I depend on a quite a regimen of scouting for a successful spring turkey season. My home state of Michigan, for public land hunts, currently allows only a single tag for the spring, and you have to choose either one of the two single week “seasons” or the 3 week “late season” that finishes out the month of May. I have found, for me, my best option is the 2nd single week season, that lies at the end of April, and finishes the first days of May. And with only 7 days to “do work” in the spring turkey woods, and truck loads of turkey hunters getting out 7 days prior to me, crunch time has begun before my tags are even valid.
Being a public land turkey chaser, I tend to keep my scouting tools simple. Truck, GPS, Notepad, DNR property/topo maps, and Optics. With the masses of turkey hunters that will be hitting the the public land hard the weekend before the season, and during that first week, not only do I find myself having to get deeper into the grounds, but I also find my scouting becoming a bit more long distance. Finding sign and scat is great and all, but to find them, you have to walk where they are, or where they want to be, which, runs the risk of spooking the very game you intend to hunt. No good.
My #1 piece of equipment for scouting, aside from my notebook, is my Hawke Optics 15x50 Monocular. Why a monocular? Well, with the compact size of this monocular, it fits easily into a vest pocket, and being 15 power, I can get a good close look at the grounds surrounding my view from a good vantage point. No need to step foot too far into an area that may have birds in it. Field birds are never too far out to look at. No more having to circle a field along the roads to get a better look at turkey just to have them spook off, and not reveal their natural direction of travel. And, for the type of shooting that I do, it also doubles as a spotting scope. Perfect for sighting in slug guns, muzzleloaders, and patterning a turkey gun. You may not be counting pellets, but you can see the basic pattern that your gun is throwing with different loads and chokes.
Knowing how your favorite turkey gun patterns can be almost as important as the other aspects of turkey hunting, especially with today's chokes and loads that are on the market. Turkey specific shotguns, when matched with a good turkey load, such as the new Winchester Longbeard XR's, have the capability of having patterns that are near the size of a baseball at 15 yards, and display lethal patterns out past 45-50 yards.
I have been a user of just the old fashioned bead sights, and for the last few years have been using a vent rib mounted sighting system, similar to rifle sights, until this year. I have bobbled with the idea of putting an optic or red dot sight on my turkey gun, but fear of change has always steered me away, until now. I recently acquired the Hawke Optics XB 1x32 IR. After mounting the scope, and getting it bore sighted, which was extremely quick, it was time to send a few field loads through the gun to start sighting in. I start with target/field loads because for one, they are pretty inexpensive. You will pay less for a package of 100 target loads than a box of 10, and in some cases 5, high end turkey loads. Second, a 2.75” target load is not going to have the recoil of a 3 or 3.5” High Velocity Turkey load. Save your shoulder for the hunt.
I have been a user of just the old fashioned bead sights, and for the last few years have been using a vent rib mounted sighting system, similar to rifle sights, until this year. I have bobbled with the idea of putting an optic or red dot sight on my turkey gun, but fear of change has always steered me away, until now. I recently acquired the Hawke Optics XB 1x32 IR. After mounting the scope, and getting it bore sighted, which was extremely quick, it was time to send a few field loads through the gun to start sighting in. I start with target/field loads because for one, they are pretty inexpensive. You will pay less for a package of 100 target loads than a box of 10, and in some cases 5, high end turkey loads. Second, a 2.75” target load is not going to have the recoil of a 3 or 3.5” High Velocity Turkey load. Save your shoulder for the hunt.
The very first thing I noticed was how comfortable my eyes felt with changing from the iron sight style system to the 1 power scope. Both eyes could be held open, with almost even focus on the target. There was very little needed for me to adjust how I addressed the gun, aside from the obvious slightly elevated head placement to the stock. Shooting still felt just as natural as open sights, or even a red dot sight. Zeroing in on the pattern center was a breeze, with quick MOA turret adjustments. No quarters or specialty driver needed to move the laser etched crosshairs.
Now, if that weren't appealing enough, this model has the Illuminated Reticle option. During daylight hours, you don't have to use the illumination option, but, having using the red illumination at the highest brightness setting most certainly helps the point of aim stand out while overlooking the edge of a lush green field. And, in the darkened understory of the hardwoods at flydown, one can certainly appreciate a slight green or red glow of the center of the crosshairs, while tracing the approach of the softly glowing white of a gobbler's head. As mentioned, the brightness level of the Red or Green illumination is adjustable, on the same knob, with 5 levels of brightness for either color.
The eye relief was pretty generous, allowing me to keep the scope as forward as possible, allowing my thumb easy unblocked access to the safety tang on the Mossberg, and keeping plenty of distance from my face, so I have no issues with getting “scope eye” with a heavy recoil round. This also allows for awkward position aiming, as often happens while hunting wild turkeys.
I am not sure why I was hesitant before about adding an optic to my turkey gun, but at this point, I cannot see myself going into the turkey woods without one affixed to my turkey gun.
John Buchin
@Jbuchin3 Twitter Handle
I am a self admitted Wild Turkey Obsessionist, but while Turkeys are out of season, I am making custom wild turkey calls as operator of Crooked Talon Calls, Field Staffer for both Hawke Optics and Real Avid, and Council Member of the Michigan Longbow Association.