Cold feet about putting a scope on my turkey gun.

[catclr]

There's pros and cons to everything but having said that, I own a scope and a fastfire3 and I prefer the scope over the ff3. I enjoy shooting the ff3 and think its great but I trust my scope a bit more and I like being able to use the magnification on my scope to check out birds that're farther than I can see with the naked eye. I usually don't carry bino's because I like to pack light. In the ten plus years I've been using a scope I've never had a malfunction nor have I had problems finding a moving target and I don't have to worry about batteries failing me. I hunt everyday of season and our season last a month and a half so my gun isn't babied at all

Quote---"like being able to use the magnification on my scope to check out birds farther than I can see with the naked eye"---this is the BEST reason you should carry your bino's.  Same reason to use them when rifle hunting.

I don't like a scope because of the magnification of a scope, where using a red dot most are the same looking at a gobbler through the scope or looking at him not thur the scope. NO magnification.

[Bowguy]

I'm old school, cheek on the comb, bead on the wattles. If point of aim is off get some open adjustable sights. I've never felt I needed a scope for a short shot. To me the disadvantages so outweigh the advantages it's not even a consideration

[fatboy]

You guys are right about using open sights and beads being so great, but when your eyes get older they don't work as well. I can see good at distance with my glasses. But can not get a good sight picture using open sights. Everything blurs. Have tried lineless bifogals  and can't shoot well. Sometimes if you want to keep hunting you may need a scope. Never wanted to, but next year I will have a scope on a already heavy and bulky SP10. When young you may say never but when your eyes get old you may have to. Enjoy the simple sights while you can.

[Tunaguy]

"You guys are right about using open sights and beads being so great, but when your eyes get older they don't work as well. I can see good at distance with my glasses. But can not get a good sight picture using open sights. Everything blurs. Have tried lineless bifogals  and can't shoot well. Sometimes if you want to keep hunting you may need a scope. Never wanted to, but next year I will have a scope on a already heavy and bulky SP10. When young you may say never but when your eyes get old you may have to. Enjoy the simple sights while you can."

+1 on this. My sight picture ain't what it used to be. My bifocals allow me to see my sights alright but my target is blurry. I am seriously considering a scope for next season.
Tunaguy

[USMC0331]

Red dots work great, if you get a 1-4 x 24, or 30  scope you can still shoot with both eyes open and hit on a follow up shot if needed. Go to a local hunting store and pick up some of the scopes and try them at all mag. settings and see if it will work for you. Everyones eyesight is different. There are those who use beads, adjustable sights, red dots and scopes, its what you can see clearly that matters. There are still some Nikon turkey scopes on the web you can get pretty cheap, Leupold makes a nice one as well. Hope this helps.

[Onpoint]

Red dots work great, if you get a 1-4 x 24, or 30  scope you can still shoot with both eyes open and hit on a follow up shot if needed. Go to a local hunting store and pick up some of the scopes and try them at all mag. settings and see if it will work for you. Everyones eyesight is different. There are those who use beads, adjustable sights, red dots and scopes, its what you can see clearly that matters. There are still some Nikon turkey scopes on the web you can get pretty cheap, Leupold makes a nice one as well. Hope this helps.

Love my nikon turkey scope. the "old" monarch version. Got 2 of them and will buy more if I ever come across them

[KPcalls]

 I use to think my friends that had scopes were stewpid.....I put one on about 13 years ago and never looked back.  The slight magnification helps a great deal also.

[Bigfoot]

I was hesitant about putting a scope on my turkey gun but I finally did.  I liked it so much that I put one on my other gun. I thought the magnification would be a problem but it wasn't.  I bought a leupold 1 to 4 power. very light and very short too.  I can't believe I didn't do it sooner. If you use a scope for deer hunting you can use one for turkey hunting.  Killed two gobblers with it this yr. 

[davisd9]

Most follow up shots on a turkey are low percentage regardless of the sight. From recoil of magnum loads, nervous, frustration, etc a follow up shot is done to mostly see how quick that longbeard can run. I have killed birds on follow up shots but I have missed way more than I have hit.

Killed a running bird this year with my scoped 835. He spooked at 30 yards when I moved the gun to get on him and I killed him at 39. It was all instinct, reaction, and a good deal of luck. That wing shooting probably helped a lot in the situation and I was/am pretty proud of the shot.


Sent from the Strut Zone

[Onpoint]

Most follow up shots on a turkey are low percentage regardless of the sight. From recoil of magnum loads, nervous, frustration, etc a follow up shot is done to mostly see how quick that longbeard can run. I have killed birds on follow up shots but I have missed way more than I have hit.

Killed a running bird this year with my scoped 835. He spooked at 30 yards when I moved the gun to get on him and I killed him at 39. It was all instinct, reaction, and a good deal of luck. That wing shooting probably helped a lot in the situation and I was/am pretty proud of the shot.


Sent from the Strut Zone

I killed one running with a scoped 535 this year. Almost exact same scenario. He popped up in the wrong place and is going even more so in the wrong direction. As I'm trying to get on him he putts ans turns and runs back in the right direction. I had one spot that had an opening and I could only pray he went this way instead of the way he came and that's exactly what he did.
He was about 15 feet further than yours

Killed another one running with a different gun (al 391 with double beads)
The person I was hunting with that morning shot the wrong bird on our attempt to double. I'm on the turkeys head just waiting on them to shoot and when they shot my turkey hit the ground. I had no idea where the other bird was, couldn't see him. I stood up and he's abiut 30 yards away running like hell. I swung through and shot him instinctively and it tore his head up.

In that same spot I shot one running many years ago. Whe I pulled the trigger the gun went (click). I had forgot to pump one in the chamber. After the click he became very uneasy, and when I racked up thar 870 with him standing there at 20 yards he took off like a bat out of Hadiz.  He was just about to take flight until a 1 3/4 ounce load of HV 5's wrecked those plans..

and there's been a few more, but like davis said, most of the time those follow up shots are more less hailmary,  frustration shots. They work out about 1 out of 4 times.

[natman]

IMO the only excuse for using a scope is that you've never learned to shoot with anything else. This seems to be a common occurrence these days.

You don't need magnification to see a turkey at less than 50 yards. I don't hunt with open sights on a rifle any more, but I use fiber optic open sights on my turkey shotgun and can still put the red blur between the two green blurs well enough to hit a turkey with a shotgun.

I might try a red dot next year just to see what the fuss is about, but while I don't doubt a scope can work, I don't see any benefit worth the weight and expense.