Upland Game

As the New Year rings in every Dec 31, most hunters believe that they will have to wait until September to get the opportunity to chase fur and feathers again, as most of the big game seasons have closed and for the most part the only season open is waterfowl. Although waterfowl hunting is a great pursuit, the barriers to entry can be steep with the cost of decoys and equipment. But luckily for most Americans, there is a large game bird that offers quite the challenge, the ringneck pheasant.

Sometimes we let the non-important things get in the way of the reasons that we enjoy hunting and we have to remind ourselves to have fun!

The folks at Winchester have a pretty cool new “app” for showing shot patterns for turkey loads. These are not computer modeled guesstimates of what the pattern should look like in an ideal world. Winchester took the time to shoot all of the different shells and shot weights through a variety of different chokes to give an idea of how they should perform. This is a Winchester app so all of the shells are theirs.

Turkey season is right around the corner. Although you don’t have to have a shotgun that is dedicated to turkey hunting there are a few options that will help. Turkeys have great eyesight, they see a lot better than we can. Cammo for the hunter is a must for hunting turkeys. I don’t think it is a must for your shotgun, but it can’t hurt. At the very least you want one that is not going to shine and sparkle in the sun like vampires in tween movies. I prefer an optic or rifle sights on a turkey shotgun. These guns with the proper chokes are capable of taking a turkey out to 40 yards or a bit more. The head on a turkey is small and the bead found on typical shotguns really doesn’t cut it. We want a bit more precision here.

Britney Starr gives us some bird hunting basics. It’s always good to be reminded of ways to remain safe when you’re out in the field.

While I will never claim to be anything close to being an expert in turkey hunting….I have pursued the quarry on more than a few occasions. I’ve named all those turkeys the “Roadrunner” which of course, makes me “Wile E. Coyote” and no… I am not the “Super Genius”. Far from it, according to my wife. I do give myself an “A” for effort though. How an animal whose head houses a brain the size of a pea can beat me and thousands of other hunters time & time again…for that I definitely do not have an answer. I make no excuses for not being able to routinely beat this Old World majestic game bird. I suppose that is what draws the strange breed of turkey hunters that obsess, scout, gear up, & lose countless hours of sleep and family time to outsmart a gobbler. It can be done and gets done thousands of times each year every Spring and Fall all across this great country of ours. While I will never claim to be anything close to being an expert in turkey hunting….I have pursued the quarry on more than a few occasions. I’ve named all those turkeys the “Roadrunner” which of course, makes me “Wile E. Coyote” and no… I am not the “Super Genius”. Far from it, according to my wife. I do give myself an “A” for effort though. How an animal whose head houses a brain the size of a pea can beat me and thousands of other hunters time & time again…for that I definitely do not have an answer. I make no excuses for not being able to routinely beat this Old World majestic game bird. I suppose that is what draws the strange breed of turkey hunters that obsess, scout, gear up, & lose countless hours of sleep and family time to outsmart a gobbler. It can be done and gets done thousands of times each year every Spring and Fall all across this great country of ours.