turkey hunting with a Sterlingworth

[Magwa45]

Just thinking of the upcoming spring turkey season in Maryland and wouldn't it be great to take a turkey with an old Fox shotgun! No camo or special turkey chokes here. Any recommendation for RST shot? This is something I will have to think through. I am sure that many turkeys have been taken with A.H. Fox shotguns, but please respond if you have some experience with this. The kids keep me busy, but I am thinking about turkey season!

[Jay]

Wasn't shooting a Sterlingworth, but I was shooting RSTs when I killed my last turkey with a 7/8 oz. load of 8s. The bird was flying directly overhead when I shot, and just folded when hit. He was very close. I'm certainly not advocating this load for turkey hunting, but if you can get your bird in close enough, chokes and loads become less of an issue.

[Twice Barrel]

Late in the season after most of the hens have been "serviced" some of those lonely old Toms will come in to the call and practicly roost on your barrel so choke and load are not nearly so important. Just go where there are birds around, pick the right time and make a reasonable attempt to hide yourself.

[jmc]

I'd look at this differently in respect to how your SW is configured rather than what RST has to offer. My turkey gun is an A-grade with 30" Chromox barrels that were struck from #2 weight tubes. It has all the choke in both barrels, substantial barrel wall thickness and no signs of cracking or oil soaking at the head of the stock. Chambers have been lengthened to 2.75" as well. I've pulled the stock to look for any internal issues not visible from an exterior inspection and found there to be none. With this information, I decided for myself that my gun could safely shoot 1.25 oz. of #5 shot out of a factory Winchester 2.75" shell (can't remember exactly which load but I'll have the same box for many years). I only put 2 or 3 of these loads per season through the gun to take the spring turkeys I hunt and I don't think any harm whatsoever has been done to my gun based upon subsequent inspections of the stock and barrels. A healthy SW of ample build should be a great turkey gun. I really think a lot of folks go way overboard with camo clad 3.5" 12 ga. guns and special loads to hunt these birds because of all the marketing. It's such a better experience when you forget all of that and get back to basics and use a Fox.

[fullchoke16]

Well said jmc. For some reason, people think that a longer shell will compensate for calling ability. I think waterfowl hunters are even more guilty of this than turkey hunters. Speaking of marketing, just how many camo patterns do we really need? Movement gives you away before color any time. I like Super X 1 3/8 oz. #6 papers mostly because I still have a box of them, but I'd think the RST in 1 1/4 oz. would be just as good if not better. Fred