Max Distance

[Onpoint]

I'm not knockin guys that take the long shots, but its much more challenging to let that bird walk away. Reposition on him, get him close and "beat" him. The 60-70 yard game ain't turkey huntin, that's simply killin a turkey. Now I'm not sayin I've never took a 50 yard shot cuz I have but I try not to make a habit of it. Every once in a while when you can't seem to get him in you just say to hell with it and kill him, but that ain't beatin him. Tell ya a quick story I still kick myself in the butt over. I was setup on public land between 2 gobblers one mornin. Ill spare ya all the details of the hunt, long story short had one come in and had the shot but wanted him to come just a little closer. I watched this bird for about 5 minutes strutting in the same spot but thought he was just a little too far. I watched the bird walk off, and about 10 minutes later somebody shot right where that bird went. I stepped it off from where I was sittin to where he was at 46 yards. I've let em walk at that range list of times, big deal. But this bird ended up havin 1.75" spurs. I could've killed that bird, and I'd love to have his spurs on my necklace,  but I wouldn't have beat him. I limit my shots to 45, but in all reality if you ain't got him into 40 you ain't called him in.

[coyote1]

Just a heads up, the mods don't want any talk of shooting birds past 40 yards. We don't need new hunters thinking it is ok to shoot birds at 60 yards.

I'd love the mods to make the ethical distinction between the guy who doesn't pattern his gun and shoots turkeys at 40 with marginal patterns or a guy who shoots h13 or TSS with devastating patterns at birds at 60 yards.

There are some serious inconsistencies in this position. I shoot em as far as my gun is lethal and could careless what anyone on this board thinks.  Some die at 5 yards, some die at 60 yards.  I know my gun/load/choke combo and its capabilities.

To the OP, you should learn your gun intimately and then decide what shots you execute and which ones you should disregard. Goodluck!

I don't think anyone on this board would recommend shooting a bird at any distance be it 40 or 60 without patterning your gun and adjusting poi. If folks want to shoot that far with a combination that is capable and they know this fine. Personally I don't shoot past 40 because getting them close is what it is about, if I wanted to take shots at 60 or 65 yards, may as well use a rifle.

[seb5315]

Where I hunt in Pennsylvania, where we have more hunters per square mile than any other state in the country and the birds start being pressured in Februrary and our season doesn't open until the last weekend of April or the first weekend of May; 45yds is "beating" them and you take whatever advantage you can get on killing these heavily pressured birds.  Like I said before, no one should hunt turkeys without knowing the capabilities of their weapon and I would love to kill all my birds at 15 steps, but don't tell me that killing one at 45yds isn't "beating" them.  Hunt public land in Pennsylvania for one season and I guarantee you will change your opinion on that.

[guesswho]

The object is to kill the turkey...not write poetry about them. If he's inside 60 yards with me, he's dead. I'll be hunting the next bird, while yours hangs up at 50 and you're hunting him the next day.

Just curious.  What makes you think mine is going to hang up at 50?  Is that based on your personal past experience?   I won't purposely shoot one at 50 plus.  But don't assume because of that, you will be the only one hunting the next one

[Onpoint]

Where I hunt in Pennsylvania, where we have more hunters per square mile than any other state in the country and the birds start being pressured in Februrary and our season doesn't open until the last weekend of April or the first weekend of May; 45yds is "beating" them and you take whatever advantage you can get on killing these heavily pressured birds.  Like I said before, no one should hunt turkeys without knowing the capabilities of their weapon and I would love to kill all my birds at 15 steps, but don't tell me that killing one at 45yds isn't "beating" them.  Hunt public land in Pennsylvania for one season and I guarantee you will change your opinion on that.

I've never hunted Pennsylvania public land but I do hunt Tennessee public land and I'm here to tell ya them LBL birds ain't easy. I always get 1 or 2 there and I've only shot one past 40. Last one I killed there was 8 yards. If you setup to where When you can see the bird he's within "ethical" range you  don't have to take the long shots. I understand you can't always do that but in most cases you can.

[guesswho]

At some point in time, one will hang up if you turkey hunt enough...with tss you don't have to worry about a 75 yarder.  I hunt to kill, not observe.

The other side of that coin is if you turkey hunt enough you don't worry about the one that hangs up at 75.  You worry about the shooters who say their turkey hunting that will sling tss or rifle bullets at those distances.

I also hunt to kill, but one can learn a lot from observing.

[seb5315]

@warrent423 - Before you make a statement like that I feel that you should understand each situation.  I work 5 days a week so that only allows for hunting on Saturdays (can't hunt on Sunday's in PA) plus a couple of vacation days that I save each year for turkey hunting.  Like I said earlier, I would love to kill every turkey I shoot at 15 steps, but that doesn't always happen.  When a bird is in my kill range I take him.  You're entitled to your opinion, but to say you have no respect for someone who shoots a bird past 40yds is just a little ignorant in my opinion.  As I said before, I believe Pennsylvania has the most challenging turkeys in the country to hunt so before you make a comment like that you should really consider the situation.

[seb5315]

I'll just agree to disagree with ya on this one Warrent.

[Old Gobbler]

Let me politely reaffirm the site stance on these types of threads ---

What people do in their own free time is their own business , but when it ( publicly)  gravitates around the long , long shots it will without a doubt cause a ( very predictable) disturbance between normally mild mannered and polite members -then I have to deal with the mess --I know every turkey hunter has intrest in a good shooting turkey gun , but in the past it sometimes opened the door to some bizarre postings revolving around 80 , and 110 yard turkey shooting ....  for that reason .....  we ask that if it has anything to do with that subject keep it on the down low - at no point did I come down hard and proclaim any yardage BS on the masses , I politely ask as I have done in the past , keep on the down low etc.... Personally I know how to call turkeys very well and have no need to resort to ranges where it would be nearly impossible to tell what I am even shooting at

Forums are strange creature ,opinions repeated enough , over and over tend to be transformed into online fact , or so it may seem.... I have seen groups of people engage in exaggeration of product performance on many things , sometimes it is for a number of reasons  ....


thanks --Shannon     

   

[Twowithone]

40 yds or  <. I like it up close and personal.

[seb5315]

I don't think it has anything to do with calling turkeys.  I'm a very skilled caller and have no trouble calling to turkeys at all.  I was just posting my opinion on how to figure out the max distance at which you can effectivelly kill turkeys to which I stated several times it is strictly based on the individual setup, practice and preperation.  Of course I am going to take offense when someone says "I have no respect for somone who shoots a turkey over 40yds".  I think that is a very ignorant comment and has no place on a forum where most of the time contains nothing but friendly, polite and dedicated turkey hunting enthusiasts.  Everyone hunter dreams of the "made for tv" hunts, but if you feel that you are taking a safe and ethical shot on a turkey based on what you know your setup can do, you should not be comdemned by someone who thinks you're shooting to far based strictly on their armchair commentary.  To me, if you are consistenly killing turkeys in a safe and ethical manner you are all right in my book and I have the utmost respect for you, regardless of the range you are killing them at. 

[WW]

I don't think it has anything to do with calling turkeys.  I'm a very skilled caller and have no trouble calling to turkeys at all.  I was just posting my opinion on how to figure out the max distance at which you can effectivelly kill turkeys to which I stated several times it is strictly based on the individual setup, practice and preperation.  Of course I am going to take offense when someone says "I have no respect for somone who shoots a turkey over 40yds".  I think that is a very ignorant comment and has no place on a forum where most of the time contains nothing but friendly, polite and dedicated turkey hunting enthusiasts.  Everyone hunter dreams of the "made for tv" hunts, but if you feel that you are taking a safe and ethical shot on a turkey based on what you know your setup can do, you should not be comdemned by someone who thinks you're shooting to far based strictly on their armchair commentary.  To me, if you are consistenly killing turkeys in a safe and ethical manner you are all right in my book and I have the utmost respect for you, regardless of the range you are killing them at.

Now this man gets it! This is a true post that everyone needs to read and hunt by!

[guesswho]

It's unfortunate,but based on what I read on these forums it's apparent that there are fewer and fewer people who get it with each passing season.

[WW]

It's unfortunate,but based on what I read on these forums it's apparent that there are fewer and fewer people who get it with each passing season.

Exactly right.

[Old Gobbler]

It is very true that some of the stuff posted up on forums borders upon fiction , same goes for these hunting shows , some one mentioned every hunter dreams of being in a situation TV.... etc... in my opinion the garbage on TV is destroying hunting by inundating it with a barrage of brainwash bs - I am not aware of a quality turkey  hunting show , its more of different flavors of infomercials these days

Again , the long shot thing is a beating a dead horse issue here , we ask that folks kindly refrain from the issue for its nothing but trouble - SK