Nitro Heavy Weight 4x5x7

[VaTuRkStOmPeR]

" you are correct. I should not impose personal limitations on  someone that only cares about  killing and obviously lacks the woodmanship to bring the bird closer.
I actually feel sorry that you are truly missing out on the most fun of turkey hunting, but it won 't matter for you until you change your attitude. Sorry for your loss. I am  finished here."
[/quote]


The new self-appointed turkey whisperer slogan:

"flower children carry flowers. real turkey hunters carry sticks."
I'll print off a few t-shirts and send em to ya!

I'm not as presumptuous as you seem to be about other peoples' skills and woodsmanship.  I guess in all your infinite wisdom you missed the lesson on what happens when you ASSume things....  

Cheers!

[Old Gobbler]

Guys ,  be mindful of the many, many guests that view the site ,  we want to work towards together helping each other make clean decisive kills - easy with what you post up ,,,,there are folks out there armed with grandpa's shotgun ,an the only thing some people will  catch onto is the yardage  proclamation , and they will try to replicate it themselves out in the woods -- 

We hate to hear shotguns go off in the woods , bang ,bang , bang , bang , bang ...... no good for the turkey or turkey hunting

I caught a guy cramming 3.5 shells in a 3 inch chambered gun one time , get the drift ,  some folks are not to slick

[joey46]

"The new self-appointed turkey whisperer slogan:

"flower children carry flowers. real turkey hunters carry sticks."
I'll print off a few t-shirts and send em to ya!

I'm not as presumptuous as you seem to be about other peoples' skills and woodsmanship.  I guess in all your infinite wisdom you missed the lesson on what happens when you ASSume things....  

Cheers!

Please print one of those shirts up for me also.  I'll take a picture of me wearing it.  I'll be wavin' at ya' but it will be with only one finger.
There has to be reasonable limit to this long range game.  It appears there is none on this forum.  I'm done here also with this topic.  Good luck to all this season no matter how far you shoot.  BTW - I see very few post on any forum where the kill shot picture is described as "he hung up but I popped him at 70 yards" Geez!

[Gobble!]

I don't think anyone said anything about 70 yards. The question was can that load kill a turkey at 50 yards. The answer is yes as long as the shooter does his job. Meaning he knows his gun and he knows the situation he is in.

[joey46]

Better lock down this one also.  I was just getting started.  Yes 70 was mentioned and it is all about ethics. 

[Gobble!]

Better lock down this one also.  I was just getting started.  Yes 70 was mentioned and it is all about ethics. 

Is your ethics standing that 70 yards is to far to shoot a bird, meaning its not allowed for a ture turkey hunter to shoot that far even if the gun/shell produces a killing pattern that far?

Or it is not ethical to shoot a bird a 70 yards if the gun/shell can't produce a killing pattern that far?

The second I understand completely but the first still confuses me, to each their own.

[coyotetrpr]

I would love to have a shotgun that would give killing patterns at 70. To all you self appointed ethical calling experts I have only one thing to say. I work a full time job to provide for a family and don't have a huge amount of time to hunt. This being said, I enjoy the hunt as much as anyone,  but harvesting a bird is the ultimate goal and things don't always work out. To let him walk and wait for another day is fine if another day is guaranteed. No caller can bring every bird in close every time. If the gun and shell will do it a long shot does not make a person less of a hunter, it makes them a better one.

[joey46]

After all the comments in this thread plus all in the thread that is now locked and has happily disappeared we finally have one that says it all.  "harvesting a bird is the ultimate goal". That is NOT true for all hunters and hopefully never will be.  If  that is all it is for you then go ahead and shoot at 70 yards, or whatever range next years super load will claim to kill.  It won't be long until some money hungry manufacturer will claim 100 yards and a company like Cabelas will foolishly run the ad touting this in their catalog. Then any nit wit with an unpatterned gun and $25.00 will go out and "miss" one that was well out of range and it will run off and die.  If nothing else the buzzards will like all this long range shooting.  They will clean up on the ones left in the woods.   Three possible results for a long range marginal shot.  Two of them are bad.  Feel free to guess the three.  They are pretty obvious.

[VaTuRkStOmPeR]

After all the comments in this thread plus all in the thread that is now locked and has happily disappeared we finally have one that says it all.  "harvesting a bird is the ultimate goal". That is NOT true for all hunters and hopefully never will be.  If  that is all it is for you then go ahead and shoot at 70 yards, or whatever range next years super load will claim to kill.  It won't be long until some money hungry manufacturer will claim 100 yards and a company like Cabelas will foolishly run the ad touting this in their catalog. Then any nit wit with an unpatterned gun and $25.00 will go out and "miss" one that was well out of range and it will run off and die.  If nothing else the buzzards will like all this long range shooting.  They will clean up on the ones left in the woods.   Three possible results for a long range marginal shot.  Two of them are bad.  Feel free to guess the three.  They are pretty obvious.

Youre making the mistake of conflating us with "nitwits" (although we all have our moments).

No one is infallible. Shooting errors occur every year at point blank and longer ranges with patterned and unpatterned guns.  That points to the human factor which cannot ever be removed from the equation.

Ultimately, guys with unproven, unpatterned guns and limited shooting skills will take them and shoot to 40 yards this and every season because conventional wisdom has established 40 yards as a community standard.

  Longer shots by qualified shooters and guns will be taken and missed as well.  All are ashame, unfortunate and inevitable.

I can't speak for all members here but will for myself.  I travel all over the country to pursue these regal animals and I have the highest level of respect for them.  Consequently,
I invest time and money into establishing and maximizing my guns' and my own capabilities in pursuit of the kill.

I also spend considerable time each day running calls and reading as much about turkeys physiologically and biologically to better understand how to be more effective killing turkeys each spring.

I am prepared and capable of calling them within 20 yards but prepared and capable to let the trigger break at 55 if hens or some other condition prevents a gobbler from closing the distance.  I am there with the intentions of harvesting.

I do not care if I shoot at 25 yards or 55 yards. I have prepared for both situations and consummating that preparation with a kill is always gratifying.  6 of the longbeards I killed last year were inside 35 yards. Others were farther.

Many members of this site prepare to
similar rigorous and obsessive extents.  Some to the point of insanity.  They are not nitwits. They are not unknowledgeable, incapable, or unprepared and you sir, continue to show ignorance in your consideration of the audience to which you speak.

Your ethics might better be reserved for "nitwits" but you will find few of those contributing to this section.  In fact, you may be falling into that category yourself with you continual defense of the 40 yard standard on all, regardless of skill, equipment and the shooter's ability to execute with such tools.

I digress.

[orion43]

My 2 cents..  The key is to know what your gun and chosen shell will do.  In response to the original question, I have taken a bird in each of the past two seasons at 53 yds using a SBE II and nitro loads.  The gun was set up by Rob Roberts of Gobbler Guns.  Don't intend to sound boasting, but I would not have taken either bird if I had waited  for a 40 yd shot.  Both birds came across open fields and were in process of moving further away.  I feel comfortable taking a shot at the 50 yd range if no alternative is available.

[Tom Foolery]

After all the comments in this thread plus all in the thread that is now locked and has happily disappeared we finally have one that says it all.  "harvesting a bird is the ultimate goal". That is NOT true for all hunters and hopefully never will be.  

Killing something when I go hunting is a goal.  I like to be in the woods, it's nice and peaceful, relaxing and pretty.  That said, I have a lot of time and money in equipment and I prefer to use it rather than pack it around.


When I go hunting I want stuff to die, if I don't want stuff to die I go hiking. 

[HogBiologist]

The goal of hunting is to harvest an animal that meets your standards for taking.  If harvesting an animal is not a goal in hunting then you are not hunting, you might be a hunter, but not hunting. 

[joey46]

I gave this a 24 hour cooling off period.  24 hours is up.  Kill at any cost (or range) is a cheapening of a once great sport.  IMHO.  You do not have to kill to have hunted.  
What is everyone's best guess before a 100 yard turkey load is advertised?  My guess two years.  What is everyone's best guess before some State's game department will try and limit these shells if for no other reason than safety.  My guess about two years later.  When you don't set limits for yourselves someone will set them for you.  It can't come too soon.  

[stinkpickle]

...What is everyone's best guess before a 100 yard turkey load is advertised?  My guess two years...

Don't worry.  The price of tungsten and depleted uranium will take care of that.   

[Longshanks]

The comments that i have made with regard to shooting 50+ yards on this website are strictly from my own experience of hunting, guiding, filming and watching hundreds of turkeys either die in front of the gun or seeing the mistakes that are made. Hevi 13 and Nitros didnt come out last year..its been around a long time.  In guiding we have folks pattern their guns before hunting and i have seen amazing patterns on paper at 60yds.  I also witnessed the same folks try to duplicate that shot in the field with terrible results.  I guess something that has been lost over time is what was taught to me.  My dad taught me to never take a shot that wasnt a "for sure kill".  Long shots produce more misses and cripples than letting the bird get within 40 yds. In 40 years of turkey hunting ive watched technology develop amazing things with shotguns/ chokes/ shells but ive also seen folks push the envelope in shooting long distances more and more with terrible results.  Respect for the wild turkey has been eroded by ego and this "must kill" attitude. People mess up one turkey and then go to another one as if it didnt matter at all.  There are few people that seem to be concerned about what we are teaching the next generation of turkey hunters but there are some of those special people still out there.  I watched Michael Waddel tell a whole convention center and hundreds of kids sitting in front of him wide eyed that he would never shoot a turkey over 40yds.  "Leave things better than you found them in the turkey woods" was what Tom Kelly told me one time. People that think turkey hunting is just about  killing the turkey..were never taught what the sport is all about and most are so closed minded they will never learn.  Turkey guns are one thing but if you want to learn what turkey hunting is about i would suggest reading some books from some of the folks that care about the future of this sport and the future of the wild turkey. If you dont think the quality of the turkey hunting has been negatively effected by this new wave of turkey hunters..you havent been hunting long enough to see it.