Another miss this past Saturday. Both birds were mature gobblers, one was 40-45 yards, the other 30-35 yards. I can understand the 40-45 yard miss with 2 3/4 loads from a Rem. 1100(a shot that should have never been taken in the first place, but I was excited and shot anyway with high hopes), but I should have killed the second at 30-35 yards. I'm done for this season until I fix the problem. I've only been hunting turkeys for 4 years, and I've never really had any help at all other than going out and learning. Its taken me until this year just to see how the turkeys generally use the land on the property I hunt. I finally get an opportunity for a shot after 3 long years, and I blow it. Two of them, as a matter of fact. I'm pretty sure I know what the problem is. I've never properly patterned my shotgun. I just bought a turkey choke, turkey loads, and some turkey head targets and had at it. I picked what I thought was the best one and started hunting. After reading up on proper patterning, I found out I may be way off from what I thought was good shooting. It was a very hard lesson learned too. I can't describe the disgust seeing what would have been my first turkeys ever running off into the woods.
