Shooting a wild turkey punctuates the enjoyable and sometimes frustrating process of scouting, finding, roosting, calling/decoying/patterning a spring gobbler into range. Your shotgun should drop it dead inside 40 yards, though most of the time I let birds work even closer. How about you?

My upbringing as a turkey hunter included simple-to-use pump shotguns by choice, options I saw depicted in the Outdoor Life issues of my youth, plus classy loaner firearms on the road at media camps. I’ve handled plenty, liked many, loved a few and forgotten about some others.