2016 Spring Turkey Season:

ccm75

ccm75

NES Member
Joined
Dec 4, 2007
Messages
6,550
Likes
4,303
Location
Worcester County
Feedback: 7 / 0 / 0
MA season is one month away.
Heard some gobbling this am and I'm starting to see the boys following the girls...
I plan to scout some new locations this year.
Looking forward to getting out there!
 
it's too bad there is no hunting in my yard. Thy are all over this neighborhood as i'm sure they are in many others as well. The old lady who lives in the house directly behind me feeds them...We've had as many as 20 at one time. lol
 
going out this afternoon to check my patterns! this will be my first season for turkey (hopefully better than my first deer season).

what are you guys using for turkey chokes? seems to be a ton of them out there, but i'm wondering what ones are ACTUALLY the better of the bunch.

Thanks in advance.

Mike W. (terminal lance)
 
Dakar652 said:
going out this afternoon to check my patterns! this will be my first season for turkey (hopefully better than my first deer season).

what are you guys using for turkey chokes? seems to be a ton of them out there, but i'm wondering what ones are ACTUALLY the better of the bunch.

Thanks in advance.

Mike W. (terminal lance)
Click to expand...

My first season in used my full choke, it dropped a tom but he was more stunned and i had to finish him off, since then i've used an extra full from redhead.

bottom line when it comes to shotgun chokes is finding out what works best for your gun/ammo combination. This link will help you with your setup: http://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/A/ANR-0634/ANR-0634.pdf

two of the worst feelings in the when hunting are 1. injuring an animal & 2. missing one you should've been able to harvest.

Also if you plan on calling go out now and practice, see if you can get them to talk back to you. One thing I've done for the last couple years with much success is use a mouth call and call cut, cut, cut right before I shoot. It causes the tom to stop, and put his head right up to look and see what/where the threat is.
 
Dakar652 said:
going out this afternoon to check my patterns! this will be my first season for turkey (hopefully better than my first deer season).

what are you guys using for turkey chokes? seems to be a ton of them out there, but i'm wondering what ones are ACTUALLY the better of the bunch.

Thanks in advance.

Mike W. (terminal lance)
Click to expand...
Full or xtra full. May get flamed for this but a couple of turkey hunters I know went to 20 gaufe for turkey. 3 inch turkey loads are quite "stout" out of a 12 gauge. A fired a friends 12 gauge ONCE with a 3 1/2 inch load.....just once! Stupid silly amount of recoil. Additionally those taylor made turkey loads are expensive as hell. 3 inch Remington 20 gauge nitro will do the job for 1/2 the price. If you only have a 12 gauge almost any 3 inch in size 4 or 5 are potent. Try a couple to see how they pattern of course. If you are dead set on taylor made turey loads you will see what i mean about "stout" soon enough. I patrerned a 20g last season with an xtra full choke and it patterned very tight out to 35 yards.

Fwiw I never got a shot off with the 20 gauge only got to go out once last season. But a buddy of mine was succesful in maine last year with his 20 gauge.
 
Last edited:
Dakar652 said:
going out this afternoon to check my patterns! this will be my first season for turkey (hopefully better than my first deer season).

what are you guys using for turkey chokes? seems to be a ton of them out there, but i'm wondering what ones are ACTUALLY the better of the bunch.

Thanks in advance.

Mike W. (terminal lance)
Click to expand...

I prefer the HIVIZ Long Spur in my 1187.
 
Should be a good year with the winter we had, last year the season just started picking up toward the tail end of the second week.

Regarding the choke talk above, PATTERN YOUR GUN. Guns within the same make, model and barrel length will pattern different with the same choke installed. No two are alike. Also, most guys shooting open sights don't know where their POA/POI is & are shooting turkey's with 1/4 of their pattern.
 
Will be heading out again this spring...havent scouted yet but will start soon. Have seen turkey in my town which I rarely see so hoping its a good sign for this year.

Hunting about an hour north of me in NH. Struck out last year even though I saw and heard turkey every day so hoping this year is a success.

Will be hunting with my father....cant wait to get out there. Love the hours of silent observation of nature as much as anything else on the hunt. My favorite part is hearing the entire forest come alive as the sun comes up and birds and turkeys begin their morning calling....such a great thing to experience.

I used to use 3.5" hevi-shot but switched to 3.5" Wichester Longbeard XR shells last year. They pattern better than anything else in my particular gun.

Those 3.5" shells will rock your world out of a 4.5lb plastic stocked mossy 535...literally recoil hell on earth. Heres to hoping it held its zero since last year so I dont have to fire too many rounds sighting it in :)
 
First year in the woods for turkey. Heading out to scout this Saturday early and will be poking around the woods every weekend between now and then. Excited to get out but have zero expectations of success. Just savoring the experience.
 
Trying a new spot this year. Watched a dozen turkeys cross the river my buddy and I were duck hunting on. Going to put a blind in this week.
 
Tiktock said:
Those 3.5" shells will rock your world out of a 4.5lb plastic stocked mossy 535...literally recoil hell on earth. Heres to hoping it held its zero since last year so I dont have to fire too many rounds sighting it in :)
Click to expand...

Ha! I've got the same gun. I hadn't realized how much of a kick that thing had until I got my first autoloader, a VersaMax (now I want the waterfowl version of it).

The 535 w/included turkey choke pattern fine for me, using Federal turkey loads. I'm now using the 2-3/4" shells. No shots on a bird with it yet though.
 
At least 2 dead hens on route 3 North, between Burlington and Dunstable yesterday early AM. Watched a 3rd nearly walk directly into the bumper of the truck behind me.
 
Three puffed up males in Bolton this morning. One had to be the biggest Tom I have ever seen. I mean it coulda been an ostrich. I've got my spot set up about a mile away over the border in a town you can actually hunt in so I'm hoping they move my way.
 
The grandkids are getting ready for the NH youth turkey hunt at the end of the month. 11 yo Little Jack will be looking for his fifth and his 13 yo sister Sadie, her fourth. Lots of birds where they hunt so they should do well. And their dad makes super good turkey pot pies. Jack.
 
I've had them all puffed up in back of the house every day for several weeks now - are they still going to be in strut when the Maine season opens on May 2? I have never hunted turkey before so I don't know their patterns real well.
 
Anyone have an extra safety sticker they'd give me? I sent away for them a week and a half ago and they haven't arrived yet.
 

Similar threads

2024 Spring Turkey
Replies
7
Views
121
Docpk
Docpk
Turkey Camp
Replies
15
Views
239
peterk123
P
Spring Bear
Replies
2
Views
154
peterk123
P
NWTF Cranberry Country Longbeards Spring Banquet April 7th
Replies
0
Views
83
cdawgs65
C
Season recap
Replies
1
Views
189
chuckster
chuckster
Back
Top Bottom