krr6581

I got to go home to Alabama three days after the season opened. For the next three days I hunted morning and afternoons. During that whole time I saw plenty of sign and birds (hens). The toms pulled a disappearing act, though we found fresh scat. All three days we never heard a gobble. even the hens were quiet as they fed through around us. By the way the temperature each day was in the high 70's and the lows were mid 50's. Perfect turkey hunting weather, just could not get a response from the birds.

Hey Tucker, did you try moving back about 15 to twenty yards? I have done that successfully in the past and the old tom couldn't stand a hen leaving him. Came right in and met a full load of 5's.

The point of my reply was to educate those who have no idea they should wait before jacking the round out of the chamber after a misfire. A little safety knowledge never hurt anyone. Not everyone in this forum has the experience with firearms to know that tidbit of information.

Just to throw some fuel on the fire, I call your attention to the total gun ban in Australia several years ago. All gun owners were required by law to turn in all of their weapons including some of the nicest gun collections in the world. All of these weapons were destroyed and now the average citizen can only see one on TV or when they come face to face with a criminal who has stuck a gun right in their face. If I buy a gun from a private individual I always call my local police dept. and have them run a check on the serial number just to make sure it wasn't stolen. Other than that I want the government to keep out of my business. I am a territory manager for a U.S. company in Canada and you think some of our laws suck, well theirs is worse than ours. Have to admit Georgia and Alabama where I call home and hunt is looking mighty good right now.

Phiber101, just a rule of thumb here, anytime you have a misfire wait one minute before you eject the shell from the chamber. By the way more often than not when you have a primer that has been struck yet it does not fire immediately you have a primer/powder problem. It does not necessarily mean that it is a gun problem.

I read it, chances are that if you try it at 50 you will attempt it at 50 or beyond.

I fail to understand why someone would risk wounding a bird by shooting at it at 50 yards and beyond. If you can't get them in closer than that, then let the bird go! The risk of just wounding the bird and never getting it is much higher out at that range. Chances are if you wound the bird it will crawl off somewhere and die. Work the bird closer in and then take a good killing shot! Just because we have great choke tubes to select from these days, don't let that lull you into believing that shots like that should be taken. Sure people will kill birds at that distance but that doesn't mean that taking that kind of shot is ethical. Hunter ethics should play a bigger role in our decisions to take the shot. When was the last time you saw a show about turkey hunting where the shots were taken at that distance. I personally can't remember seeing any being taken that far away.

jlefud, one thing going for the shot past 40 yards is that with a 3" magnum your velocity is faster than if you were shooting a 3 1/2". You just won't have the as many pellets going down range.

Both are good guns, it is a toss up really. Just depends on the money you are spending. I have never heard of a bad Benelli.

jlefud, You said that you would like to be able to shoot and kill a bird out to 40 to 50 yards. I don't have a problem of taking shots at 40 yards however, when your talking 45 to 50 yards then you might have an ethics problem. Yes, your shot will travel that far but your ability to cleanly kill the bird drops tremendously. This is partly due to loss of velocity and also your shot string continues to disperse at the longer distances. I have a friend who is a game biologist and he has told me at a minimum a hunter needs at least 5 pellets in the spine and head of a turkey to kill it. He has cited a study his department had done on the number of wounded birds that was shot at 45-50 yards. The number of lost birds wounded yet were able to get away went up exponentially. What he was trying to tell me and the others in our group was that ethics should play a larger part in our hunting. Now this is just my personal opinion but I hope you would consider working the bird in a little closer before attempting that long range shot and if you do decide to do that, please for the birds sake pattern your gun out at those distances and then decide if it is worth the risk of the bird getting away, crawling into a brush pile or hole and dying. Remember turkeys don't leave a blood trail!

For the 2000 most choke manufacturers recommend different tube diameters based upon the size shot your going to use. For instance the tube I bought for mine is the Kicks Gobblin Thunder. I shoot a load of #5's and for that load it is recommended that I have a choke diameter of .660. If I had decided to use #4's they recommended a tube diameter of .665 . I found that my GT tube held an excellent pattern out to 40 yards. Now we can all tell you what our favorite tubes are but if you read some of the threads for the 2000 you will find several folks tell you that the Xfull turkey choke that comes with your gun is good as well. Good luck figuring it all out.

More pellets than the 3" magnum and as you said Tucker but the velocity is actually lower. Same amount of powder but more shot that has to be moved down range.