question on turkey shotgun

[Crow Hunter]

I have a Remington 870 that has a rifled slug barrel and 4x fixed power scope that I have used for deer hunting. I am kicking around the idea of getting a 23" turkey barrel with an xtra full choke, so i can also use it for turkey hunting. Is this a good idea? Is 4x too much scope for turkey hunting? Thanks for any help.

[brittman]

Great question on scope power for turkey hunting.

All my turkey kills have been on birds 30 yards and under. My personal preference is no scope, but I hunt mostly woods. If you plan to shoot most birds in more open fields, a scope should work well for you.

I have missed two birds over the past 20 years. Both I believe were missed because I did not understand how my gun patterned on stationary objects. I stopped using that gun for turkey hunting once I patterned it.

[Gordie]

Brittman Hit the target, so to speak, make sure you pattern that gun use a variety of different turkey loads and because one load works great for one gun doesn't mean it will be good in another.

I have one gun that shoots 3 inch Remington turkey load in #5's great while the other patterns better with a 2 3/4 nitro #4's

A good test to see if the scope will work for you is put a pop can at 20 yards, then at 30 yards, and 40 yards look through the scope and if pop can is clear enough to read then it is good to use. If other than clear I personally would not use it.

I use a hi-vis type sight on one gun and I have a fixed power 1X with a green cross hair on the other.

[Crow Hunter]

I* should have mentioned it is a Leopold scope, not an el cheapo. I paid more for the scope than I did for the shotgun...

[DonBo]

Turkey loads KICK big time. As long as the mount is very solid I'd think you'd be good to go.