Take Your Best Shot on Turkeys

How hard can it be to make a quick, sure kill with a shotgun on a 20-pound gobbler standing 25 yards away? To a first-time turkey hunter, it may not look like any trouble at all but that hunter could end up disappointed and, far worse, having lost a wounded wild turkey. As Idaho's wild turkey numbers have expanded explosively in recent years, many hunters have joined the pursuit of this exciting game bird. From a few hundred in the 1980s, turkey hunting has grown to attract nearly 20,000 participants in the last few seasons in Idaho. Though most may be experienced in hunting other game bird and big game species, the majority is still waiting to take a first wild turkey. Making certain of the one shot a turkey hunter may have is crucial to the ethics as well as to the success of the hunt. Most big game hunters are accustomed to centering on the largest portion of the animal, the heart-lungs area of the chest, but that does not work on turkeys. As noted in a recent publication of the National Wild Turkey Federation, the only effective way to kill a turkey is to place eight to 10 pellets into the head and neck area. Even the heaviest turkey loads will not penetrate the body enough to reliably drop a wild turkey. Experienced turkey hunters know that the head and neck area can be a tougher target when the bird is in his strut, head pulled down and back into his feathered body. Making the gobbler stretch his neck for a look, sometimes achieved with a whistle or other unexpected sound, is one way the hunter can have a better shot. That hunter had also better be ready to fire because the bird is only going to look once, then show nothing but tail feathers on his way to safer territory. The other way is to wait for the gobbler to come out of his strut. Hunters should test the shotgun and loads they intend to use for turkey hunting on a turkey neck-and-head-sized target at 40 yards. If the eight to 10 pellets are not there, a change of choke, gun or load is required.