Why do turkey hunters miss/wound their gobbler?

[scn]

And, this is not directed at megalomaniac who by far is one of my favorite posters.

Unless the hunter has spent little or no time at a pattern board seeing what his gun and load actually does, the gun/load is normally not the problem. Unless the combo is blowing the pattern where there are major holes in the pattern, most are capable of putting the 10-12 shot in a gobbler's neck and head that is required to kill him in his tracks. An ethical hunter will spend some time actually shooting at a turkey head/neck profile to see just how far out there he/she is getting the needed number of pellets to make him DRT.

So, why do we miss? Here are a few MAJOR problems:

1. We badly misjudge the range in the heat of the moment. Guilty as charged on a couple.

2. We raise our head up off the stock to watch the bird go down (more on this later).

3. We flinch like hades. This is more common than most will admit. A 12 ga. shotgun shooting a 3 or 3.5" magnum shell with a heavy shot load generates as much or more recoil than some of the rifles used to hunt elephants. It is brutal. There have been instances of people breaking their collar bone from the recoil.

But, no one wants to admit it because it makes us feel less "manly". As a LEO trainer, I used to see it all the time. Part of our annual or semi-annual firearms qualification required shooting five rounds of rifled slugs and five rounds of buckshot both day and night. After 20 rounds of that, it was pretty common to have a nice bruise the next day. When we had officers having trouble qualifying with their shotgun, it was very often a bad case of flinching. Most wouldn't believe it, but a simple drill usually opened their eyes. By having someone load three rounds up with one of the three being a dummy shell, it was VERY apparent when the flinch occurred.

IMO, that is one of the reasons that the 20 ga and reduced recoil has been so deadly for a lot of folks.

4. We let birds get in TOO close before shooting. A shot at 10 yds probably has a pattern about the size of a baseball. If #2 or #3 is coming into play, it is easy to miss at that range.

 

[scn]

So, how to we cut down on some of these issues?

Many years ago I was blessed to spend some days in a goose pit over in Cumberland City with Harold Knight and David Hale. They are two of the finest gentlemen I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. In between watching them "double-cluck" us in flights of geese, there was the opportunity to talk turkey hunting with them. Without a doubt, they were the folks that got me over the hump from being lucky to kill a bird to actually having a clue on how to play the game.

One of their business "duties" every spring was to take several of their corporate sponsors or outdoor writers turkey hunting. Many were pretty much new to the game. I remember Harold telling me how hard it was to get a bird within range of a lot of them. And then, when they missed, it really bummed out the day. He told me the spring before he had three straight hunters miss their bird. He attributed every one to #2 above with them lifting their heads to watch the bird fall.

After those misses, for the first time ever, he put a scope on his "client gun". It was a little low power scope with a circle and cross hair reticle. After scoping up the gun, he had not had a single miss on a bird. I thought at the time if it was important enough for Harold Knight to do, it probably would work for me as well. Even though I hadn't missed or wounded a bird, I figured it was only a matter of time. With the scope, every bird (minus one that ducked as I pulled the trigger) has been dead in his tracks. The bird I almost missed was killed as he flew and ended up about 20 yds away.

Thus, I am a major believer in some type of optical sight. Red dots work fine for a lot of folks. I am partial to a circle reticle. Once I center the gobbler's head in the circle, I know he is dead when I pull the trigger. But, any are better than just the simple bead on the muzzle unless you are past the point of getting excited at shooting a gobbler. I hope I NEVER reach that point.

 

[scn]

#3 on flinching:

It takes some range time to correct. Shooting some reduced recoil shells can help a lot. Doing the drill with the dummy shells and someone else loading you up is also a help in staying on the target.

For kids, I really like the idea of using low recoil game loads to practice, and then hunting with the heavier load. Most don't feel the recoil when they are actually shooting at the gobbler.

Opening up the pattern where you have a broader span of shot rather than the most shot in a 10" circle that has somehow become the name of the game will help with actually killing some birds. Paper punching is needed to know your gun, but it often doesn't correlate to actually getting the job done.

Anyway, nothing earth shattering in any of this. Just trying to help some of our newbies realize some of their dreams. Hope everyone has a SAFE and productive season.

 

[megalomaniac]

For me, it was simply because I was too inexperienced to know to pattern my shotgun. When I started turkey hunting back in 1989 at the age of 18, I just wrongly assumed that a shotgun would kill anything you aimed at. And it did good job of that on the first 3 or 4 turkeys I shot. Then I rolled one over, he got back up and started running... emptied the autoloader and recovered him.. then another that rolled and went unrecoverable. Then another rolled and I emptied the gun at him and he kept running after 5 shots. Fortunately, I chased him into a woven wired fence and clubbed him with a log to recover him.

A few more kills, a few more 'misses', and I just couldn't figure out why my results were so unpredictable. Until I finally patterened my gun... perfect donut pattern with the center of the pattern completely blown out. Tried different chokes, different shotshells, and never found anything that produced a satisfactory pattern... retired that 3in 12g and switched to a 3.5in 10g and never looked back for the next 20 years... until 5 or 6y ago.

My other misses were on birds that were too close. But those were clean misses, .. no harm no foul.

 

[Urban_Hunter]

I like to think I am experienced enough that over excitement doesn't play much of a role for me having done this for 25 years now, but last year made a fool of me. Say what you will, but I use the crutch of a strutting Jake and hen. I was perched on a knoll 18 yards away and had made my sequence of calls for the morning and had decided it was time to move, but my daughter who was along with me had fallen asleep so I decided to give it a while longer and come up with a plan. Looked back at my decoys and one Tom was flogging it and the other was looking right at me. As I lifted my gun the one took off and the other stood tall…. I whiffed. Reflex, I pumped one and folded him 5' in the air, then had to give him another. Straight embarrassed myself.

I have a scope with a diamond reticle… you've convinced me to put it back on my trusty 835. Took it off one time to use on a dove hunt when my 1100 was down and never put it back on

 

[philsanchez76]

Great post @scn

I killed a bird each of my first two seasons. Last year was third season and i killed zero birds despite having a few decent opportunities. It was then I realized my first 2 birds were pretty much beginners luck. Been on the fence on scoping my gun but I'm now definitely going to do it this season.

 

[Wrangler95]

I will admit that I'm a flincher.Anyone shooting a Mossberg 835 12 gauge 3.5 inch shell knows what I'm talking about,they will slam your shoulder good!I used to never flinch until I started shooting the 835 so I bought a Mossberg 935 which is a semi and the kick is not bad on it compared to the 835,it also has a pistol grip which also lessens the recoil felt by your shoulder.It seemed every year I would miss a gobbler because I flinched,which is getting better for me with the 935!

 

[Setterman]

Great post Steve. I was a weird one as for the majority of my turkey career I rarely if ever missed. If they came to me they died. At that time I shot either an 870 or a Browning BPS both choked with a Kicks Choke tube that were fairly open by today's standards. I always shot beads and had no issues

fast forward from those years to 2013 when I purchased a SBE2 with the steady grip stock. i shot the same loads and choke combo and the gun patterned great. However I missed 5 birds in a row with it. I noticed after the final miss that a tree behind the gobbler about 3 feet higher than his head was wrecked. It was then I understood I wasn't keeping my head down with the different stock. I switched to a Fast Fire sight and haven't had many issues since.

when I switched last year to TSS I would've missed a bunch of I followed the recommended choke constriction so many choose. But putting it on paper and realizing I didn't need nor want a 60+ yard gun saved me some heartache.

I remain baffled why so many want a turkey gun that puts the entire pattern in a pie plate at 40 yards. And I also wonder how many of those folks shoot their gun at 15, or 20 yards. They'd be shocked at the golf ball sized pattern they're slinging.

 

[Andy S.]

Great post/thread and discussion. Assuming gun/choke/shells are adequate, retaining cheek weld and follow through is the biggest culprit IMO. With big bores and magnum loads of lead, anticipating the kick and in turn flinching is a catalyst for hunters not retaining cheek weld. Basically a domino effect if you will. I preach it all the time, stay down on your gun and recover more game.

 

[deerfever]

Guilty! I have lifted my head up to watch him flop only to realize when he ran off the mistake that I had made. I was also the guy way back when that didn't pattern my shotgun, I think we all assumed many years ago that it would just shoot POA. Fortunately for me I shot a Mossberg 835 with a stick of dynamite in it and had no issues.
Now I probably pattern overkill with my guns as I have already checked them. I bet you would be surprised how many people still never pattern their gun then wonder why a miss occurs. I shoot turkey chokes but not the super tight , mine are 575 and a couple 580. I have been told so many times you could get that" tighter". No thanks the more open pattern is better for hunting in my opinion. I started my son with modified choke and Federal HVW #7 2 3/4. He wasn't shooting over 30 yards and it more than did the trick when he was 7 and would still do the trick if I had any of the shells left.

 

[PossumSlayer]

Last year which should have been bird 2.
I couldn't believe my luck opportunity for 2 birds in on back to back hunts . Second time even turkey hunting. I got in tooooo big of a hurry on saw the wad flying way over the gobblers head

 

[Buzzard Breath]

Great topic!! I would be curious to know how many people actually pattern their guns at different yardage while shooting $10+ loads? I know when I patterned mine, I cringed every time I pulled the trigger and didn't get the results I wanted.

 

[scn]

Great topic!! I would be curious to know how many people actually pattern their guns at different yardage while shooting $10+ loads? I know when I patterned mine, I cringed every time I pulled the trigger and didn't get the results I wanted.

This is going to be a major issue for folks switching to the TSS this year with the huge price increases. You can do a lot of sighting in work using cheaper lead loads, but you absolutely can't tell what your gun is actually doing until you touch off the shell you are planning on hunting with. At $12-15/shot, folks are going to scrimp on that part of the plan. I'll check to make sure I haven't knocked my scope off, but have no plans to experiment with different chokes this year.

 

[LenS]

Virtually every one of my misses has been due to raising my head up off the stock. I try to consciously tell myself over and over, "keep your head down" when lining up my shot.

 

[Spurhunter]

Great topic!! I would be curious to know how many people actually pattern their guns at different yardage while shooting $10+ loads? I know when I patterned mine, I cringed every time I pulled the trigger and didn't get the results I wanted.

Do you cringe every time you put 3 gallons of gas in your tank? Or every time you stop for a burger? $10 is $10. Most of us blow $10 every day. Let's be honest, TSS is not for people that are struggling to get by. Those folks will stick with lead, understandably so.

 

[fairchaser]

For me, my misses were largely the result of shooting a right hand gun, lefty. The pattern didn't line up with the bead and grove. The further out exacerbated the problem. At the range, it wasn't as bad because I was shooting off a rest but free hand it shot differently. The simple solution was to add an optic and I haven't missed since. I also added a trigger spring which lightened the trigger up. A good trigger will reduce that pulling off the target.

 

[Spurhunter]

I'm amazed by the number of people that shoot tight patterns and a bead. When you force a lot of shot, at high velocities, through a super tight choke, your point of aim and point of impact will likely not be the same. Throw in cheek weld, poor shooting form, etc., and misses are likely. I shoot a Leupold turkey scope. The center of my pattern is exactly in the center of my point of aim. I don't have to think about any of that other stuff. If his head is in the circle when I pull the trigger, he is dead. Period. And I might flinch shooting paper, but the last thing I think about when shooting a longbeard is recoil. I'm not a good enough turkey hunter to squander opportunities. If the stars align, lady luck shines down, my rabbit's foot works, and I get a dumb, suicidal gobbler in range, I've got to punch a tag.

 

[Gravey]

When I first started turkey hunting I had a Mossberg 500. Killed some birds and moved to the 835. All of a sudden I missed a few and realized I was raising up off the gun so I put a Pentax Lightseeker scope on and cured that problem. I believe that scope was a recommendation from @scn. Got rid of it and bought an 870 and put the same scope on it. Never a problem. After a few years I wanted an automatic so sold it and bought an SX3 and decided I was not going to scope it and didn't. Knock on wood haven't missed with it. This year I'm switching to a 20 gauge and have a Burris FF3 for it it. Still have the Pentax that may ultimately end up on it but for now going to start with the FF3.

 

[timberjack86]

I've done all 4, the way I look at it you've not been turkey hunting long if you haven't missed a bird or two. I love it when a self proclaimed pro says he never misses a bird.

 

[Bgoodman30]

The worst thing I ever did in my turkey hunting career was picked up a wretched Mossberg 835 from a pawn shop because I was tired of the 28" barrel on my Benelli that doubled as a duck gun.. I missed a bird right out in the open and my buddy asked "did you pattern your gun"? Nope never had because I had never missed before... I patterned it that day and it was shooting a foot high.. Actually called a bird to 25 yards aimed low and missed again the same day.. Borrowed his 870 and killed one an hour later.. Then I went on a patterning binge with the 835 and 3.5 TSS and everything in between and that's when the flinch began... Honestly missed close to 20 turkeys after I bought that gun it about drove me crazy.. Not only did the 835 make me flinch but the misses started to give me target panic and I would rush the shot... I have probably missed for every reason there is.. After trying a Winchester SXS and problem persisting I settled on a Benelli 20GA with red dot and finally getting dialed in. I killed a lot of birds in between but I had to really work on it getting the right pattern, breathing, counting to 3, squeeze dead bird..