Gun handling while working bird

[Turkeyman]

Yup, shoot em with your opposite side. it's not hard just make sure your head is down and close your dominant eye.

I always take a practice shot or two prior to season with my opposite hand, and have killed a few that way. Using a red dot I don't have to worry about dominant eye nor perfect head position.

[howl]

I've been surprised over the years how much movement I get away with. Part of it is I set up so the bird has to be in range before I can see it. Anyhow, you want to keep the gun pointed where you think the bird is. It might be in sight, but you still slowly track it with the barrel. Like I said, I'm usually doing this with a bird that hasn't popped into view yet but I do it with birds I can see, too.

I think most experienced turkey hunters can tell when a bird is coming on in most of the time. It is funny to tell someone you're calling for "to relax its not time yet" or "get your gun up he's coming" and see whether or not they believe you. "How'd you know he was coming?" "Well, he said so."

Can't always do it, though. A bird coming in drumming over pine straw, for example, I have only a general idea where it is. If you have to make a big adjustment, do it when the bird is right behind cover or in one smooth motion and fire. I'll do that up from my lap. It happens really fast, but time slows down for you in your mind.

Being a wingshooter really helps here. If you've shot many dove or clays you know how important being able to smoothly mount your gun is. I practice mounting my guns a lot. You can trace many of your misses on ducks or doves, etc. to whether you mounted your gun properly. It helps with rifles, too. Mounting and dry firing are huge in shooting.

[AppalachianHollers]

Being a wingshooter really helps here. If you've shot many dove or clays you know how important being able to smoothly mount your gun is. I practice mounting my guns a lot. You can trace many of your misses on ducks or doves, etc. to whether you mounted your gun properly. It helps with rifles, too. Mounting and dry firing are huge in shooting.

Sounds like I need to start practicing mounting and dry firing while sitting down—that's a new one for me.

All I've ever done is mount my gun a couple times when setting up to make sure I've got room for my barrel.


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[Mountainburd]

I've had a number of birds come in extremely slow over the years and one of those times I had held the gun up so long I couldn't hold it steady to save my life.
I do try to shift to the direction where they are coming and have the gun up on my knee so I don't have a great distance to get it mounted.  Then I wait until they are close to being in range and either look for them to turn away when strutting or just pull it up very slowly.

The holding the gun up was a real issue for me several times over the years.  Like when they are just out of range, maybe strutting, but in clear view. Like you, I recall times when my entire body was exhausted from trying to hold the gun up and not move.

When I switched to the 20 gauge a couple of years ago...whew....what a difference that made.

[NightHawk24]

I normally have mine ready when I can tell he's getting close unless he comes in by surprise then I slowly ease it up against my shoulder the best I can

[Number17]

A simple bipod makes life so much easier. Keep it positioned so it's leaning back towards you so that if you have to swing your gun left or right, just lift the gun so the bipod falls in your lap, and make the shot. It's just a perfect system for me..
I've fallen asleep with my gun shouldered and resting on my bipod. NO muscle exhaustion at all.

[DMTJAGER]

I sit with my knees up and use them to support my gun and cradle it with my arms while I call with my slate as he comes in. Being able to call hands free is why I sat down and taught myself haw to use a mouth call.
I also use a pocket in my turkey vest to hold my slate call stationary so I can call one handed very close to my trigger and can make the move to my gun with little if any chance the turkey will see the movement and if he does it's to late.

Also its a great idea while actually hunting once you are set up to practice holding your gun and calling with your slate and then trying to switch to your gun and bringing it up as if you were about to shoot so you can figure out how to do so the best way and avoid turkey spooking hunt ruining mistakes.

In my 30 years of turkey hunting experience I have learned when a turkey can see you any type of fast movement is a bad idea unless you have no other choice. I have had turkeys under 30 yards dozens of times and slow, smooth but deliberate moving my gun to shoulder and shoot was seen by the turkey but I always had enough time to kill him.

Lastly a decoy is great help getting the turkey to concentrate hid undivided attention watching it and not looking around for a hen allowing you to get away with more movement.

[Gobble!]

Guns up, safety off, and pointed to where I think he's coming. I try to setup so by the time I see him its time to shoot. I'm a bad shot so I need the gun up, ready to go, and well rested when possible.

[Happy]

I just keep it rested on my knee in the general direction of where I think he will appear. Then when about ready to shoot I just slide the stock up to my shoulder, make my final adjustment and shoot. It's not much movement and if done correctly gives plenty of time to kill him. As long as I remember to take off the safety anyways. From my experience it's the guys that don't track the gobbler well enough that find themselves in trouble. And then on the opposite end of the spectrum you have the guys that stay frozen with their gun mounted and cheek down for 20 minutes because they are scared to move a muscle. It just takes tracking the turkey and slowly adjusting on his approach to get yourself in the ballpark. After that I just read the turkey and react. I just do it slowly, deliberately and with a minimum of motion.

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[Marc]

Using a shotgun (sighting on the bead only), I previously worried far too much about this, and scared far more birds off trying to get the gun up before they were in range.  If they see that movement before they are in range, they very likely will not come in...  If they see that movement when they are in range, they tend to put their head up for 1-2 seconds for an easy shot.

I can turn to shoot to the left (as a right-handed shooter) so I always try and set up so I can turn to the bird, and so that the bird will be somewhat to my left.  If they get too far to the right, it makes for a difficult situation.

If I can hear a bird coming (generally over a ridge or knoll), I set up to shoot him (where I think he will be).  Generally, I am far more concerned about simply facing the direction I think the bird will come.

If I see a bird coming and the gun is down, I just hold still till the bird is in good range, pull up and shoot him.  Bird I shot this year came into about 20 yards.  He gobbled right below me below a knoll, and I set up to shoot him.  He popped up far to the left, I simply swung over and shot him.

Attempting to kill a bird with a scoped pellet rifle on shooting sticks, is far more difficult.  I have tried to move on several birds that did not come in from where I thought they would (they never do).  I have to move the whole gun (shooting sticks and all) get the scope on him, get a secure shooting platform, etc...  What I have learned, is that when a bird sees this movement, you have from 1-2 seconds to set up and shoot...  With a shotgun this is an easy task, with a pellet rifle it has proved nearly impossible (for me).

[redleg06]

 If he's gobbling, drumming, or I can hear him walking, prior to actually seeing him then I try to get my gun pointed in the direction he's most likely to come in from.  Since turkey are turkey, that doesn't always work out and then I just wait for him to get behind a tree/brush/anything else that will obstruct his view before moving my gun...when that fails, I'll swing as long as I think I'll have a clear shot once he's seen me swing.

[Dtrkyman]

Pointing your shoulder at the birds incoming direction is a good plan, I cheat a bit to my weak side so I have more range of motion.

Other than that I do shoot off handed if I need to, have killed a few that way, get a box of dove loads and practice it.

To me that is the easy part, getting them there is the challenge!

[Bowguy]

Guns up, safety off, and pointed to where I think he's coming. I try to setup so by the time I see him its time to shoot. I'm a bad shot so I need the gun up, ready to go, and well rested when possible.

I just saw this. Safety never come off until we are about to shoot. Not sometime in the future now. Now way a simple safety click makes us miss a bird. Not doing things safely leads to disastrous outcomes at times. Please consider that

[g8rvet]

Guess where he will walk and deal with where he actually walks.

To the point and spot on. 

I am the opposite of Happy though.  I have had more mishaps hanging the gun up as I shoulder it (vest, jacket, strap, etc). I tend to shoulder the gun first.  Then if things go south about where he actually walks, for me, raising up to the ready or swinging is easier.  I shoot a little 20 now and it is not as much of an issue, because I can hold it up longer - even one handed.  Most of my screw ups have come because he did not come the way I thought he would (like circled me) and caused a no shot situation.   

[randy6471]

Lots of good tips and like many others, I always try to set up on a gobbling bird with my off shoulder pointed toward him and with my gun on my knee. But sometimes it just doesn't work out and I'll get caught with my gun pointed in the wrong direction. When that happens the key for me is don't panic and rely on my set up/camo to keep my from getting busted, while I wait for an opportunity to adjust my gun to get a shot.

Last spring I was hunting Osceolas with a buddy of mine at his place in Florida. The action was great the first couple days, but then we had one of those days where we couldn't buy a gobble. It was late morning and we hadn't heard a gobble since fly down. We knew that there were gobblers in the area, so we found a comfortable spot and were throwing out some calls every 15 minutes or so. We were set up and ready, but our guns were laying across our laps, when nice gobbler came walking out from behind some palmettos at about 50 yards coming right toward us. We were set up about 30-40 yards apart and the gobbler walked right between us and kept on going as we never moved. After about a minute I slowly turned to look behind us and I could see the gobbler now about 75 yards, still walking away. We both got turned around toward the gobbler with guns up and ready. I yelped twice on a mouth call and that gobbler stopped on a dime, double gobbled, then turned around and walked right back toward us. He stopped again to gobble at 20 yards and I shot him. So I say, just don't panic!