Ever wonder who the outdoor writer was that convinced the Turkey world that we need to count how many pellets are in a 10" circle....and that was the best judge of a Turkey gun ?

I'll admit for years I kinds fell for it....but I always included the total and thedistrabution of pellets in a 24" circle as the true Quantitative test.

Just kidding rednecks don't worry about words like"Quantative" unless it's used in a little Johnny Joke.

No.

Just hunt the way you like. Don't worry about what other people tell you or think. I can't stand that recreational hunting has been turned into a competition. It's not. Just hunt ethically and within your capabilities and you're then doing it right.

Back in the very early 80s, my first "turkey gun" was a New Haven 600 (a Montgomery Wards brand Mossberg 500) with a 28" plain barrel and a poly choke. I hunted with 2 3/4" #4 or #6, whatever I had. I took one Lynch box call with me and learned to use it by trial and error, because there were no tapes (at least I didn't have any) and all I knew was what I read. I learned what worked and what didn't. Pretty soon I got reasonably competent. Given today's standards, I never should have stood a chance back then.

If whatever you're doing is working and it's ethical, who cares what anyone else thinks or does. Just let it go.

Me either......

I must have hurt your feelings

I've honestly never used a circle, of any size, and counted hits. I'm a retired electrician and have plenty of old blueprints. I'll use the backside on one of those pages, trace out my arm with a marker from the elbow area up to my hand made into a fist and rotated down to simulate a turkeys head and neck. Then I shoot those at different yardages to figure out how far would be too far just by looking at the pattern. Worked well for me all these years...

I think the 10" thing all came from the turkey gun competition shoots that were popular once upon a time, they may still be I don't know.

Those guys were shooting smaller targets

I know someone who would load his own with syrup to keep shot mostly together. He won so much that they finally had to ban non factory loads.

i use a a 10 inch cirle when foolingw ith load choke combos. then start the process of zeroeing the gun. usually i at 10 yards with a paper plat and low brass loads. put a blak dot about an inch big in the center of the plate and get the shot to land in that dot. then I do the same with a turkey load. after that I move to 25, repeat with turkey loads and move to 40. once its dialed in at 40 I morev to 5 and 60 with turkey head targets overlaid into an 8 inch circle. i think shoot N See makes them. i'll start counting pellets then my current 870 set ud stillputs 160 plus pellets in the head and neck at 55 at 25 yards its just a big golf ball sized hole in the target

I reckon it's no different than benching a hunting rifle and shooting 3 or 5 shot groups at 100 yards and quantifying the gun's merits by the size of the groups.

I hunt turkeys with tricked out guns & chokes / loads with optics. I sight in at 30" paper. I then find the densest 10" circle. Within that, I find the 3" core of density and move my optics accordingly. No different than taking my rifle and reloading press to the range and tweaking loads as I go. I don't like to miss when I'm hunting.

As an aside............. I also occasionally hunt turkeys with a 90 year old Iver Johnson Champion 12 gauge and a Winchester Model 21 in 16 gauge, so..............

To each, his own, I guess.............

A ten inch pattern at 55 yards is awful small.

and a turkey's head is even smaller, but I kill them every year, last year I shot one at 8 yards, and one 53. and 2 more at 20 ish.

Doesn't anyone just use turkey silhouette targets? You can get a whole stack of them for cheap.

I have a turkey head and neck drawn on a clear plastic disk and overlay it on my target dot.

Shooting 10" at 40 yards is a simple metric to compare results of different loads and choke combinations and point of impact vs. point of aim.

I don't know who came up with this standard for turkey hunting. For card shooters, you hear a lot of pattern minimums for a good shooter.

I cannot say who, but I can say when. It would be some time after 1982-- maybe later than 1988. I say this, because when I got into turkey hunting in the early 80's, the rule of thumb was 2 pellets in a dixie cup at whatever yardage you were shooting. There were no dedicated turkey guns or choke tubes or turkey ammo. That came somewhat later.

When I got into the sport, turkey hunters were mostly still using 12 GA trap guns with 2 3/4" loads. If you had a 40 yard gun, it was a peach. The minimum was passing the dixie cup test at 20 yards.

When I started it was a soup can on a fence post, if you could knock the soup can off the post, you were good to go. Hunting mostly woods back then, it was years before I ever killed a turkey that was more than 25 yards away.

You guy's are working at killing Turkey's to hard, 410 at 20-25 yards will do the job, don't worry about the damn pattern just shoot the S.O.B. it's not that hard. Rio7

I was told 7-8 pellet in the head and neck of a turkey silhouette target and you're good to go,

As far as the 10 inch circle thing... it was technically us. By that I mean US consumers needed a way to quantify how well the chokes and shells we buy are and the industry started it to SELL to US.

Its better than some good ole boy saying... it shoots good bubba.

Also having a pellet count is more ethical than the goof that believes it only takes one pellet to kill or wound it and I will still get it. It may reduce the Sky Buster mentality.

If you can't handle the system, just ignore it.

I too remember when the 7 pellet was the magic number.
For me hearing that, it was after the soup can days.

Here's a 25 yard pattern I shot with my 24" barreled Benelli SBE. 3.5" Winchester Long Beard, 2 oz of #4 shot, Pattern Master "Code Black Turkey" choke tube.

I had just put my 1-4x24 Swarovski scope with a circle dot reticle back on the gun...shot both patterns somewhere between 2 and 3 power.

50 yards....I moved the scope down some and need to shoot it again before season. I shot both targets on a Hart rest off a benchrest.
I'd rather test at 20 or 25, 40 and 60 yards but my gun club has two 100 yard ranges and only one range with 25 and 50 yard stands.

Turkeys and Coyotes 50 yards away i shoot with a rifle, never was a fan of long range shotgun. Rio7

I'm not a fan either but its good to know it's there for human error.

I have only used red dots other than just the bead for turkey hunting.
How hard is it to get behind a scope and find the bird when they are close?

Not hard at all if you're fluent in the use of a scope....a running deer isn't hard to get on with a scope.

I used to sit low to the ground on a tree there a scope can cause a problem. Hard to get your eye close enough to see through the ocular of the scope slouched down against a tree.....I grew out of that.

I ether use an Avery Power Seat (discontinued glad I bought two of them) or a 3 legged "Blackout" collapsing chair (also discontinued glad I bought two of them) or I just stand up.....if I'm setting and I think the gobbler is coming I'll likely stand up take a leak and get my gun on my Tracks Hiking/shooting stick (Also discontinued glad I bought a couple of them) and lean back against a small tree.
I haven't kept up with it but I'm sure I've killed close to 100 gobblers standing up....some took 20 minutes to come some took an hour or more to come.

I learned this technique/method when I was forced to hunt an entire turkey season with a fractured femur head....killed 7 gobblers that year (that's a number and a pain that I'll never forget and hope to never have to repeat).

You guys friends, now?

Good.

I never knew we weren't

Just hunt a different style and type of gun.

He talking to me and you ?

had a buddy that got "scope rash" about 13 or 14 stiches form his 835 shooting a turkey with a scope on it.
After seeing him, I didn't want to mess with one on a thumper turkey gun

Years ago when I got started chasing these birds if you could put 4 or 5 pellets in his head at your longest yardage, it was good to go. Remember I would shoot couple shells each season to make sure every thing still lined up. If I could get out to 30-35 yards that was as far as I would shoot. Was always trying to call him in where I could see his eyes and could even tell which way he was looking. Mouth call him with a cluck to bring them out of strut...not a diaphragm...with my mouth. Still do it when gets real close, seems like my trust is with my mouth rather than the diaphragm that might not make that perfect cluck I am looking. Anyway, if we was to go back to playing this game like this we would not have to be shooting at these long ranges, using these decoys with the toms and jakes in a spread to fool that ole bird, sitting in a blind peeping out a window, and on and on. I know a guy that has a gobbler on some type of remote control mounted on a small car or truck....don't know if that is legal or not but he is happy. Seems like we sometime try to convince our self that the more of these gadgets we can come up with and just got to have...latest shells, calls, blinds, decoys,guns, camo and many more I suppose. This is a simple game playing with this ole bird and to me simple is the most enjoying when you throw that big guy cross your shoulder....and if you don't, maby he will give me another chance at first light in morning waiting for that first gobble of the day...and I am just a stump sitting there as he walks by.

Glad to see there are others left that feel like I do about it.

Man, gun and a Turkey call....