 12" steel plate at 40 yards. I didn't shoot first at a shorter distance. On the first shot my pellets peppered the bottom 3rd of the plate. I adjusted from there until I had a uniform pattern on the plate. I never had to make any windage adjustment. Then fired buckshot and turkey loads at a much bigger sheet of cardboard to verify all was good and it was. There were probably better ways to do it, but this got it done and I shot maybe around 8 to 10 shells.

I zero my guns at 40 yards once have shot dove loads at 20 yards to confirm where it is hitting. I learned years ago that a clean barrel out of my guns shoot a tighter patterns. The way I get it clean is to have the last patch perfectly clean, put the gun up in the outside sky and can see no streaks or specks of anything. After letting it sit for a few days check it again, and most of the time you will see some streaks of powder in the barrel.....clean it again. May take several times of doing this but eventually it will come out perfect clean. I was getting good groups without cleaning it again after few days, but once I started checking the barrel after sitting for a while and cleaning it again my groups really tighten up. Just shoot a shell you are hunting with at 40 yards and move the dot to the center of the pattern....I like my pattern to be even from top to bottom and left to right. Got two 20 gauges set up like this and know where they will hit from near and far.

Yep. Put a 2” dot on a cardboard backer at 10 yards. Aim at dot, shoot 1 shot. Put red dot back on 2” dot after firing, make sure the gun doesn’t move, and adjust dot to the center of the hole in the target from the 1st shot. Move target to 40, shoot turkey load at 2” dot. If not centered, draw 2” circle in center of pattern. Repeat process used at 10 yards to zero red dot on center of pattern. Shoot 3rd shot at fresh backer to confirm zero. Sighted in in 3 shots. Rarely does it take 4. I then test different chokes loads to determine the best one in my gun, zero the dot to the best load and choke, and commence to killing.

the way I did mine was to shoot one shot at 40 yards, walk to the target and find what looks to be the center of the pattern. I next mark that and go back and very carefully move the POA to the POI. I have a very good bench rest set up when doing this. I can usually sight in with no more than 3 shots most of the time 2.

To answer your question, 40 yds for me.

^^^Same for me^^^

40 here