Light, semiauto ‘camo’ 12 gauge best for turkeys Dual sights, choke other key items

Maine’s wild turkey season gets under way one week from today, April 28, at daybreak with a special Youth Day hunt. Any youngster between the ages of 10 and 16 who has a valid hunting license, a turkey permit and a qualified partner to oversee their hunt can take to Maine’s fields and forests to locate and coax a gobbler into shotgun range. Sportsmen who qualify for the “A” season can spend their weekend stockpiling gear and practicing with their calls for an April 30 sunrise outing. Season B gunners must wait until May 8 to go after a big tom turkey.

Despite April’s nasty weather and unrelenting snowstorms, regional turkey hunters have kept the faith and continued to get prepared for the fast-approaching season. Clothing and gear to assure dependable camouflage and comfort is of prime importance, and top-notch calls that produce realistic sounds to coax wily birds close enough for a shot are essential as well. Without a doubt, however, the one piece of equipment which all the time, effort and exertion of outsmarting a long-beaded gobbler depend upon is your shotgun. Is there even such a thing as the perfect turkey gun? And if there is, what qualities and features make it so?

Size and weight

Perhaps the shotgun you already own is your ideal turkey gun, for two very important reasons: First and foremost, it fits you and shoots well or you wouldn’t be using it regularly, and second, you already own it and really can’t afford another gun right now. Comfortably mounting, sighting and steadily holding a scattergun on target while a wary turkey approaches and presents an open shot can take seconds, or drag on into minutes, so proper fit and weight are important considerations when selecting a turkey gun. Small-framed women and adolescent hunters will have the greatest problem locating a gun that fits well. Most will have to settle for a youth model, and these often have to be special-ordered or, albeit expensive, a sportsman can have a gunsmith cut down and custom fit a shotgun.

Pump guns generally weigh less than semi-autos and double barrels, but remember that lighter guns equal more recoil, and heavy turkey loads fired through tight chokes are brutal at both ends of the shotgun. Another excellent way to reduce weight is to select a shotgun with a shorter barrel, say 20-24 inches. As added incentive, shorter guns are simpler to transport in vehicles, easier to carry through the woods and need less open space to shoulder and swing onto target. Stock and forearm composition, solid wood or synthetic, is another consideration when attempting to reduce total gun weight.

Type of action

Despite the first shot being the most crucial, occasionally a quick followup is necessary, so leave the single shots and bolt actions at home. Since precision accuracy at a target the size of a kiwi on a pencil is critical, save the double barrels and their question of two barrels shooting to one point of impact for upland gunning. It’s also much simpler to fit an optical sight or fiber-optic combination sight to a single-barrel pump or auto than to a break-action gun.

Since shell capacity and rate of fire don’t really enter into the selection process, choosing between a pump or an autoloader rests on several other factors. Thanks to gas checks and spring relief, as well as usually being a heavier gun, semi-autos greatly reduce recoil of those mighty and merciless turkey loads. On the other hand, pumps weigh less and cost less. The extra recoil may be an even exchange for that reduced weight if you’re hunting sites require a good deal of walking while lugging gear and gun.

As pump guns loosen up with use, they tend to pick up some slack in the action. This can produce excess noise if the slide is not tightly secured as the gun is shouldered. While not a big deal with passing waterfowl or flushed upland birds, it’s a big no-no with keen-hearing wild turkeys. On the plus side, a pump offers a slight safety advantage over an autoloader since there won’t be a live round in the chamber as you make that wild leap from the brush line to the downed and flailing bird.

What gauge

“The bigger, the better” tends to be the guideline many gobbler gunners adhere to when selecting a shotgun, but I’ve seen a 20 gauge kill a big tom just as dead as a 10 gauge on several occasions. Putting half a dozen lead pellets into the small head and thin neck of a wild turkey requires a dense pattern. The right load in any gauge will do this out to 40 yards, so the only real benefit of 31/2-inch shells in 10 and 12 gauges is to extend killing range 10-20 more yards.

A three-inch 12-gauge shell can hold up to two ounces of shot, whereas a 31/2-inch 10- or 12-gauge shell peaks out at 21/2 ounces. I’ve found 13/8 to 11/2 ounces of No. 5 pellets will do all the damage I need as far as accuracy, speed, penetration and pattern density at 40 yards. With these considerations it’s simple to understand why a hunter would pass on the extra weight and recoil of a big 10 gauge in favor of a 12 gauge that will shoot both 3- and 31/2-inch shells. If a shooter’s size and weight won’t tolerate a 12 gauge, don’t be afraid to head afield with a 3-inch 20 gauge. It will get the job done.

Color and composition

Brightly blued barrels, and glossy wood stocks and forearms are far more likely to catch the eye of an alert gobbler than matte- or camouflage-finished shotguns. Although turkey guns don’t suffer the inherent abuse of waterfowling shotguns, they get their share of bumps and dings, so high-quality, well-finished wood is a poor investment. Composite stocks of lightweight but durable synthetics are a far superior option.

Camo tape and slip-on camo forearm and stock covers are possible methods of turning an upland scattergun that’s already in the gun cabinet into a turkey gun, but pre-applied camo finishes are the best way to go when purchasing a new shotgun. There are dozens of patterns and color combinations to select from and each gun manufacturer offers certain camo patterns in each model, so this feature comes down to personal preference. It is possible to save a few dollars by selecting a simple black matte finish for the entire shotgun, and this is certainly a workable choice. Break-up and RealTree Hardwoods camo patterns are two of the top selections for turkey guns.

Sight systems

The days of a single silver bead at the end of a turkey shotgun barrel are long gone, replaced by sighting options such as multiple beads along the vent rib, front and rear fiber-optic sights, red-dot sights, holographic sights, and even low-power scopes. If a shotgun is expected to place a tight load of pellets into a very small target, a scattergun actually needs to aim and shoot like a rifle. Adding a couple of extra beads to the rib of an older one-bead gun is a simple and inexpensive solution, but this is the bare minimum requirement for precision shooting.

Since early-morning, low-light conditions are common wild turkey shooting circumstances, light-gathering fiber optics and scopes are the best options for perfectly centering a load of lead. My personal preference in the way of fiber optics is a dual rear sight and a single front sight, which can be centered and aligned easily due to ambient light magnification. If possible, make the front sight a different color than the dual rear sight.

Many turkey guns come from the factory with open sights of some sort but already drilled and tapped to accept scope bases. Red-dot sights are very dependable and modestly expensive, and low-power scopes are the brightest, most dependable sighting alternative, but of course high-quality scopes are not inexpensive.

All choked up

From among all the vast and varied features that comprise the perfect turkey gun, the last couple of inches of the barrel that constricts to form the choke may well be the most vital. Older models of shotguns often have the end of the barrel constricted at the factory for a permanent full, modified, or improved choke size. More modern versions come with a set of screw-in interchangeable choke tubes that can change it from waterfowl to grouse to a skeet-field gun in seconds.

A full choke comes with every new shotgun and has a constriction of .04, and some new shotguns even have an extra- full choke included. Special turkey chokes produced by several aftermarket manufacturers offer a markedly tighter constriction at .075 inches. Such chokes can regularly put 90 percent of a shot charge inside a 30-inch circle at 40 yards. Such tight patterns are a hindrance to a woodcock hunter in thick brush, but being able to shower a turkey’s head and neck with such a dense pattern is the perfect outcome. I have used an Undertaker brand choke in my Browning Gold with great success.

So there you have it: a 7- to 8-pound semiauto 12 gauge that will handle 3- and 31/2-inch shells, has a camo finish, front and rear fiber-optic sights, and a turkey choke. That pretty much fits the bill for a perfect turkey gun. Individual hunters will each have a few features they need to tweak to create their ideal gobbler gun. But then that’s a fact of life for most personal rod and gun decisions.

A few tried and true autoloader models to check out include the Browning Gold NWTF, the Benelli Super Black Eagle II, the Remington 11-87 SPS-T, the Beretta 391 Xtrema, and the Winchester X2 Turkey. In the slide-action class, top-of-the-line turkey guns include a Benelli Nova, Browning BPS, Mossberg 835, or Remington 870 SPS-T. Even if a new scattergun isn’t in your current price range, local gun shops have racks full of top-rate preowned turkey guns. When any shotgun fits well, shoots where you aim it, holds an extra-tight pattern, and puts turkey on the table year after year, now that’s your perfect wild turkey gun.

Outdoor feature writer Bill Graves can be reached via e-mail at bgravesoutdoors@ainop.com