Hitting a wild turkey in the head with a shotgun sounds easy, especially when you picture them as seen in magazines, standing perfectly still in a wide-open expanse.
Real turkey hunting is anything but that image of perfection. Frequently, gobblers circle your calling site, sneak in quietly, or throw you some unexpected curve that forces a hasty shot. At the moment of truth, when the bird is in range and your heart is pounding, it’s so easy to point the front sight at the bird and fire. Boom! The shot pattern flies over the bird’s head because you forgot to put your cheek tight against the stock.
I had a situation like this yesterday while hunting in South Dakota when a gobbler and a dozen hens finally fed into range. I’d called for an hour and convinced them to fly across the river onto my side. Problem was, I was laying flat on the riverbank with a decoy in one hand and shotgun in the other.
Luckily, I had an Aimpoint Hunter red dot scope, and I was able to put that wavering red dot squarely on the bird’s head and drop it cleanly. The shot would have been impossible with a standard front bead sight. With Aimpoint scopes it doesn’t matter if the dot is perfectly centered in the scope. Wherever the dot lines up is where your shot patterns — a hunt saver in my case. We give them a big thumbs-up.
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Photo: Predator Masters Forums
