Black Powdered Boss Gobbler

[Tilefish]

Beautiful bird. Nothing like waiting for the smoke to clear to see if you got him. He has some nice hooks.

[canadianml1]

What is your experience with killing turkeys at 30 yards with a 20 ga. muzzle loader with no choke? For a load I am thinking 80 grains of FFg one over the shot card plus one lube soaked cushion wad and another over the shot card then 1-1/2 ounces of #6 shot and one over the shot card on top. My thinking here is that the over the shot cards used in this way will prevent shot from penetrating the cushion wad and carrying the wad further down range and messing up the pattern. I really am looking for a good starting point for patterning work having watched Mike Beliveau's videos. Your comments please and thanks.

[Daryl]

It's usually the cushion wad & especially a heavy, lubed one, being pushed into the shot charge as it clears the muzzle, that spreads the pattern into donuts.
That is why guys separate the shot from the powder by using 2 or 3 thin overshot cards, not a fiber wad.
In this shadow-graph, you can see the difference between the  choked barrel (lower) and the cylinder bore (upper) patterns.
The wad is being pushed into the shot cloud, which has already started to spread out.  The bottom picture shows a concentration of shot
in the middle of the shot cloud.  These pictures were taken 18" from the muzzles.

[Panzerschwein]

Your load has revolutionized what many have thought the smoothbore muzzleloader capable of. Even famous men like Hickok45 have mentioned you, and you have earned the spot among the ranks of greatest sportsman.

THANK YOU SIR!

[Skychief]

Thanks for the kind words Panzerschwein.  I saw the Hickok45 video in which he mentions the load.  Our own Bob McBride did the same on his great channel  "Black Powder TV", also.

Best  regards, Skychief.

[OldMtnMan]

There must be something wrong with me. I've never had the urge to go turkey hunting.

I can do it here in spring and fall too.

[Darkhorse]

Probably nothing wrong with you old mountain man. I'm a rifleman first and I have little interest in hunting something I can't take with a rifle. You might be the same.
I'm blessed to live in a state where muzzleloading rifles are legal for turkeys. About 15 years ago I built a rifle just to hunt turkeys with and it's harvested a lot of wild turkey meat over the years.
Here is this years gobbler. Even sweeter, it was taken with a .40 caliber flintlock.