treblig

I'm new to turkey hunting this year - I watched all the videos I could before season and feel fairly confident with my calls (except diaphragm, which I'm working out). This weekend I went out twice, with my objective being to learn the hard way how to get a bird. I got to a location near a roosting area, made some soft calls on the slate and got a gobble at 150 yards. Set up under tree and started soft calling & purring and after 30 minutes or so, he came in - got him to about 40 yards before another hen started cutting in the distance and he started to move away. I took a long shot going away but missed.

The point is I was totally unprepared and unexpecting a bird to come in on this hunt. Can anyone give me pointers on working birds from 100 in to 30 yards? and what is adequate gear - I'm shooting a remington 870 wingmaster with full choke? What load should I be shooting? Will a bird work again after being shot at or otherwise spooked, or will they become call shy?

huntnma

i would of started cutting right back.......... you could of used different strikers to get a different sound, that might of made him think that there were 2 hot hens on your side and only one nasty old hen on the other and he would of turned around heading back to you(ina perfect world, lol).......
before your hunt , you should of patterned your gun with different set ups, different shot size, different choke combos...knowing your gun and it's capabilities at different yards is a must before you go out in the woods...evevn if you cant get anything else, go out and at least shoot what you have and know what it'll do ........good luck to ya.......i'd stick with the clucking and purring, btu if you hear another hen, try to imitate what she is doing.........

BrushChimp

I wouldn't take a shot over 40 yards with any gun let alone one I don't know the pattern of. Some guys around here know better than I do the appropriate loads for your gun and choke.

Oh yeah, I would've started cutting right back too. Sounds like that is what he liked.

Spatrat

Sounds like you were doing everything right if you got that bad boy to 40 yards from 150. Like huntnma said you should have tried to out do the hen that started up; no telling if it would of worked , but at that point you had nothing to lose.

As far as the load choke combo; I am no expert by any means but I have always been told every gun is different. Even each 870 maight be different, that's why taking your gun and spend some time experimenting with different loads is so important. As far as chokes go I am sure you will get some suggestions from other 870 owners.

Good luck and stay safe.