turkeys with rifle?

[James Rogers]

I've shot several fall turkey with rifles. Aim right at top of wing joint, and you will drop the turkey, in it's tracks. In straight on shots aim just below the base of the neck. The breast on a wild turkey lays low, much lower than people think. You will not blood shot a turkey, like other animals. I've taken several with .50 cal. Not my first choice, but the season used to run in conjunction with early muzzle loading. I prefer a .36 caliber. round ball. Spring gobbler is traditional shotgun, but in Va. a pistol or rifle is legal.

I have taken many this way with my Jim Hash .45 flint rifle

[Hadden West]

I don't have any small caliber flintlock rifles......yet. I have .36 cap lock, and have been wondering how hard it would be to convert to flintlock. It was built buy some unknown, but has nice wood and Douglas barrel, with a DGW lock. I don't think putting in the touch hole would be a problem, but getting the lock in the mortise might be difficult. Would make a great little turkey gun.

[Hungry Horse]

 Here in California the only rifles you can hunt turkeys with is air rifles. They originally had to be .20 cal. Or larger, but I was told they are allowing the .177s now. So who wants to build a Lewis and Clark air gun to hunt turkeys with?

  Hungry Horse

[hanshi]

Yes, in Virginia rifles and pistols are legal so I'd just use whatever I hunted deer with for the fall turkey season.  In the spring it would be one of my small game rifles or maybe a smoothbore. 

[HAWKEN]

Well, I just moved back to Indiana, after a 30 year hiatus, and Indiana doesn't allow rifles to hunt turkeys either.  You must use a shotgun, 10ga, 12ga, or 20ga, CF or muzzleloader, loaded with 4, 5, 6, or 7 1/2 shot, or any combination of shot sizes.  Or you can use a bow or crossbow......robin    

[Kermit]

Hunting regs are often written to protect the rest of us from the dumbest among us. And there's plenty of that going around.

[retired fella]

turkeys with rifles!!!  I never hunt anything that is going to hunt me back, especially when armed with a rifle!!!   

[C. Cash]

Other than economy, why a tendency toward a small bore rife?  Every little bit of diameter increase would seem to increase your odds if you are taking head/neck shot?

[HAWKEN]

Other than economy, why a tendency toward a small bore rife?  Every little bit of diameter increase would seem to increase your odds if you are taking head/neck shot?

Because a smaller size ball creates less bloodshot meat and most will aim at the wing joint to insure a quick kill.  A turkey's head moves too much for an accurate shot......robin   

[C. Cash]

Gotcha.....thank you. I have always wanted to try a rifle here for PA's fall hunt.  Interesting thread.

[Daryl]

Other than economy, why a tendency toward a small bore rife?  Every little bit of diameter increase would seem to increase your odds if you are taking head/neck shot?

I('d love to shoot a turkey with my little .36- or even the .50.  I'd not think my old girl, 14 bore would be needed.
Here in BC - smoothbores are noted for these birds along with any rim fire.  I suppose one could argue to a judge, that a flint lock is a rim fire after all, igniting the charge at it's outer edge.  While it is not the original rim fire, the rock lock possibly the longest lived rim fire of modern design, being 500 years or more years in age, spanning from about the 16th or 16th century to present, after all, they are still made, aren't they.

[C. Cash]

In Pennsylvania one could use a flint rifle in the Fall/winter for Almost everything That walks on the ground, plus a bonus deer season in Jan. For flintlock.  The flint rifle makes a lot of sense here for a one gun hunter.

[Fauquier]

I have killed several turkeys with  50 cal. black powder rifles.

The shot of choice is broadside,aim right behind the leg,half way up.

Dead immediately, minimal meat loss.

[Hadden West]

turkeys with rifles!!!  I never hunt anything that is going to hunt me back, especially when armed with a rifle!!!   

Well..........do you believe in the right to keep and arm bears?

[Jim Hart]

Daryl - in BC the actual Hunting Regulation prohibits the use of centre fire cartridge rifles.  Therefore  muzzleloaders are legal.

[Squirrel pizza]

Spring turkey with a muzzle loading rifle is legal in Georgia, and the only way I've ever hunted them. As far as load goes, shoot what you shoot best. Ideally I dream of Thomas coming straight at me, and aim at the top of the "v"in the breast, where above that is neck. Never seems to work out that way. But I would rather miss cleanly than have a bird full of pellets or shot. I would suggest snap shooting off hand. I'm sure you'll be in some kind of blind so practice that way. Then practice some more. They rarely stay still for long. But Thomas can be as stupid as a buck when he thinks a hens around. Just triple check the regs for where you're hunting. The DNR is serious as a stroke when it comes to turkey in Ga. You can loose everything and have to buy it back at their auction. Seen it done over an honest mistake. You never can tell when you've harvested one with a microchip in it's wing, but they can. Good luck!

[WadePatton]

I had a dozen or more big toms sweeping the ground with their beards (and drinking from a puddle) on a lane below me last deer season opener. Every now and then one would cast a "suspicious eye" up my way-a solid 15 yards away.  I made dozens of pics.  Probably "put sights" on 'em a time or two as well.  You gotta move slow and easy-with the orange on and all.  I was on the ground.  Eventually they figured out I was "up to no good" and meandered away several minutes later, (but I could have circled back onto them-were there motivation.)

The Fall season for turkeys (in OCTOBER) had passed, and my rifle isn't a "legal arm", so I just made the pics and waited on a Buck.

This year we get 2 whole weeks in October for Fall Turkey, and I've never eaten/taken any (I fish in Spring) and REALLY want to get some of these birds into the larder.  They're so thick and obnoxious in all three areas/counties I hunt. At deer camp, you have to be really careful to keep the turkey "goo" off your boots.  They roost nearby and "litter" the cabin area grazing around each day.  

I'm not interested in shotguns.

[Daryl]

Tks Jim- I suspect a game warden looking to make a name for him or her self might lay a charge - what would happen in court could be anybody's guess unless there is case law already.
The BC regulations do specify shotgun or rimfire, seems to me. Omitting to mention ML's might sway the judge to a guilty verdict if it has a rifled barrel.  Of course arguing you use a multi-ball load would then put you back into the shotgun category.

[GANGGREEN]

Here's a fall PA bird with a rifle. 

[SR James]

Here in Oklahoma it's shotguns only in the spring. In the Fall, rifles are legal, .36 cal minimum for muzzleloaders.