Charlie Elk

pseudonym of a man

  • News
  • Think Pieces / Opinion
  • Turkey Hunting
    • Fall Turkey
    • Spring Turkey
    • turkey hunting tips
    • Stories
  • Humor
  • Deer Hunting
  • Willow Ridge Custom Turkey Calls

Archives for March 2017

Patterning Board Surprise!

March 31, 2017 by Charlie 21 Comments

Yesterday evening while performing one of the most important spring rituals – patterning the turkey guns, three gobblers sounded off at each shot.  How is that for incentive?  Yes, I do the patterning ritual every year because there are always new turkey loads and a hunter can never get enough practice. Those loud-mouthed gobblers on the hillside who kept me entertained weren’t the biggest surprise of the evening.  It was the Improved Modified (IM) choke tube that performed better than the turkey full chokes.

The gobblers flew up to roost with a lot of shooting light left so; I assume they must have decided to study this situation more in-depth too.  As I continued firing away, checking and double checking the patterns on the targets at varying range, those toms would purr, cluck, yelp and gobble in apparent “turkey deep thought”.

A few years ago Federal Prairie Storm, and their Mag-Shok turkey loads, both use flightcontrol wads with copper coated lead got my attention because the good folks at Federal recommend using an improved cylinder (IC) choke. Using IC choke makes it easy to change from regular upland bird hunting and turkey hunting in the fall.  Patterns are very good for the specific game out my 20 or 12 gauges without needing to swap choke tubes.  These loads raised my awareness of using a more open choke for better performance and accuracy. Still, for spring gobbler hunting my head stayed stuck on a turkey full choke.

Last year a good friend gave me a case of Federal 3rd Degree shells, thank you very much, good friend.  This gift allowed me to test them without spending $4+ per shot.  While patterning the 3rd degree through a variety of chokes from cylinder to turkey full, I discovered the Benelli factory improved modified shot the best pattern from 10 – 50 yards.  The 3rd Degrees put the scatter back into scattergun.  A turkey will need to be standing by himself, at least two feet from another bird or there will be collateral taking involved.  At 50 yards it’s common for all shotshell patterns to be spread out.  The good thing about 3rd Degrees is they are consistently spread into a nice pattern all the way.  Nine to twelve pellets were delivered into the kill zone at 50 yards.  I might try these during this spring’s hunt.

Thinking about the difference in shot metallic hardness of heavy shot, steel, bismuth, copper plated lead and nickel plated lead a light came on regarding the choke effect on each shot type.

Vicker hardness of shotgun shell metals

  • Nickel 638
  • Copper 360
  • Iron 608
  • Tungsten 3500

For decades my turkey shell of choice has been Fiocchi nickel plated Golden Turkey because they pattern well, inexpensive and efficiently kill turkeys.  Plus with the moderate price a hunter can practice without breaking their wallet.  The thing is my head got stuck on the turkey full choke is the better concept and until now.

Nickel plated shot is almost twice as hard as copper, meaning the nickel should perform better out of a more open choke, in the same manner, steel shot does, this is why I was at the range yesterday with an audience of gobblers testing standard factory chokes from Remington V3 and Benelli M2.  With the V3 a modified choke shot best and the Benelli’s improve modified shot best, this was the patterning board surprise. Actually; the second surprise in that I should have thought of this a very long time ago.

 

Carlson Turkey Choke at 50 yards

 

 

IM choke Benelli 50 yards

 

IM Benelli choke 25 yards

I have no plans to shoot turkeys at 50 yards, my personal limit is 30-35 yards. It’s just more fun to call them in close.

As for the gobbling gobblers, well that is just pared for the course here in Wisconsin.  Heck, sometimes they have the audacity to walk in front of me while I’m shooting.  Not to worry, though, that reckless behavior ends come hunting season.

 

Filed Under: Fall Turkey, News, Spring Turkey, Turkey Hunting Tagged With: Turkey Hunting, Wild Turkey, Wisconsin Turkey Hunting

Wisconsin 2017 Spring Turkey Hunt Forecast

March 29, 2017 by Charlie 2 Comments

Spring 2017 is going to be good turkey hunting.  After all, this is Wisconsin, home of 500,000+wild  turkeys the only thing that keeps Wisconsin turkey hunters from harvesting more turkeys than any other state is the licensing scheme.  The licensing process here is exclusionary by design it prevents a large number of its hunters from taking part in the spring hunt during the first 3 weeks of the season when the toms are most actively gobbling.  In any case, for those with tags in their pocket hunting will good and the harvest will be in the Wisconsin average range.

During my pre-spring wanderings, I have found turkeys in some really unlikely areas such as this-

Are turkeys really around here in this desert like area?

Yes, apparently

There are a lot of wild turkeys in Wisconsin, it’s all good, bring on the spring hunt.

The first 2017 spring hunt season is starting about a week later than usual so late start could hamper the harvest of hunters who must hear gobbling in order to be successful.  If the later start causes hunter effort to drop off then the harvest will be lower perhaps in the low 40 thousand range.

This forecast is not, in any way related to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources rather it is based on charlie elk’s experience, observations and fellow turkey spies across the great turkey state of Wisconsin. The first charlie turkey forecast was done in 2014 and was the opposite of WDNR dire forecast, they had forecast bad spring turkey hunting with low harvest due to the worst winter severity index ever.   WDNR even cut permits by 25% at the last minute.  In spite of the spring permit reductions, charlie took an opposing view and predicted a higher than average harvest. This was based on the incredible number of turkeys across the landscape during the fall of 2012 and even considering the tough 2013 winter there were very few dead turkeys reported.  Turkeys are not deer so you can not apply deer management theory to turkeys.  The winter severity index was developed for deer managers, not turkey managers.  Turkeys have wings and when local conditions get bad they fly out of the locale for better areas. 

 

Filed Under: Featured Stories Tagged With: Turkey Hunting, turkey news, Wild Turkey, Wisconsin Turkey Hunting

So? Where has charlie been?

March 26, 2017 by Charlie 15 Comments

Struggling, from the very bottom of my soul.

Ovarian cancer stole Mrs. Elk away in January, on my birthday.

I was her caregiver along every grueling step of the way, as cancer progressed throughout her lymph system and up her spine ultimately canceling every one of our plans for the future.  No one could pull me away from my soulmate.  Many tried, worried that I would “burnout” before the end; she needed me more than ever in our 40 years, and I need her then and now more than I can describe.

During much of that time, I could not find cohesive thoughts to write on this blog nor the other magazine articles I was supposed to write.  The editors have been very understanding, and I have resumed working on those pieces along with fresh posts on this blog.

Thank you for continuing to read and comment on charlie elk’s musings.

Filed Under: News

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe and receive notifications of new posts by email. No other email will be sent to you.

comments

  • Justin on Bulllet Head Stamp Gallery
  • Kathy Eldred on Beavers Eat and Store Corn
  • Toney Jacob on Hunting Deer From the Ground in Wisconsin
  • Anthony Lumbard on Bulllet Head Stamp Gallery
  • Bryan Ash on Wild Turkeys See In Color; But Will Pink Spook Them?
  • Jim Sinquefield on How to Legally Bait Wild Turkeys

Top Posts

  • How to Legally Bait Wild Turkeys
    How to Legally Bait Wild Turkeys
  • Sunrise on the Oklahoma Red River
    Sunrise on the Oklahoma Red River
  • The Rain Bird
    The Rain Bird
  • What do Wild Turkeys Eat?  Crops tell the story
    What do Wild Turkeys Eat? Crops tell the story
  • Patterning Board Surprise!
    Patterning Board Surprise!
  • After The Storm
    After The Storm
  • Best Coyote Call - - Turkey Yelps
    Best Coyote Call - - Turkey Yelps
  • The Turkey's Snood Knows
    The Turkey's Snood Knows

Recent Posts

  • Kirkland Warbler, Wild Turkey use Audio Bait
  • A Little more Frigid or Warm; What is better for Wildlife?
  • West Nile Virus detected in Wisconsin Ruffed Grouse
  • When the Deer Season Ends
  • First Bubba Chili Pucks

Recent comments

  • Justin on Bulllet Head Stamp Gallery
  • Kathy Eldred on Beavers Eat and Store Corn
  • Toney Jacob on Hunting Deer From the Ground in Wisconsin
  • Anthony Lumbard on Bulllet Head Stamp Gallery
  • Bryan Ash on Wild Turkeys See In Color; But Will Pink Spook Them?

Videos

Mosquitoes use six needles to suck our … [Read More...]

Have you ever had a whitetail deer standing real … [Read More...]

Copyright © 2023 charlie elk

 

Loading Comments...