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Turkey hunting.

Sonofodin

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North Atlanta area. Want to start turkey hunting. I have hunted pretty much everything you can in Georgia. But never really got into hunting birds of any type. So this year I have decided to try my luck at birds. I am an experienced hunter but I have no knowledge the specifics on turkey hunting. Gear, ammo, general helpful tips would be appreciated.
 
Get good 12ga or 20ga. Shoot longbeard xr #6 shells or tss. I would recommend tss for 20ga. Don't overcall, use a locater call like owl hoot or crow call sparingly if he is gobbling at it. Decoys in a food plot can be your friend. Stay as still as possible. Do you have a hunting club you're in or are you hunting public land?
 
The only turkey hunt I did, I got a bird that was trying to walk past me to get to my buddy who was calling it in. But, I interrupted its walk.
P.S. Aside from the obvious lesson learned about the value of having a call and somebody who knows how to use it,

I got lucky in another respect. I misjudged the distance to the bird. I thought I was taking a 25-yard shot when it was really 38 or about that much. My pattern of #6 shot from my 3" shell was WAY TOO WIDE.
It was probably a 36" pattern, with gaps of a couple inches between the pellet strikes.
I only found about 5 pellets in the bird, and I shot it TWICE. First shot got it flopping around on the ground, wildly, and the second shot was a complete miss, and the third shot hit the body and put it out of its misery. But, I expected to have to dig dozens of lead pellets out of the meat. Instead, I only found 5 wounds on the bird's body.
So, the other lessons are (1) HAVE A TIGHT CHOKE-- a real "turkey" or "extra full" choke, not a standard "full."
and (2) Know how to accurately estimate ranges, and know how your gun patterns with that particular load (not some cheap low-brass birdshot load, but your actual turkey hunting load) at 20, 30, and 40 yards.
 
Get good 12ga or 20ga. Shoot longbeard xr #6 shells or tss. I would recommend tss for 20ga. Don't overcall, use a locater call like owl hoot or crow call sparingly if he is gobbling at it. Decoys in a food plot can be your friend. Stay as still as possible. Do you have a hunting club you're in or are you hunting public land?
To the point! ^^^Listen to him.^^^
 
Get good 12ga or 20ga. Shoot longbeard xr #6 shells or tss. I would recommend tss for 20ga. Don't overcall, use a locater call like owl hoot or crow call sparingly if he is gobbling at it. Decoys in a food plot can be your friend. Stay as still as possible. Do you have a hunting club you're in or are you hunting public



Hunting public land. I haven't been in the area super long so I don't know anybody that has land. I am planning on using a pop up blind. I also will be using a mossberg 12. I have never called birds before so that is something I have to learn as well. I can assume there's going to be a big.learning curve. I appreciate the advice
 
S Sonofodin Your zip shows Marietta, Adamjen15 Adamjen15 isn't too far from you, he knows alot of wma land up yalls side of town.

As a beginner one of the best calls you can get is a push button style call. You can do most calls on it. A slate call is a good starter pot call, once you've figured it out a glass or crystal call is good too. In my vest I carry a variety of 5 or 6 strikers, a slate call, glass call, a diaphragm call and wingbone. Some guys carry more some guys carry less.

If you're ever out east ga and hunt Redlands hit me up, I've got a couple good spots to get in on down there. Not sure of your work schedule but I'll be there Wednesday morning, if you want to join just let me know.
 
Never killed one but have been with experienced callers on several occasions...Today I tried by myself and got close to two...The first one gobbled his head off...he must have saw me because he finally left...30 minutes later in another spot...saw a hen and called 4 different times...got up to move and was face to face with a gobbler ..moved too soon
 
Never killed one but have been with experienced callers on several occasions...Today I tried by myself and got close to two...The first one gobbled his head off...he must have saw me because he finally left...30 minutes later in another spot...saw a hen and called 4 different times...got up to move and was face to face with a gobbler ..moved too soon
sometimes best thing to do is stay put, even if you feel like you should get up and go. I almost went to cut one off yesterday afternoon but decided to stay put, killed a way better one by staying where I was and trying to call him back.
 
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