Chances are you can’t legally carry a pellet gun for wild turkeys where you live — unless you hunt California.
Let’s back up a bit. A few spring seasons ago I flew 4,000 plus round-trip miles to hunt California gobblers — an upland bird considered by the state to be a “small game” species. As you would before making such a trip, I studied up on regulations and found this legal law book option:
“Air rifles powered by compressed air or gas and used with any caliber of pellet, except that wild turkey may only be taken with a pellet that is at least 0.177 caliber.”
My first thought? That’s a stunt — an unwise Left Coast error in thinking; an unwarranted regulation in a state known more for anti-hunting viewpoints than a turkey hunting tradition. Sure, I’ve killed squirrels with a pellet gun. And yes, it did the job.
Wild turkeys though? C’mon man. I even brought it up in California turkey camp as our proven 12-gauge shotguns filled tags on sharp-spurred Rio Grande longbeards. Nobody used an air gun in camp. Maybe nobody does in the land of Hollywood tabloid scandals and celebrity debauchery?
But this self-proclaimed “psycho turkey hunter” and California spring gobbler gunner proves that I’m wrong. His video of not one, but two Golden State gobblers taken with a Remington Nitro Piston SS .22 caliber pellet gun shows you can make clean kills.
Is this a lucky shooting stunt or the real deal? What do you Strut Zoners think?