Killer@nz
01-12-2007, 00:32
First of all sorry no pictures, I meant to take some pictures but that never happened. So here's the story instead.
My brother-in-law and his cousin were going shooting on a neighbours farm, and I was asked along. We took a Remington 870 (Left Handed), my Remington 597 (.22) and My Mini 14. We parked up the car and had a chat to the farm hand (the Farmer had been spoken to that morning), and then we set off. This farm is well known for having its fair share of rabbits, hares, and turkeys, and we were not disappointed. We walked about 20 yards before seeing the first rabbit. And after two paddocks found the first hare. one round from the mini dropped it where it lay. Then came several rafters of turkeys. Both gangs were dispensed with after a reasonable amount of running and shooting, I am not as fit as I once was and the hills reminded me of the benefits of staying in shape. This continued from rabbit to turkey from paddock to paddock, until the end of the session where we came to a valley we had intentionally left till last. It was about 200 yards to the car and from the elevated position we easily spotted half a dozen rabbits which we began to eliminate. I learned two things from this shooting expedition.
1. Silencers were worth every cent spent on them. So often we came across one animal 50 - 100 yards after the last shot. Both the mini and the .22 are silenced.
2. .223 makes a big mess of rabbits and hares providing you hit bone, but surprisingly little damage to turkeys. Head-shots are effective but body shots are not so great.
I am not sure why but, the turkeys that were shot in the body often kept going for quite a while. Maybe they are hardier creatures than I have given them credit for? If you have read this far you are doing well.
It was a really good time and everyone got to have a go.
Thanks for reading, if you have any experience shooting turkeys with rifles or shotguns I would be interested to hear your experiences. We mainly shoot them as pest control so use whatever is handy (.22, .223, 12ga with #4 shot, 12ga with 00 Buckshot). So it would be good to hear other ways of hunting them or tricks and tips.
My brother-in-law and his cousin were going shooting on a neighbours farm, and I was asked along. We took a Remington 870 (Left Handed), my Remington 597 (.22) and My Mini 14. We parked up the car and had a chat to the farm hand (the Farmer had been spoken to that morning), and then we set off. This farm is well known for having its fair share of rabbits, hares, and turkeys, and we were not disappointed. We walked about 20 yards before seeing the first rabbit. And after two paddocks found the first hare. one round from the mini dropped it where it lay. Then came several rafters of turkeys. Both gangs were dispensed with after a reasonable amount of running and shooting, I am not as fit as I once was and the hills reminded me of the benefits of staying in shape. This continued from rabbit to turkey from paddock to paddock, until the end of the session where we came to a valley we had intentionally left till last. It was about 200 yards to the car and from the elevated position we easily spotted half a dozen rabbits which we began to eliminate. I learned two things from this shooting expedition.
1. Silencers were worth every cent spent on them. So often we came across one animal 50 - 100 yards after the last shot. Both the mini and the .22 are silenced.
2. .223 makes a big mess of rabbits and hares providing you hit bone, but surprisingly little damage to turkeys. Head-shots are effective but body shots are not so great.
I am not sure why but, the turkeys that were shot in the body often kept going for quite a while. Maybe they are hardier creatures than I have given them credit for? If you have read this far you are doing well.
It was a really good time and everyone got to have a go.
Thanks for reading, if you have any experience shooting turkeys with rifles or shotguns I would be interested to hear your experiences. We mainly shoot them as pest control so use whatever is handy (.22, .223, 12ga with #4 shot, 12ga with 00 Buckshot). So it would be good to hear other ways of hunting them or tricks and tips.