Where to aim on a turkey: the head and neck, and the shots to let walk

Aim at the head and neck

Two state hunter-education courses give the same instruction in almost the same words. Pennsylvania's course page on where to aim when turkey hunting: “When hunting wild turkeys with a shotgun, greater success is achieved when hunters shoot at the head and neck area of the bird.” Texas Parks & Wildlife's course page on shots to the vital areas: “With a firearm, the head and neck are the best place to aim.” If you take one sentence from this page into the woods, take one of those. The rest of the first-season path is about getting a bird close enough that you can.

The reason is anatomy, not tradition. Pennsylvania's course explains why the body is the wrong target: “Because of the thick feathers and heavy wing bones protecting the vital organs, shot may not be able to penetrate to the vital organs.” A load that would be lethal on an open target can bury itself in feathers and wing structure on a turkey. A bird hit in the body very often walks or flies off, and that is the outcome every beginner is trying not to cause.

There is a second, smaller reason. Texas's course notes that “by aiming for the head with a rifle or grouping for the head and neck with a shotgun, you won't damage the breast meat.” Missouri's conservation department gets at the equipment side of the same point: an extra-full choke “gives the tightest pattern,” and “a tight pattern is important in order to strike the vital head-and-neck area.” Which choke does that for your gun and gauge is in what choke for turkey hunting.

How small the target really is

A turkey looks big. The part you are actually shooting at is not. Writing for the NWTF, JJ Reich — who works in communications for Federal Ammunition, so read it as an industry source — puts a number on it: “A turkey's head and spinal column in the neck represent about 4 square inches.”

That figure is why turkey hunters talk about pellet counts instead of group size. The standard Reich describes is to “achieve at least 100 pellets within a 10-inch circle, with at least 10 pellets in the turkey's vital area.” Mississippi State University Extension teaches the same benchmark from the range side: “a standard ‘acceptable’ pellet count in a 10-inch circle at 40 yards is 100 holes.” Apex Ammunition, a maker, states it the same way: “the general rule of thumb is to get 100 pellets in a 10" circle in order to consistently kill a turkey.”

The strutting bird problem

A gobbler in full strut is the picture everyone has in their head, and it is not a shot. In strut, the bird is a ball of raised feathers — Missouri's field guide describes males “spreading their tails like a peacock and puffing out their feathers,” and the NWTF calls strutting “an instinctive behavior that allows a male turkey to show off his plumage.” The head and neck you are supposed to be aiming at are drawn back into that mass. Shoot at the middle of it and you are shooting at the body, which is the one thing both hunter-education courses tell you not to do.

Writing for the NWTF about decoys and shot angles, Scott Haugen gives the rule in one line: “Once broadside and its head is separated from the body, shoot.” That is the trigger. Not “when he is close enough.” Not “when he gobbles.” When the head and neck stand clear of the body and you can see them as their own shape.

So the discipline is waiting. A strutting bird almost always comes out of strut to look around, and that is the moment you are sitting there for. Have the gun already up and already pointed where you expect him to be, because the NWTF's own post-mortem on missed birds is unglamorous: “A lack of concentration or sloppy form can easily make you miss.” Getting your gun up before he is in range is a setup problem, and it is solved in turkey hunting setup.

Your maximum range is the one you patterned

There is no universal number of yards, and anyone who gives you one without asking what you shoot is guessing. What the published sources do agree on is a ceiling and a floor.

Read those together and the shape is clear: most published advice puts the outside limit at or inside 40 yards, and the NWTF adds a near limit as well, because a modern turkey choke throws a pattern so tight that a close bird can be missed. The example in the NWTF's anatomy of a miss is worth keeping: “At 11 steps, my pattern was the size of a quarter. I'd merely lobbed 2 ounces of expensive shot right past the gobbler's head.”

What to look for in a sight

A bead was designed for a moving bird and a wide pattern. A turkey gun does the opposite job: a tight pattern on a small, still target. That is the case for putting a dot on a turkey gun, and it is argued in full in red dot vs bead for turkey hunting. If you are shopping for one, three things decide it for a first season:

• Whether it will mount to your gun at all. This is the trap. Some sights need a receiver that is drilled and tapped, some need a rail, and some makers sell a clamp that fits a vent rib. Check your exact shotgun model against the maker's own compatibility list before you buy, not after.
• The reticle. Burris's own reticle page says of its 11 MOA dot: “The larger dot is easier to see under any lighting condition. A good choice for turkey or slug gun hunting at closer ranges.” Holosun offers a “selectable Red 2 MOA dot, 65 MOA circle, or combined circle-dot reticle.” A bigger dot is faster; a smaller dot covers less of a small target.
• Battery life, and remembering to change it. The published figures in our registry range from 5,000 hours to 50,000, and the sights take two different battery sizes. Buy the spare with the sight.

We have not mounted or shot any of these sights. Every figure below is the maker's published specification, linked in the sources at the end of this page.

The full field, including a budget tube sight, is in best red dots for turkey hunting. One thing to plan for: the NWTF's patterning guide warns that “every time you change your choke tube, shotshell brand, go from led shot to extra dense, or change pellet size or sighting system, the pattern will most certainly change.” Adding a sight is changing the sighting system, so you pattern again afterwards, and “adjust your sights if the center of the pattern's mass is off.”

Shots to pass

Most of the ethics of turkey hunting is in the shots you do not take. These come from state agencies and the NWTF, not from us.

• Anything you have not positively identified. Pennsylvania's game commission: “Positively identify your target! Be certain the bird is fully and plainly visible before pulling the trigger. Don't shoot at sounds or movement.” Florida's wildlife commission goes further: “demand multiple points of identification to be absolutely certain it's a legal turkey,” and “never shoot at sounds, color or movement.”
• Anything without a safe backdrop. The NWTF's public-land rule is “only take shots at game you've positively identified, with a safe backdrop.” Pennsylvania's hunter-education material adds the habit that makes it automatic: “pre-select a zone-of-fire. Shoot at a turkey only in the predetermined area.”
• Any bird past your patterned range. Missouri: “NEVER shoot at a turkey beyond the effective range of your shotgun.” That is your range, measured on paper, not the one in a magazine.
• A bird still in strut. Wait for broadside with the head separated from the body, per the NWTF.
• A bird you cannot confirm is legal. Bag rules differ: Pennsylvania allows “only bearded birds” in spring, Vermont says to “look for a beard as only turkeys with beards are legal during the spring season,” and the NWTF warns that a beard is not proof of sex, since “about 10 percent of hens also can have beards.” Learning the difference is what jake vs tom vs hen is for.

If a shot makes you hesitate, that hesitation is information. Let him walk, stay sitting, and call him back another day.

After the shot

A downed turkey flaps hard, and the temptation is to sprint. Do not. Maryland's natural resources department gives the sequence: “Put your gun's safety on and approach the downed bird with your firearm pointed in a safe direction after firing. Never run with a firearm.” The NWTF says the same thing in four words: “Never run with a loaded gun.”

If the bird runs or flies and you are not sure of the hit, mark exactly where it was standing and where you last saw it before you move, then take the search slowly and quietly. A second bird may still be in the area, and other hunters may be too.