# Dedicated Turkey Gun with Handloads and a nice Hybrid



## toasty (May 15, 2008)

Well, I finally had the chance to test out my latest project from last winter, a dedicated turkey gun. Some of this is a rerun, so skip to the end if you've already read this stuff. Got the idea from Spuriosity. I mounted a cantilever mount and a burris fastfire 2 on my beretta O/U. Took is out to the range and and shot some patterns. The POI for 50 yards with custom load of HW15 #7 and TSS #8 is about 1 inch low and 1 inch to the right different for the top barrel as 20 yard for 1 1/2oz lead #6s at 20 yards. With the spread of the patterns, if the red dot is on the turkey, it is going to get hit with a lot of pellets. The principle of this shotgun is that could kill between 10 and 50+ yards very effectively. The red dot is obviously for improving accuracy should there be a the need for a long shot, but more important for a new youth hunter that doesn't have much shotgunning experience, the red dot gives them a precise aiming point. I had the youth hunter practice with some light lead loads and he was very accurate out to 40 yards off a tripod.

Here is the gun and a couple patterns:

























I headed down the land of Hybrids in my state to see if I could get a turkey for a new youth hunter and bag my first hybrid. We hunted hard for 2 days, all the areas that held turkeys had a lot of old sign, but nothing within the last week or two. The spots that required a 3-5 miles hike in were off the table due to the new hunter. The turkeys were quiet, only heard 1 gobble the entire trip. We had just finished working our way through a desert canyon when we finally spot a bird. He lets out a thunderous gobble at about 80 yards. We now know it is a nice tom, but he is not coming to us. I love calling birds in, but it was time to put one in the bag so this first time youth hunter would at least see a little bit of action. He can't yet mount a shotgun freehand to shoot, so after some discussion and encouragement, he talks me into taking taking a shot if we get a chance. We make our way through the thick rabbit brush, as we close in I see him moving quickly from let to right. I mount the gun put the red dot on it target, at this time he is running, but I've patterned and shot this shot at the range many times over. I shoot and the bird goes down. The 2oz HW15 #7 handload load hits like him like a truck. My first rio-merriam hybrid, has good size to him, bigger than any of the rios I've shot to date. He has a 8 1/4" beard and 1 1/16" spurs that go to a nice point. Later on that day we spot another turkey, but we couldn't get it within range to test the short range capability of my turkey gun. I have complete confident my youth hunter would have had no problems finishing the turkey off. I was thrilled with the gun and the FFII was steady and consistent through the while weekend included hiking through some thick brush where is got knocked around quite a bit. The gun has earned a permanent place in my safe even though it will likely only get shot 1 or 2 times a year.


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## outdoorser (Jan 14, 2013)

Wow man, that's awesome!


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## Mojo1 (Sep 8, 2007)

Nice Tom, nice gun. Are you going to dip the gun or just tape it ever year.


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## toasty (May 15, 2008)

Mojo1 said:


> Nice Tom, nice gun. Are you going to dip the gun or just tape it ever year.


I'd love to dip it, but don't have the $200 to get it done. That is Mcnett camo tape, it comes off with no residue and is reusable. it is really easy to use and is the best option for camo for a gun if you can't afford a good dip job in my opinion. Mojo, if you have any contacts for a good inexpensive dip job, let me know.


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## TEX-O-BOB (Sep 12, 2007)

That pattern at 40 yards with 1 7/8 oz of #7's is VERY impressive!8) I'd like to see it at 60.....


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## toasty (May 15, 2008)

TEX-O-BOB said:


> That pattern at 40 yards with 1 7/8 oz of #7's is VERY impressive!8) I'd like to see it at 60.....


Tex,

I've shot it at 55, there was a little more than 120 in the 10". I didn't run it through shotgun insight, so I don't have a pretty pic, but I was feeling pretty good if I had to reach out and touch a gobbler. If you ever want to load up a few premium tungsten shells with HW15 or TSS, shoot me a PM, I can get you set up.

Here is a 50 yard 1 7/8ozTSS #8 pattern


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## BPturkeys (Sep 13, 2007)

I always have trouble identifying "hybrid" birds from a normal Rio, how did you make this distinction?


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## toasty (May 15, 2008)

BPturkeys said:


> I always have trouble identifying "hybrid" birds from a normal Rio, how did you make this distinction?


I'm no turkey expert, but I have shot a handful of Rios that I could compare wings, tail feathers, etc... These are the things that lead me to believe I shot a hybrid.

1- Area is shown as Hybrid on the NWTF map. There were rios planted within 20 miles of this spot, but there were also merriams planted within 20 miles of this spot and each were planted within 10 miles of each other. The mountain range to the northeast is supposed to be all merriams and this drainage ties into the merriam drainage on the north. There isn't any evidence of a pure rio strain anywhere close that I can find on a map. 
2- Turkey Tail Tips are much whiter than the 4 Rios I compare them to, they start of similar to a rio, but by the end of the tail, they are several shades whiter than all of the rio tails I compared them to. The other thing I noticed was the tail feathers are about 1.5" longer than the rio I shot with a 9" beard, by far the biggest fan I have ever shot. Aren't merriams supposed to be a bigger turkey with a little bigger tail fan?
3- Wings are more white with black bars vs the rios wings I have that are gnerally more black with white bars.
4- While I don't have measurements, in comparing legs from the Rio, these seem to be a little shorter as I was admiring my turkey, later comparing photos I saw the same thing. I actually looked this up and found that merriams are supposed to have shorter legs.
5- I would think that perhaps I shot Merriams with all of the above evidence, but I shot this turkey in the desert landscape, dozens of miles from any mountains. They roost in cottonwoods and live on the desert environment.

If you know something I don't, help me out. I'm sure there is wide variation of interbreeding that happens, but these are not like the rios I have harvested in northern utah. I've never seen a rio with this white of tail feathers either. What do you think it is?


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## Mojo1 (Sep 8, 2007)

toasty said:


> I'd love to dip it, but don't have the $200 to get it done. That is Mcnett camo tape, it comes off with no residue and is reusable. it is really easy to use and is the best option for camo for a gun if you can't afford a good dip job in my opinion. Mojo, if you have any contacts for a good inexpensive dip job, let me know.


I think my buddy uses that wrap or something similar.

I kyloned my old 870 super mag that is my dedicated turkey gun (at the time I did it, dipping wasn't as prevailient as it is today or i would have probably gotten it dipped). It's held up pretty good considering its been on there 14 years. -O,-

Sorry, I have never gotten one dipped, my newer duck guns were all purchased in camo.

I know there two local (utah) places the duck hunters were recommending but I think the going price was around what you quoted. You might ask over on that page.


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