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April 21, 2006

Turkey Lesson: How to Miss with $1,300 Worth of Gear

Last week I hunted on a ranch outside of Abilene, Texas, on one of those media junket trips with Federal Cartridge and Benelli.(I know, it’s a hard life). My host handed me a camo Benelli M2 with a Bushnell red dot already mounted. “We sighted it in for you, “ he said. “Have a great hunt.”
The next morning, around  10A.M., I had called in a tom from nearly a mile away. After 20 minutes of highly sexual turkey babble, he stepped out from behind a bush at 27 yards. Centering on his head, I took a deep breath and squeezed the trigger.

Shot_shirt_1 After the bird had flown away, I expounded a few striking epithets, and then became determined to check my gun before continuing with my hunt. I took off my shirtand sweaty camo t-shirt, hung the t-shirt on a tree, and fired upon it at 27 yards--twice.The pattern revealed I was 6 inches low and to the left, a clean miss with $1,300 worth of shotgun. 

Two tips:
1.Always check your gun, no matter what anyone says. (Can’t you just hear Petzel laughing?)
2. In a pinch, your t-shirt will do to pattern your turkey gun.

Comments

tom

I think they set you up. You might want to find out if Dave was behind this.

David

aside from the sighting issue, how'd you like the gun?

joe wyrill

why would you buy a high priced gun like that in the first place?

Guy Miller

I use an old early model Mossberg 835. A hunting buddy gave it to me when he bought an upscale shotgun. No gobbler has ever survived being set upon by the Mossberg out to 55 yards (several of them). I learned in high power target shooting that throwing more $$$ at the gun doesn't help a bit.

Joe

It's all a evil plot by the shotgun makers and the turkeys. This is the first year that I have hunted turkeys in 30+ years of hunting and they are the smartest bird I have hunted. I am sure they payed big money to have your shotgun not be sighted correctly.

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