Found this on OG and thought it was a pretty good post.
You will notice on this forum the notion or ability to make long shots on turkeys. In the past the standard limit was around 30 yards. Then with the advent of better guns and shells it moved to 40 yards. Now you will hear and see folks shooting well past that yardage. You will also hear the constant bickering about what is ethical and unethical as far as yardage.
I am not here to judge or state what is ethical or unethical. But here is just a few things for people to remember:
1: Before you ever hit the woods, you NEED to take your gun and your shells and pattern-pattern-pattern. You dont have to shoot the most expensive shells, or think lead is inferior. What you do need to do is know the limits of your weapon. You will hear about patterning a lot on here. What we refer to as patterning here is this.
A. Take a 30 inch by 30 inch piece of paper and draw a 3 inch circle in the middle.
B. Set it up at 30 yards, shoot at the center dot (this dot is what is referred to as Point Of Aim, POA).
C. Look for the most dense portion of the pattern.
D. Draw a 10 inch circle around the most dense portion of the pattern. This is what is referred to as your Point Of Impact (POI).
E. Repeat 2 or 3 times to insure that your pattern is hitting in the same spot consistently.
F. This will help you to see if your pattern is actually hitting where you are aiming (POA = POI)
G. If POA is not = to POI then you may need to look at some other type of sight to correct this. There are many types of sights that are adjustable for shotguns (scopes, red dots, iron sights, etc)
H. At this point you can count the number of hits inside the 10 circles. A standard reference is 100 pellet holes in the 10� circle. 80 pellets in a 10� circle averages out to 1 pellet per square inch.
I. You can repeat this process with another shell brand or size or choke. Remember that changing any component in this process may change your POI
2: Now that you have a reference (30 yards), you can start to back the target up and repeat this process. Back up to 35 yards and repeat. Move back to 40 yards, repeat. When you stop getting 100 pellets in the most dense portion of your pattern (10� circle) you have surpassed your effective yardage. It does not matter if you shoot lead or Heavier Than Lead (HTL). DO NOT FORGET THAT THE GUN IS CAPABLE OF KILLING TO THAT DISTANCE, BUT THAT DOES NOT MEAN THE SHOOTER IS CAPABLE. If you have the best car in the world, but you drive it in the ditch, it was not the cars fault. It was the drivers fault. In the same way, shooting a turkey with a weapon that is capable of killing out to 65 or 75 yards does not mean you can shoot out this far in reality. There are environmental factors you should consider before ever taking a long shot.
3: You will hear about many different types of shot material on this web site. The two main types are Lead and Heavier Than Lead (HTL)
A. Lead includes all forms of lead, i.e. pure lead, copper coated, nickel plated, etc. Standard lead is 11 grams per Cubic Centimeter (g/cc)
B. HTL includes these different types
a. HeviShot, H-13� Produced by Environmetal, alloy material, 12 g/cc
b. Federal Heavy Weight � Available from Federal in their HW shells only, 15 g/cc
c. Tungsten shot (various brands) that range around 14 � 15 g/cc
d. Tungsten Super Shot (TSS) � specialty item that is best discussed with the more knowledgeable members of this site (Hawglips). It is 18 g/cc.
C. You may also here about �Nitro Shells�. These are not Remington Nitro Shells. They are specialty loads produced by the Nitro Ammunition Company.
D. HTL pellets allow for a reduction in pellet size while retaining energy and effectiveness. What I mean is that: a smaller, harder, and denser pellet can penetrate materials better than a larger, softer, less dense material. Also a smaller, denser material will be less affected by wind drift increasing core pattern density (the pellets in the 10� circle).
E. While these HTL materials may increase the distance of lethal range, IT DOES NOT NECESSESSARILY INCREASE EFFECTIVE RANGE. Do not count on that "Magic pellet". You must have the pattern density to consistently harvest a bird. That range is determined by your equipment, NOT some arbitrary �Turkey Ethics Expert�.
BOTTOM LINE:
If your gun/shell/choke combination will only pattern out to 35 yards, that is your ethical limit. If your combination holds a consistent pattern (100% of the time) farther than that, that is your ethical, limit. Just because a person says they can ethically harvest a bird out to 65 yards does not mean he is:
A. Unethical
B. Literal (some have bad estimating skills or lie)
C. Does not have good calling skills, woodsman ship (you don�t know their ability)
It is unethical to pick up a gun and a random shell and head straight to the woods to hunt. It is not unethical to pattern your gun and know the limits of your set up, even if it is consistent to 65 yards. The only unethical shot is one past your set ups capability.
You will notice on this forum the notion or ability to make long shots on turkeys. In the past the standard limit was around 30 yards. Then with the advent of better guns and shells it moved to 40 yards. Now you will hear and see folks shooting well past that yardage. You will also hear the constant bickering about what is ethical and unethical as far as yardage.
I am not here to judge or state what is ethical or unethical. But here is just a few things for people to remember:
1: Before you ever hit the woods, you NEED to take your gun and your shells and pattern-pattern-pattern. You dont have to shoot the most expensive shells, or think lead is inferior. What you do need to do is know the limits of your weapon. You will hear about patterning a lot on here. What we refer to as patterning here is this.
A. Take a 30 inch by 30 inch piece of paper and draw a 3 inch circle in the middle.
B. Set it up at 30 yards, shoot at the center dot (this dot is what is referred to as Point Of Aim, POA).
C. Look for the most dense portion of the pattern.
D. Draw a 10 inch circle around the most dense portion of the pattern. This is what is referred to as your Point Of Impact (POI).
E. Repeat 2 or 3 times to insure that your pattern is hitting in the same spot consistently.
F. This will help you to see if your pattern is actually hitting where you are aiming (POA = POI)
G. If POA is not = to POI then you may need to look at some other type of sight to correct this. There are many types of sights that are adjustable for shotguns (scopes, red dots, iron sights, etc)
H. At this point you can count the number of hits inside the 10 circles. A standard reference is 100 pellet holes in the 10� circle. 80 pellets in a 10� circle averages out to 1 pellet per square inch.
I. You can repeat this process with another shell brand or size or choke. Remember that changing any component in this process may change your POI
2: Now that you have a reference (30 yards), you can start to back the target up and repeat this process. Back up to 35 yards and repeat. Move back to 40 yards, repeat. When you stop getting 100 pellets in the most dense portion of your pattern (10� circle) you have surpassed your effective yardage. It does not matter if you shoot lead or Heavier Than Lead (HTL). DO NOT FORGET THAT THE GUN IS CAPABLE OF KILLING TO THAT DISTANCE, BUT THAT DOES NOT MEAN THE SHOOTER IS CAPABLE. If you have the best car in the world, but you drive it in the ditch, it was not the cars fault. It was the drivers fault. In the same way, shooting a turkey with a weapon that is capable of killing out to 65 or 75 yards does not mean you can shoot out this far in reality. There are environmental factors you should consider before ever taking a long shot.
3: You will hear about many different types of shot material on this web site. The two main types are Lead and Heavier Than Lead (HTL)
A. Lead includes all forms of lead, i.e. pure lead, copper coated, nickel plated, etc. Standard lead is 11 grams per Cubic Centimeter (g/cc)
B. HTL includes these different types
a. HeviShot, H-13� Produced by Environmetal, alloy material, 12 g/cc
b. Federal Heavy Weight � Available from Federal in their HW shells only, 15 g/cc
c. Tungsten shot (various brands) that range around 14 � 15 g/cc
d. Tungsten Super Shot (TSS) � specialty item that is best discussed with the more knowledgeable members of this site (Hawglips). It is 18 g/cc.
C. You may also here about �Nitro Shells�. These are not Remington Nitro Shells. They are specialty loads produced by the Nitro Ammunition Company.
D. HTL pellets allow for a reduction in pellet size while retaining energy and effectiveness. What I mean is that: a smaller, harder, and denser pellet can penetrate materials better than a larger, softer, less dense material. Also a smaller, denser material will be less affected by wind drift increasing core pattern density (the pellets in the 10� circle).
E. While these HTL materials may increase the distance of lethal range, IT DOES NOT NECESSESSARILY INCREASE EFFECTIVE RANGE. Do not count on that "Magic pellet". You must have the pattern density to consistently harvest a bird. That range is determined by your equipment, NOT some arbitrary �Turkey Ethics Expert�.
BOTTOM LINE:
If your gun/shell/choke combination will only pattern out to 35 yards, that is your ethical limit. If your combination holds a consistent pattern (100% of the time) farther than that, that is your ethical, limit. Just because a person says they can ethically harvest a bird out to 65 yards does not mean he is:
A. Unethical
B. Literal (some have bad estimating skills or lie)
C. Does not have good calling skills, woodsman ship (you don�t know their ability)
It is unethical to pick up a gun and a random shell and head straight to the woods to hunt. It is not unethical to pattern your gun and know the limits of your set up, even if it is consistent to 65 yards. The only unethical shot is one past your set ups capability.
