Howdy y'all,
I am an adult onset hunter without a lot of turkey hunting experience, forgive me if I seem pretty ignorant. Last year I went on a guided turkey hunt in California and attempted to harvest a turkey by shooting it in the head at close range with an air rifle from a blind, but barely missed.
I was surprised by how hard it was to find and/or get a turkey to come within airgun/shotgun range even with the help of an experienced guide who kept trying to call turkeys with various turkey calls.
Before I tried hunting turkeys I would sometimes randomly run into them while just out hiking, and it seemed like it would be too easy to get within shotgun range of them, but its like the birds know when they are being hunted vs just having hikers hike by.
I later went out into a public hunting area on my own with a bow, but never caught sight of a turkey even though I could hear them gobbling, and kept seeing footprints and scat while I was hiking around, very frustrating.
I live in Nevada and currently have applications pending for a hard to get by drawing turkey tag in state, if I am lucky enough to get one of those tags I'll just bring a shotgun.
But if I don't get a turkey tag this spring in my home state, I've been thinking it might be neat to go to Wyoming which allows over the counter turkey hunting with center-fire rifles.
My understanding is that as long as you have a safe backstop for the shot opportunity, you can just shoot the bird through center mass with a FMJ and not much meat is lost.
I recently bought a Springfield M1A which I love and have used in a local VIMSAR (Vintage Military Silhouette Rifle shoot) and can hit a turkey sized target at about 300 yards with a .308 FMJ.
Would it be completely crazy to go to say, the Black Hills region of Wyoming, hike to near the top of a ridge around sunrise, ideally somewhere with a view of a riparian area that turkeys like to hang out it, and then just hang out watching all around with binos until hopefully I see a turkey and then take a potentially long range shot at it?
It would also be an opportunity to scout the area for possibly hunting other species in the future.
Does that seem like a sensible plan, or will I just be wasting a lot of gas and time driving all the way out there and back?
I am an adult onset hunter without a lot of turkey hunting experience, forgive me if I seem pretty ignorant. Last year I went on a guided turkey hunt in California and attempted to harvest a turkey by shooting it in the head at close range with an air rifle from a blind, but barely missed.
I was surprised by how hard it was to find and/or get a turkey to come within airgun/shotgun range even with the help of an experienced guide who kept trying to call turkeys with various turkey calls.
Before I tried hunting turkeys I would sometimes randomly run into them while just out hiking, and it seemed like it would be too easy to get within shotgun range of them, but its like the birds know when they are being hunted vs just having hikers hike by.
I later went out into a public hunting area on my own with a bow, but never caught sight of a turkey even though I could hear them gobbling, and kept seeing footprints and scat while I was hiking around, very frustrating.
I live in Nevada and currently have applications pending for a hard to get by drawing turkey tag in state, if I am lucky enough to get one of those tags I'll just bring a shotgun.
But if I don't get a turkey tag this spring in my home state, I've been thinking it might be neat to go to Wyoming which allows over the counter turkey hunting with center-fire rifles.
My understanding is that as long as you have a safe backstop for the shot opportunity, you can just shoot the bird through center mass with a FMJ and not much meat is lost.
I recently bought a Springfield M1A which I love and have used in a local VIMSAR (Vintage Military Silhouette Rifle shoot) and can hit a turkey sized target at about 300 yards with a .308 FMJ.
Would it be completely crazy to go to say, the Black Hills region of Wyoming, hike to near the top of a ridge around sunrise, ideally somewhere with a view of a riparian area that turkeys like to hang out it, and then just hang out watching all around with binos until hopefully I see a turkey and then take a potentially long range shot at it?
It would also be an opportunity to scout the area for possibly hunting other species in the future.
Does that seem like a sensible plan, or will I just be wasting a lot of gas and time driving all the way out there and back?
