Check the sights on your turkey slayer

[Pygmy]

A good buddy of mine, who is a turkey hunter extraordinaire,  missed three gobblers early last season.. He uses a scope on his 870, so he checked it on the patterning board and discovered it was WAAY off.. Lesson learned...

The guys who hunt with simple bead sights don't have such worries, but many turkey hunters are now using scopes, red dots or other optical sights, often to take advantage of the super tight patterning turkey loads available nowadays...Most hunters wouldn't deer without checking their scopes first, and it applies to turkey hunting as well... Scope can move, especially with those heavy recoiling magnum loads..

The gun I am taking to Ontario the end of this week  is wearing a Leupold 1x4x20  scope...I  shot it today to confirm the zero..The turkey head was riddled at 30 yards, but the center of pattern was appx. 2 inches to the right...I moved adjusted the scope left a few clicks , and took a confirming shot...Dead nuts..Good to go...

[Engraver99]

always a good idea!

[ATbuckhunter]

Went out today and 2 shots were dead on! Impatiently waiting on opening day to come

[turkeyfeathers]

Treeguy just pulled my 1x camo scope and put on Burris Fastfire 3 I bought off Moog. Can’t wait to paper it. Switched from slug barrel to bird barrel on daughters youth 20. New Trulock tube designed for TSS 7’s. Looks like Tuesday night may be range work 

[Lawdwaz]

2 minutes ago, ODYSSEUS said:

I guess, I am old fashioned. Just a ( Bead) guy here. We will see if my aim is still good as New Jersey opens Tomorrow. I have 3 big State Parks to choose from. All within 20 miles of me.

I was a bead guy until a couple years ago.........I wanted to shoot a special load (don't even remember what it was now, LOL) out of my SBE and it was low to the left IIRC.  I figured I'd try a red dot and got a Burris FF3, haven't looked back yet.  That said, I'll shoot it Tuesday with the guys at the Academy to confirm zero.

[Robhuntandfish]

Before I bought a turkey shotgun about 5 years ago I had an old mossberg 500 with slug and bird barrels.  It was my first shotgun and def took some deer with it out to 90 yards with open sights . But the bird barrel...lol.   I missed two turkeys twice with it and went to the range to figure it out.  After patterning it...I guess you could call it that. I killed a few turkeys with it.  When aiming..put the bead on the turkey then go a foot high and a foot left and he was dead!  Lol  yeah I needed a new shotgun 

Now I have one with fiber optic sights and that seems to work well.  And can aim right at it like your supposed to. 

Edited April 21, 2019 by Robhuntandfish

[Pygmy]

1 hour ago, ODYSSEUS said:

I guess, I am old fashioned. Just a ( Bead) guy here. We will see if my aim is still good as New Jersey opens Tomorrow. I have 3 big State Parks to choose from. All within 20 miles of me.

I have a 40 year old Rem1100  with double beads that I have killed many birds with.....It still works fine as long as I don't PEEK and raise my head..One advantage to that gun is that if I happen to need a follow up shot or take a flying shot I can shoot instinctively  and will probably still kill the bird...It's tougher ( at least for me)  for me to shoot a running or flying bird with an optical sight than it is with a bead...

[mowin]

Love my 1100 NWTF.  Has added hi vis sights Yrs ago

[Rattler]

I have the Hi Viz front and rear open sights on my Mossberg 835.  They attach to the vent rib.  Never had to readjust them after the first sight in about 20 years ago and they are spot on out to 50 yards with 3.5 inch #5's.

[Water Rat]

I replaced the beads on my Mossberg 835 ( NWTF edition ) with Truglo fiber optic sights. I then patterned it with Hevi - shot 3.5 inch #6’s. I’ve been very happy with the results. The only reason why I stayed away from a scope with magnification is that I might be tempted to take a shot further than it’s  maximum effective range.

[gfdeputy2]

I pattern mine every year you never know & I use dead ringer sights

[LET EM GROW]

Patterned my 535 with TSS 7s .. not too bad. If i put a bit tighter constriction tube on the end it'd do much better I think. 200+ in 10" @ 40 yrds. Thats 50% of the shot ..  

I have  to finish putting my fast fire 3 on the youth 870 and pattern that, along with my 500 youth as well .. shooting TSS 8 handloads.. 

Edited April 22, 2019 by LET EM GROW

[Five Seasons]

man i would have checked after miss number 1!