kodiakhuntmaster

I went out shooting today. Patterned my gun yesterday and found that I need to aim a little lower than I was aiming before. I also have to go a few inches to the left. Nothing big but my patterns improved.

I took some winchester supreme #6' s and remington hevi-shot #5' s (all I could find, the 6' s were all bought up).

I took the first shot at 40 yards with the winchesters and got 7 hits in the head (only one or two were near the center). Changed targets and shot again at 40 yards with the hevi-shot and got 5 hits in the head (mostly right on the edges of the circle). Neither one was amazingly even but it' s the best my gun has ever done.

Now which one do I use? Eastern turkeys are tough critters and I was kind of leary of using the 6' s. I know the hevi-shot has got enough butt behind it to kill a big tom at 40 yards but the pattern dencity leaves isn' t as good as the 6' s.

Which would you use?

kodiakhuntmaster

I' m leaning twards the hevi-shot.

TScottW99

I would start by shooting at closer ranges then move out to find the best load. Five or Seven hits in the head isn' t enough for me. Granted my gun now won' t shoot good enough for me to take a fourty yard shot. Might want to start at twenty yards, see which loads patterns the best, move it five yards and repeat. This way you can see your pattern at differn' t ranges and find your maxium range.

Bowhunter1959

The 6s give you more pellets per load than the fives. The 5s have more but
not much knock down power. 6s are perfectly acceptable for use on easterns.
40 yards may be too far. try shooting less then 40 and see what happens.
also were the sixes high brass? There are several loads with the same shot size. not all perform the same.

Mr. Longbeard

I' m a little confused too!!!! When you say hits in the head are you saying in the brain or just hits in the head in general? You need hits in the brain to anchor a turkey!!!! Also you didn' t say anything about hits to the neck vertebra. I am wondering what kind of turkey target you are useing????? I really think you need to do the wild turkey a favor and re pattern your gun like TscottW99 says. Your prob going to find out that you need to keep your shot under 30 yards until you get your gun right or get a new one....

kodiakhuntmaster

I' ve already shot at closer ranges. I shoot almost every day. They are about the same out to fourty yards which is why I started at that range today.

Turkey target? It' s a 2-3/4" circle drawn on a piece of computer paper, so I guess I was speaking of head hits in general. I' ve already established that my current patterns aren' t good enough for 40 yard shots.
The 6' s were high brass and both were 3" . As far as getting my gun right or getting a new one, it' s as right as it' s ever going to be and getting a new one is not an option (unless it' s free or close to it).

I was just asking which one out of the two would be best. Maybe the 6' s? I guess it doesn' t really matter much.

turkey7

Why would five or seven hits in the head not be enough? (provided you can average five or seven)

kodiakhuntmaster

Because they said it wasn' t?

Yes, 5 and 7 hits were my average.

Tarheel Gobbler

Kodiak if you are just shooting at a 2 3/4 inch circle and getting 5-7 pellets in there what does the pattern look like under the circle. Head and neck is what you should be shooting at. The vertebrae in the neck is just as important as the brain. If you are getting pellets in there you should use which ever size you are comfortable with. Both will do the job. Draw a picture on the paper by holding your fist and arm and tracing that pattern, It will represent a turkey' s head and neck. Then count all pellets in side that. JMO

turkey7

the brain is about one inch by two inches and the vertebrae is 1/2" or less. I think those are the only ones that count ,however, I saw a popular TV show say differently. They were counting all hits in the head and neck area.