going to try a new turkey load this year

[adkmountainken]

i have hunted turkeys with smoothbore muzzleloader many years with many different guns from Dixie Double 10 gauge down to TC .56 smooth bore and have been very successful.  from day 1 i have always used #5 shot and it has served me well from light loads with the .56 of 70 grains fff, wonder wad, ounce of #5 and another wonder wad to heavy loads like last year in my .75 fowler of 100 grans ff, hornets nest, 2 ounce #5 and more hornets nest.  i will be the first to tell you my patterns have never been much to write home about BUT i have limited myself to 10-15 yard shots! this year i am going to try Skychiefs load at the range and hope for a bit better patterns.  i will be using a new Mike Keller club butt fowler and my Roy Stroh club butt fowler.  both are BIG smoothies and plan to use 100 grans FF with Skychiefs loading system.  i also plan to use 2 ounces of either #4 lead shot or maybe #2 depending on how it goes at the range.  should be able to hit the range in 2 weeks!

[Skychief]

Good luck Ken!  Let us know how it goes.  If you have any questions, please get a hold of me.  Indiana gobblers have learned to hate the load.

Best regards, Skychief.

[okawbow]

Curious as to why you would use larger shot for turkeys? I-only target the head, and even 1 small shot in the brain should do the job. I have killed more than 20 turkeys with a muzzleloading shotgun with #6 shot, out to 40 yards with one of the guns. With a 20 gauge smooth rifle, I used #7 1/2 shot with good results at 20 yards.

1 ounce of # 5 shot, has 170 pellets. The same weight of #2 shot only has 87 pellets. That would reduce your chances of a fatal hit by almost 50%. A load of # 7 1/2 shot will easily penetrate a turkeys head at 20-30 yards and contains 350 pellets. Twice as many as the #5 load.

Not trying to start an argument, but I have always tried to maximize the number of shot on the small target that a turkey head offers.

[Eric Krewson]

Try 100 gr of 1F in your big bores, it really worked great in my 12 to tighten the group, I use a Skychief load and get the best results of any other load with it. My gun is jug choked but didn't shoot a good enough group until I put a Skychief load in it.

25 yards, #6 shot;

[adkmountainken]

i have always been a 2 big pellets in the kill zone over 10 smaller ones kind of guy kind of carried over from my modern shotgun days when i knew if i could hit him with a couple number 4 pellets he was a dead bird.  i always limit my range even if i get a great pattern to 30 yards i would sit tight and let him wander in closer the "short game" is my favorite of turkey hunting!