Quote from: TauntoHawk on January 12, 2012, 05:34:14 PM
So TauntoHawk, if I buy the top mentioned gun, would I definitely have to buy another choke? Also, I would have to buy sights as well i think. How far would you be confident in taking a shot with your current set up?
When I first started turkey hunting about 5 years ago I got the Remington without the sureshot or any of that extra stuff.. hunted with the stock x-full choke, used the bead on the barrel and shot lead #6's..
Killed my first 7 Toms with the first 7 shot between 25-46yds, now I know that for that choke and ammo set up I probably got pretty lucky on dropping that 46yd bird and should have kept under 40 which is the preferred range of any turkey hunter regardless. But the point is the stock Remington got the job done fine.
As I went I added the extras that are all nice but not necessities.
The sureshot stock is awesome and I Would recommend buy the gun that has it, the knoxx stock is good too. They offer much better control and comfort when maneuvering the gun. Makes those long holds on that slow strutting tom that much easier and less fatiguing. I have extremely short arms so the extended fore stock is almost as important because I have to almost fully extend my arm to properly hold a standard Remington on the 26" guns. The gun also holds a lot better for my wife who I got into turkey hunting last year.
The red dot is really nice too but not needed by any means. I wear contacts and when I would close one eye and stare down the barrel at the little bead it tended to blur out my vision making it very hard to find a birds head and see obstructions. The sight allows me to line up more like a scope and keep both eyes open giving me a much clear and wider field of vision. Gives me a big confidence boost but wasn't cheap even at the great deal I found it for. $155
Choke. This is one of the cheaper and best upgrades you can make, after a good bit of research I decided that the primos jellyhead gets great results with 870's. I got a size .665 for under $40. I also switched to Hevi-13 shot and got both 3-2-7's and 3-2-MB. If I bought another choke it would be a custom one from Sumtoy or maybe an Indian Creek in a .660.
The general rule of thumb for maximum range is you want 100 pellets or more evenly inside a 10" circle.
Inside 10" circles I got
At 50yds with my stock choke and lead 6's I got 26 hits. (shows how lucky I got on some of those 40+ shots I never should have taken with this set up)
Mag blends and jellyhead I got 81 hits at 50yds
Hevi #7's and jellyhead I got 110 hits at 50yds.
So according to that I can feel pretty confident at about 50yds with the Hevi13 loads But with that said I feel best keeping to 40 and about 45 max in an open field. And yes last year I pass on an opportunity on a bird at 51-52 with the Mag Blends loaded in because I just didn't want to stretch the limits and risk injuring a really mature bird. I killed at 29 and 33, the birds didn't move or even flop.
Sorry for the overly Long winded response but im getting way too excited for spring, can you tell? To sum up the Remington will make an awesome turkey gun, get the sureshot if you can. Buy some good turkey loads, add an after market choke if you have the cash. Get out and Pattern, make sure the POI is the same as POA if it is the beads should work fine for aiming and find a comfortable range and call the birds inside of that.
Just like Archery.. Brag about how close you got them, not how far you had to shoot!!!
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Very very well said.
