Turkey hunting forum for turkey hunting tips

Does anyone carry an extra choke tube in their pack for when they end up in the really thick stuff. Maybe a modified choke. Where I hunt there's places you might get a decent shot but also places where you don't even want to sit down cuz it's too thick. Sometimes toward the end of our season some of the gobblers stay in the swamp bottoms.

Wow, good thought, has merit.....

No i don't ... just something extra to carry .... I just choose a choke that's covers all my turkey needs..

If I know I'm hunting thick stuff I just chose a gun I have set up for it. My shots typically run 12yds to 40yds. But if I'm hunting a western state or open crop fields I usually have a gun set up(and patterned) for 25yds+.

I carry 1 heavy game load just in case I have to set up set up in some thick stuff. With my single shots  it's easier to swap out the shell than switch tubes. Why use a $7 shell when a .40 cent one will get the job done at close range. Careful swapping tubes in the field, any little dirt or debris on the fine threads of a choke tube can booger up the threads. :z-twocents:

Nope.

If you know your gun/load ........ 4 feet or 40 yards........ one tube.

I do not. But... I have toyed with the idea of hunting with an over/under for similar flexibility.

I have a red dot sight and I test pattern it at 10 yards to be confident if something ends up in my lap.

Nope. 

The country I hunt is open rolling hills with oak trees, the areas that are bushy you do not want to be in because it is poison oak which is the long way of saying "no". Certainly can see where the idea had merit depending on where you hunt. 

Quote from: NCL on May 12, 2020, 10:28:16 AM
The country I hunt is open rolling hills with oak trees, the areas that are bushy you do not want to be in because it is poison oak which is the long way of saying "no". Certainly can see where the idea had merit depending on where you hunt.

Yeah, I was noticing the tight areas where I hunt are full of poison Ivy-its everywhere.

When you're changing it is when it will show up. That's how it goes on a dove field.

If you look at the overall diameter of your pattern at different distances, you might notice it is the same regardless of choke. Just the center of the pattern grows more or less dense.

No...  No extra choke.

Something else to carry, and something else to dig through the bag and find, and something else to lose, and something else to worry about (i.e. "should I keep the tight choke in, or put the more open one in).

I shoot a full choke with heavy shot, which kills birds which patterns quite well out to 40 yards and probably 45 yards.

And come on guys...  Let's face it.  Shooting a turkey on the ground with a shotgun is not difficult.  It just isn't.

I see all these guys (some of them pretty good woodsmen) on Youtube calling in birds and then missing...   I have to wonder, is it the fact that many hunters are shooting chokes so tight that they require optics to shoot them accurately?

Me...  I put on a choke that is capable of shooting birds about 10 yards further than I care to shoot them...  The habitat and nature of my hunting puts most of my shooting at 30 yards or under...  I need a choke capable of 40 yard shooting.

The idea of shooting a shotgun is to have a usable pattern, and allow for some margin of error...

Never have, however my 20ga I have two chokes a 580 and a 555 that both shoot the same poi, so I have considered using the more open choke in the timber but just went with the 555.

I would have liked to have the open choke for my second Missouri bird, he got in tight in an old cutover!

Quote from: Dtrkyman on May 15, 2020, 09:33:53 AM
Never have, however my 20ga I have two chokes a 580 and a 555 that both shoot the same poi, so I have considered using the more open choke in the timber but just went with the 555.

I would have liked to have the open choke for my second Missouri bird, he got in tight in an old cutover!

Nope. Figure out what Im using before season and I know I can cover from point zero past my maximum shooting distance. I use the KISS method as much as I can.

No, I don't carry an extra tube.  I try to choose a pattern that gives a good hunting/forgivable pattern.

1 choke tube for me...body shoot them when in doubt and they are tight to you. It is not too much trouble to pick out some shot out the meat. Easy to miss a bobbing head on a moving turkey that is less then 10 yards with a golf ball sized pattern.

Quote from: hootgobbleyelpgobble on May 15, 2020, 11:32:14 AM
1 choke tube for me...body shoot them when in doubt and they are tight to you. It is not too much trouble to pick out some shot out the meat. Easy to miss a bobbing head on a moving turkey that is less then 10 yards with a golf ball sized pattern.

Your not the first person to recommend body shooting them up close. Sounds like an interesting concept. I would be afraid it would blow them to smithereens. But I'm assuming you've done this b4 and it did not. Did the full load of shot hit them and just blow threw them? I would think it would put a fist size hole though the breast but i certainly don't know; having never done it.

Quote from: Southerngobbler on May 15, 2020, 11:43:51 AM

Quote from: hootgobbleyelpgobble on May 15, 2020, 11:32:14 AM
1 choke tube for me...body shoot them when in doubt and they are tight to you. It is not too much trouble to pick out some shot out the meat. Easy to miss a bobbing head on a moving turkey that is less then 10 yards with a golf ball sized pattern.

Your not the first person to recommend body shooting them up close. Sounds like an interesting concept. I would be afraid it would blow them to smithereens. But I'm assuming you've done this b4 and it did not. Did the full load of shot hit them and just blow threw them? I would think it would put a fist size hole though the breast but i certainly don't know; having never done it.

not trying to be a prick or harsh but it is what it is honestly. A magnum load up close does leave a hole but I don't hunt for Instagram pics or YouTube videos. I would rather kill the bird then take a chance on miss. Where I hunt in state, we don't have ton of opportunities on birds. Plus I don't use decoys a large majority of the time, so the birds don't stick around long if they don't see a hen. Killed my first bird of the season this year at 7ft with a body shot after missing a head shot around 10 yards because he was moving. I can count on one hand the number of birds I have body shot over the years but they all were DRT, 12 and 20ga, lead and TSS, doesn't matter if the shot is on the money.

Negative. I never considered it but seems like a good idea.

If I changed to an open choke, he would hang up in the only place I could see 40 yds. Every. Single. Time.

only one choke for me,  know how your setup shoots and how to aim appropriately.

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I stopped trying to shoot the head.  I aim for the neck where it connects to the body.  No matter how much the head moves, that part dont move much. 

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Quote from: roberthyman14 on June 07, 2020, 09:25:31 PM
I stopped trying to shoot the head.  I aim for the neck where it connects to the body.  No matter how much the head moves, that part dont move much. 

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I concur

Quote from: roberthyman14 on June 07, 2020, 09:25:31 PM
I stopped trying to shoot the head.  I aim for the neck where it connects to the body.  No matter how much the head moves, that part dont move much. 

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Plus if you shoot at the head,  half your pattern throws above the bird, aim a little lower and it brings your whole pattern into the bird, granted you might need to pluck a few bbs out of the breast

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Quote from: rgref522 on June 07, 2020, 09:51:01 PM

Quote from: roberthyman14 on June 07, 2020, 09:25:31 PM
I stopped trying to shoot the head.  I aim for the neck where it connects to the body.  No matter how much the head moves, that part dont move much. 

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Plus if you shoot at the head,  half your pattern throws above the bird, aim a little lower and it brings your whole pattern into the bird, granted you might need to pluck a few bbs out of the breast

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But, at least we are eating turkey.  Makes a huge difference when they get inside 20 yards and the pattern is like a golf ball. 

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