20 gauge montefeltro + tips from members = Tom for my 12 year old son

[mac43rn]

I just want to thank all of the members who posted responses to my questions.  I inquired about patterns, red dot scopes, and even hunting locations.  We eventually ended up with a very nice 20 gauge turkey gun. 

Benelli Montefeltro 20 gauge 26" barrel
sumtoy choke
fastfire III with a burris mount
federal HW 7's

1 trip to the range and sighted in the FFIII.  If you are on the fence about switching to optics, all I can say is I was blown away by Burris Fastfire III.  The sumtoy choke with federal HW7 was producing some amazing numbers.

Saturday, April 19th my son and I headed out for the opening day Indiana Youth Turkey Season. Our setup was a DSD feeding hen, DSD lookout hen and the DSD jake. We sat in our blind and watched two jakes do their best to impress the hens. After 15 minutes they turned their attention to the DSD jake. They both took their turn kicking, clawing and standing on top of the DSD jake. My son and I just sat and watched in amazement.

Then, after a few minutes of watching this activity, two Toms came sprinting in to the picture. We had no idea there was even another bird in the area. It completely caught us off guard and now we were in a little panic. I just remember telling my son to relax, take a deep breath and shoot when he had his shot. Well, one of the Toms had decided to jump on top of the DSD jake decoy. He as standing on the decoy, clawing his back and pecking at the decoy's head.

My son asks, "can I shoot it on the decoy?" I responded with "Yes" and then all I heard was the shot. The bird dropped and didn't move.

21 lbs
1" spurs
10 1/2" beard

When my son pulled the trigger, the Tom had his head very close to the decoy's head. If you look closely you can see the pellet marks on the decoys body and its wattle. You can even see the blood marks on the back of the DSD jake.







I was actually so impressed with this setup that I headed out on Saturday with the Benelli Montefeltro.
I switched out the youth stock for the adult stock and headed out.  Shot my Indiana Tom at 41 yards.

Thanks again for all your assistance. 

[Bigspurs68]

Great pics. I love to see happy kids with their hands on a turkey.

[The Cohutta Strutter]

I have the exact same gun. Love my Monty and at 5 pounds/13 ounces it is such a pleasure to tote around. No longer is the weight of a gun an issue even when hunting most all day. I've taken two this year with the little gun so I'm a believer that the 20 gauge will get it done. Congrats to you and your son on some good hunting. Strutter...

[gophert]

The key to kids is to set them up to be successful.  A good blind, some good decoys and a spot with some turkeys.  That's how I did with my daughter and now we hunt together 90% of the time.  She is quite the turkey hunter and I think it all has to do with her being successful at a young age. 

Congrats to you and the young man. You now have a turkey hunting partner for life!