The hunter with a rifle must possess some sense and self control because a lot of other hunters certainly do not.
But the truth is turkey hunting with a rifle, especially a flintlock rifle isn't the easiest thing to do. They do decent sometimes in the woods until greenup then you can't see to shoot beyond smoothbore range anyway. The thicker it is, the harder it is to thread a roundball through the undergrowth with iron or peep sights. Basically you must hunt a place to hunt turkeys if you use a rifle.
I once had a large WMA of 38,000 acres very near my home that I knew parts of it very well. I'd been hunting it with a bow for about 20 years. There was this hard to get to section of a major powerline that was over 50 yards wide and ran for miles. The turkeys had wised up and starting about mid morning they would gather in their flocks out of range of shotguns right in the center of the powerline.
Sometimes I could see 5 or 6 flocks with gobblers strutting all out in the powerline at the same time, each in their own territory.
That WMA also had some large open hardwood bottoms just right for a rifle. So those 2 facts are the main reason I decided I needed a new rifle for turkey hunting. That and fact that I just wanted to build another rifle. I decided on a .40 because I thought it would be better if I ran up on any of the many hogs we have. I also decided to build another Isacc Haines because I already had one in .54 and the stock design just fits me so well, and I wanted them both to feel as identical as possible, you know the old saying, "Beware the man with one gun."
I got a piece of fancy maple, a Rice B weight 38" barrel, a LH large siler flintlock ordered from Jim Chambers, davis double set triggers and Iron furniture. Before I could complete the rifle and go turkey hunting the state lost the lease on the property.
Truth is, I would have been better served to have built a smoothbore. But lately I've been getting a yearning to build a choked turkey smoothbore and I'd have this rifle when needed to boot.
