What turkey loads are you using in your Parker
 

I've always been of the opinion that less is more when it comes to Parker loads. I use 12 bore hadloads with 1 1/4 oz. of #6 shot at 1200 fps. It's a great patterning load in my guns and is easy on the stock. I used to use this load for my duck shooting but now have gone to 1 1/8 oz. of Bismuth. Nothing more is needed in my opinion. I don't shoot at game at over 40 yards.

Same here on all accounts.






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I'm planning on using some 1 1/4oz RST #5 shot this spring. 1200 fps.

I have yet to shoot at a turkey that wasn't inside 30 yds.... Figure that'll take care of business.

I just got through loading some 8 ga ammo and some 10 ga ammo for turkeys...the 8 ga I will shoot in the single barrel davenport its 2 1/2 ounce of no 6 lead pushed by 45 grains bluedot its a mild load...the 10 ga I loaded up some 10 ga Remington low brass sureshot hulls...I loaded 1 1/4 ounce of no 6 lead with 20 grains of reddot...plain on shooting this in a parker lifter 10 ga with 30 inch plain steel barrels in the 5000 serial range made in 1875 no chokes gona have to get close with this gun...ive got 2 of these plain steel barrel guns the other 10 ga is in the 4000 range made in 1875 also...I reckon they must have not put chokes in this year...both guns as tight as new...now to see if I can find a turkey all I ve seen so far is a coupla tracks...can t walk like I use too so I guess I will have to ambush one...go getem fellas....charlie

I went to the alfalfa fields tonight to look for turkeys. I counted 29 gobblers in one field along with six deer. I have never seen so many gobblers in a bachelor group. Before this the most I've seen has been under ten birds. I've seen hens in large groups but never gobblers in my area. I wonder if such a large gobbler group is common in other areas of the country.

There’s gotta be some kind of explanation for that Tom.





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I've never seen anything like it in all my years of shooting. I was shocked to say the least. Our bachelor groups are small, usually four or five birds, sometimes more, but rarely. I wish I had my camera with me. I took my friend back to see them and he was as shocked as I was. I have no explanation. I'm going to take my camera with me from now on in case I see it again. There were no hens in the field at the time. I carefully looked at every head to make sure all the birds were gobblers. A few of the birds were spreading their tails.

In the 80 acre field below camp we often see large flocks with as many as 60 or 70 birds, about 25% being toms and jakes. The number of mature longbeards among them is usually fewer than 10. When the breeding gets hot and heavy the jakes gang up and single out a longbeard and run him off... then they move on to the next longbeard and the next and the next until only the jakes remain. The longbeards don’t have the sense to protect one of their kind - they’re too busy trying to corral a hen.

That is the exact scenario that provided two jakes with one shot for me two years ago.





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That's interesting Dean. On the property I hunt, I rarely see hens and gobblers together except in the spring. In the fall when bowhunting this year, I frequently observed large groups of hens in the Timothy and Sorghum. Gobblers did not frequent the fields but when they did, I did not see any hens present. The number of gobblers yesterday was unprecedented. I’ve never seen anything like it. I didn’t know that there were that many gobblers on the property since they don't frequent the fields to the extent and in the numbers that the hens do.

I went back to the hanger and grabbed a friend and binoculars to go back and double check that all the birds were gobblers, although I was sure that they were. We looked them all over and he validated that they were all gobblers. I would say that about 10 or 12 of them were jakes that were mingling with the mature birds. No confrontations, but it’s early. About half of the birds were in one group with other groups close by.

I’m going back to the fields tonight with a camera. I hope they return.

good luck with the camera...charlie