Gun related, but not lever gun related: BP turkey load

[bigbore442001]

The saga of finding the right turkey load may have come to an end. I did some testing at the range with the same load but sighting in differently. I bought a new in the box TC Black Mountain Magnum 12 guage muzzleloading shotgun with the hopes of taking a bird this spring using a different method.

I took a shot using the bead in the notch like a rifle and summized," I wonder if this thing shoots high, like a regular shotgun? " Keep in mind that my other turkey gun is a H&R single shot 12 guage ,3 1/2 " magnum with a scope on it.So I sort of instinctly used the muzzleloading shotgun more like a rifle.

So here are the test results.

Shot 1. 12 guage Black Mountain Magnum

90 grains of H777
2 oz no. 5 shot
plastic shot cup and foam over shot wad
RWS musket caps

At 25 yards with a slight high hold,7 pellets in the kill zone. Still looks like a cluster off to the left and bottom quadrant of the target.


Shot 2:

Same load as above but trimmed shotcup.

At 25 yards, 7 pellets in the skull/spine and 27 in the whole kill zone.

Shot no 3. Same as above but I shot it at 10 yards. I wanted to see if the column of shot was shooting differently than the point of aim. Held the bead in the U notch of the tang.

One ragged hole at the bottom of the target. It was five to six inches below the head of the bird. I aimed it like a rifle at the center of the neck. Hmm. This gun shoots a tad high.

Shot n0 4: Same load

Again at ten yards holding the bead high on the head of the gobbler target. One ragged hole at the base of the wattles of the neck. It also seemed to center on th lower left quadrant. Hmm. I think I have to hold high and to the right a bit .

Shot no 5: Same load at 25 yards. Pointed the shotgun with the bead a tad high and to the right. Definitely would kill a bird. There were 6 pellets in the spine/skull and 22 in all of the head and neck area. the shot still seemed to cluster a bit low.

Shot no 6. Thirty yards offhand like I was in the woods. I want to say same load but something wasn't right. What an idiot. I am worried about all the big doings at work tommorrow and forgot to put the shot down the bore. In effect a nice big blank load. Target was clean.

Shot no 7. Same load off hand with the bead on the turkey head and pointing like a normal shotgun.

Best load/shot I have seen yet. A total of 27 pellets in the head and neck area. A definite gobbler killing load.

Sooo. It looks like this coming weekend will find me out in the woods of central Massachusetts with Dad in the truck( he broke a bone in his foot and cannot really hunt with me) hopefully taking a gobbler with a muzzleloading shotgun. That will be a big first for me, if it happens.

By the way, thanks to all for the advice on this matter. You people gave me some good ideas to follow.

[Jaguarundi]

Congrats on the load and goodluck hunting.