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Old September 4, 2015, 10:50 PM   #1
Bucksnort1
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Turkey Hunting

This year, I'm hitting the field for a fall turkey hunt in Colorado. I've never hunted turkeys but I think I prefer the fall hunt because you can shoot either a tom or a hen and (for me this is the best part), you can use rifles. I plan to use my bolt action .223 so I can reach out and touch one at a distance greater than twenty yards. I know, someone will tell me about the excitement of calling in a big tom to a shotgun. I'm sure that's true but for me, I will work with the .223.

I will use FMJ, 55 grain bullets because I want some turkey left after the shot. Comments anyone?
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Old September 5, 2015, 01:43 AM   #2
bamaranger
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rifle

I was a lad in a state where fall turkey hunting with rifles was permitted,and to best of my knowledge, still is. The rifle/shotgun combo's were also popular, as made by Savage and Ithica.

In those days, the .223 was not really on the scene in force yet, the .222 still had a following as a varminter, and ideal turkey rifle rounds were vintage rounds such as the .22 Hornet, .218 Bee, and a smattering of .25-20's. The .22mag rimfire was considered a bit light, but saw some use certainly. The .22lr rimfire was universally considered too light.

Given the above, I think the .223 is a bit hot for turkeys. Even with FMJ, (which may not be a legal projectile in all states BTW) you may end up with not much more than the drumsticks.

Aside, when I prowled the woods for fall turkeys in those days with a rifle, I carried the brand new, soon to be doomed, 5mm rimfire mag. Never got a shot.
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Old September 5, 2015, 10:14 AM   #3
Bucksnort1
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Bamaranger, drumsticks are the best part of a turkey. This will be a combination turkey, mourning dove and Eurasian collared dove trip with a day of early teal shooting on the way to the turkeys. Thanks for the information.

Do you still have your 5mm rimfire?
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Old September 5, 2015, 10:49 AM   #4
buck460XVR
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Bamaranger, drumsticks are the best part of a turkey.

........I take it you've never shot/eaten a wild turkey, eh? Unless you like tendons and gristle there ain't much on their drumsticks. I too believe that unless you shoot the bird in the head, especially if it's a hen or young of the year, that hydro-static shock from a .223 will destroy much of the meat if you body shoot it. I doubt tho if one would notice much damage difference from standard cup and core JSPs and FMJs. Not enough meat/hide/resistance there to cause any expansion or energy dump. If you need to body shoot, shoot it high in the back. Not only does this not damage the precious breast meat, it also breaks the wing structure and or backbone. Not uncommon for chest shot turkeys, even with half their breast blown off, to fly off and not be recovered.

Fall turkeys are not that hard to get into shotgun range. They talk/answer readily and are easy to attract. Busting a flock up before roosting and setting up where they were can lead to fast and furious action.
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Old September 5, 2015, 10:50 PM   #5
Bucksnort1
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Buck460XVR, you are correct, I've never shot a turkey and have never eaten one. Can you clue me in on the taste? I expect it's probably a good eater. I'm not into wasting wild game, which is against the law in Colorado, so I will salvage what I can.

Does anyone have suggestions for fall hunting? Over the years, I have collected six decoys, of various types, which I planned to use for the spring hunt but that never materialized. With my back problems, I cant walk the field like when I was younger so I want to utilize my decoys as best I can for the fall hunt. My thinking is one of two scenarios. One is to place the decoys in a field, back of about one hundred yards and wait to see if real birds appear. The other is to scope out fields for birds in the evening and not use decoys. Any comments or suggestions?
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Old September 6, 2015, 01:24 AM   #6
bamaranger
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answers

Yeah, I still have my 5mm RFM, and a bunch of the new Mexico ammo.

Buck460 is right, wild turkey drumsticks are near inedible. A wild bird spends all his time walking, everywhere, and their legs (drumsticks) are as tough as leather. We've tried all manner of ways to save the legs, and deemed it impossible.

Also I agree with his assesment of damage and aiming point. The mantra from my great uncle, who fall hunted turkeys a lot with a Hornet, was to "aim for the butt of the wings".
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Old September 6, 2015, 08:07 AM   #7
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I'd suggest keeping shots close enough to shoot for the neck. A good shooting .223 should give that out to about 150.
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Old September 6, 2015, 11:14 AM   #8
Bucksnort1
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Thanks for the replies. Do any of you have suggestions for a fall hunt? As I indicated, I'm not interested in calling in birds but I do want to take advantage of the decoys I have.
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Old September 6, 2015, 11:41 AM   #9
buck460XVR
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I'm not interested in calling in birds but I do want to take advantage of the decoys I have.

Without calling, your decoys are almost worthless. It is the calls that the turkeys will identify those dark inanimate shapes of the decoys as other birds. Otherwise they may as well just be stumps, or garbage.

Wild Turkey is one of the best eating of the wild game species. One reason they were wiped out in many parts of the country at one time by over-hunting. Myself, I take only the breast and fillet it off the breast bone like filleting a fish. The meat on a wild turkey sits on the breast very unlike the breast meat of a domestic turkey. I don't even gut my turkeys, just peel back the skin/feathers from the breast before I remove it.

Another reason turkeys were once wiped out in many areas is because in the fall and winter they are very easy to pattern and virtually all the birds in a given area are flocked together, because of basic survival instincts. Thus easy to hunt, once you pattern the flock. If all you want to do is get within rifle range so you can shoot one without having to call, I suggest you pattern the birds in your hunting area. Find out where they roost and get there before they do at night and pick one off as it comes in for fly up.....or if you know where they roost at night, you probably know where they fly down in the morning. Get there before light and wait till fly down. If there are any farmers around that are spreading manure or putting it in piles in a field, the undigested corn in cattle manure is a magnet for fall/winter turkeys. Even in those scenarios, a few very basic yelps and clucks will greatly increase you odds and will decrease the wait time. Fall birds love to talk and they readily seek out the source of any call. Fall birds make such a variety of calls it is almost impossible to make a wrong call or to call too much. It don't take much of a turkey caller to make basic turkey sounds on a push button type call.
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Old September 6, 2015, 01:12 PM   #10
Erno86
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Turkeys also like to look for dung beetles to eat, that are sometimes under cow manure pies.

Learn to use a diaphragm mouth call, with the lost turkey kee-kee run being my favorite fall turkey call. A flock of fall turkeys sound very loud when they are scratching for food in the dry autumn leaves

If you don't want to bust-up a flock and then use the kee-kee run --- try to use the kee-kee run while near a turkey flock --- One might feel sorry for you, and come on over to investigate.

The mature gobblers sometimes band-up in bachelor flocks of 2 or 3, during the fall and winter.
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Old September 6, 2015, 03:52 PM   #11
Bucksnort1
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Buck460XVR,

Thanks for the information. I have several calls, including a traditional box call, a couple of push calls and a slate call. I can sound like a turkey on all of them. I collected these and some other items, a few years ago, when I thought I would get into turkey hunting in a big way; however, because of my lower back problem, I can't walk or stand for long distances/periods so my plan for this trip is to hunt the Arikaree and Republican river bottoms in eastern Colorado where all reports indicate an out of control population of birds.

I have as many days as I need to hunt so I plan to scout the area by driving where I can and walking as little as necessary with hope of spotting birds roosting or in fields then, I will see if I can bust one.

Now that I think about it, there have been many times when I have seen flocks of turkeys in agricultural fields in the evenings in various locations in flatlands of Colorado. The driving part may work out well.

Last edited by Bucksnort1; September 6, 2015 at 04:04 PM.
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Old September 8, 2015, 09:46 AM   #12
buck460XVR
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The driving part may work out well.

Driving and glassing works very well for patterning turkeys. Anytime you see turkeys two days in a row at the same place, at the same time of day.....it is a pattern. Sometimes fall birds make a larger circle and have a two-day pattern and may be in a certain place only every other day. Turkeys are not anywhere in the fall for no reason. If they are there it is generally because of a good food source and will stay there till that food source is gone....i.e. grasshoppers, pine nuts, Hickory nuts, etc, or until they are spooked off by hunters/predators. Coyotes are continuously patterning turkeys also and once the birds know they are on to them will move. When time was short or when I didn't scout an area much, I have seen turkeys in an area one day and just assumed they would be back there the next day at the same time....and they were. Again, find their favored roost area and a fall bird will be easy.
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Old September 8, 2015, 12:13 PM   #13
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I have on occasion employed a 22 Hornet as well as a 222 Remington to hunt fall turkey in Virginia. I load Berger target bullets (Thicker jacket than a game bullet) and down load both so they are in the 1800 fps range for the Hornet and about 2100 fps for the triple-deuce. A full load 223 will do a lot of damage to a turkey. As noted, the breast meat is the best part. The legs are edible but don't expect too many tender bites. The fall bird is far tastier than a spring bird so you don't want to damage the breast meat.

Calling is half the fun. I use glass calls, box calls, and hen turkey wing bone yelpers with surgical hose and a cow horn. Hens are legal in the fall here as well but unless we are desperate for hen wing bones to make a call, we only kill gobblers. I have not killed a hen in fifteen years; most of the wing bones I have are hand me downs from the 60's and 70's.
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Old September 8, 2015, 01:11 PM   #14
buck460XVR
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Hens are legal in the fall here as well but unless we are desperate for hen wing bones to make a call, we only kill gobblers.
Hens are legal here too, and since we can get multiple tags in the fall, I prefer to shoot hens, especially in the areas I hunt in the spring. This leaves me more birds available for the Spring and gives me less competition from real hens when trying to lure in a Tom. Fall Turkey hunting is all about controlling the overall population. You can not do that unless you shoot hens. Not that I will pass up a Tom in the fall, and I have taken my share of them then, it's just that I target the hens.
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Old September 8, 2015, 08:54 PM   #15
Bucksnort1
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Buck,

Driving and glassing is the ticket for me. I had been saving preference points for turkey for a number of years. Several sources, over several years, said I wouldn't believe the number of turkeys in this area so, last year, I applied for that area. The previous years stats indicated I would need seven points to draw. I had nine so there was no problem drawing. The problem was, for some reason I can't remember, I didn't go so I blew nine points. At the International Sportsman's Exposition, last January, I chatted with a game warden from that area. I told him about the points. He told me with zero points and out of control turkeys, I would probably draw; he was right.

This hunt, with or without a turkey, will be my first and last hunt. Well, I did go another time for a spring hunt but didn't see or hear anything.
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Old September 10, 2015, 01:35 PM   #16
buck460XVR
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Pogybait, I wish you the best of luck. If all else fails, you can just go sit down in an area where turkeys are known to be in and call.....loud and often. Unlike in the spring, you can not overcall in the fall. In areas of high turkey density, this can work just as well as anything else. Sitting in the woods, with a gun in your hand with the anticipation of seeing game, is still hunting. Even when you come home empty handed.
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Old September 10, 2015, 02:11 PM   #17
TimSr
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Quote:
drumsticks are the best part of a turkey.
I'll second Buck's opinion that the legs are not really edible on wild turkeys. Tendons, grizzle, and bone with no meat.

In Ohio we have to use shotgun or bow, but we can shoot either sex in the fall. I just go sit in the same place where I see lots of turkeys while hunting deer. Of course, I will see lots of deer, and no turkeys until things reverse during deer season. I hunt public land, and I'm not crazy about calling in other turkey hunters, but thats why its shotgun only here.
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