The Old Fashioned Turkey Shoot

[gwpercle]

Reading Wolfdog91's post about having a hog killing brought back memories of a Turkey Shoot . Most of the ones I remember didn't involve shooting at turkeys ...but shooting at a white card with a red "X" printed in red ink on it . The earliest ones I remember were put on by my grandfather , the prize wasn't a turkey ... he raised hogs , had a huge (10' x 10' ) smokehouse where he smoked meat and the prize would usually be a big smoked ham.
Word would go out on what Saturday morning the "turkey" shoot was to be held , men in trucks started arriving early and grandma made coffee and bisquits for those early enough to get some .
They put up tables (saw horse and boards) the firing line and the back fence was where the targets were tacked . A target cost 25 cents or 5 for $1.00 , you wrote your name on it and shot from the table ...you could have as many chances as you wanted ...the men usually put down a dollar . The guns were any shotgun and any gauge you had ...seems like you had to use birdshot , no buckshot or slugs .
The person who placed a shot nearest to dead center of the "X" ... won the Smoked Ham . Sometimes he would have 3 or 4 hams so the rounds would go on untill all the hams were won . Our job was to run out to the fence put up and take down the targets ... a committee of three would judge the targets and decide the winner .
If a fellow bought two dollars or more worth of targets and didn't win anything , grandpa would usually hook him up with a couple pounds of his smoked sausage ... as a consolation prize .

Anyone else do the Turkey Shoot thing ? I wish I had some photo's but ...not a one .
Gary

[waksupi]

I've been to some over the years, only two of them involving live turkeys. The rest were pretty much as you describe.

[Wheelguns 1961]

We used to have these in the early eighties. They would start after deer season. Different organizations would put them on. There was usually one every weekend. The Moose club one weekend, the VFW next, the American legion, and the Elks. They set up the targets at 30 yards, and the one closest to the X would win the meat that they offered for that round. You weren’t allowed to use anything tighter than a full choke, and they had a plug to drop down your barrel to check. They supplied the shells which were #8 shot. Everyone shot the same. I can’t remember how much it was per shot, but you only got one per round. The targets were numbered, and you got a number. It sure was alot of fun. Usually it was pretty much the same group of guys every week.

[Thumbcocker]

Went to one. They were shot standing with shotguns. I won 10# of bacon. Standard 870 12 guage. You had to use their loads. My pattern sucked and the wad hit the target but I had one pellet near the x. IIRC it was $1 per shot in the 90's.

Later it became an equipment game. Some folks took single shot guns and heated the barrels red hot and drove a bearing over it to squeeze it down. Some would show up with doctored handloads with extra shot in them or melted parrifin poured in to make the shot clump.

Shoot rules would say " no reloads. No pucker guns"

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[MrWolf]

We had them at our trap club many years ago. You shot trap for the prizes. My son and I each won one the same tournament and I have a picture of us with the birds (frozen) on the tailgate of my truck. Very nice memories.

[FredBuddy]

I'm no wing shot, but with my old Mossberg 500
I was able to bring home 3 or 4 smoked picnic
hams - the ones with the skin on, etc.

Had a wood burner in the basement. Put a ham
in an old porcelain roaster, added a can of beer
and let that sit on the wood burner all day.
Tender, tasty - even the skin !

That was in the old days when we lived on
the banks of the Shenandoah River.

[HWooldridge]

We held these in the 1960's and '70's at the local KC hall on highway 87 on the way to China Grove. My grandfather was a scoring judge and bought a Remington model 11 with 30" full choke barrel just for this event, and we shot Win AA Skeet 9 shot at the paper sheets - closest pellet to the cross hairs won. I ran targets and also shot - the minimum age to shoot was 12 but younger kids could participate if supervised. It was a dollar a shot and you had to bring your own factory shells - no reloads were allowed. We would regularly come home with 3-5 frozen turkeys; those were the only prizes - although the organizers would occasionally raffle off a shotgun to all the participants.

I recall a couple of guys were caught cheating - they would dribble some gear oil into the end of the shell to help the shot stick together - but it could always be seen on the paper target.

[M-Tecs]

Went to one. They were shot standing with shotguns. I won 10# of bacon. Standard 870 12 guage. You had to use their loads. My pattern sucked and the wad hit the target but I had one pellet near the x. IIRC it was $1 per shot in the 90's.

Later it became an equipment game. Some folks took single shot guns and heated the barrels red hot and drove a bearing over it to squeeze it down. Some would show up with doctored handloads with extra shot in them or melted parrifin poured in to make the shot clump.

Shoot rules would say " no reloads. No pucker guns"

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One of my clubs still does them and yes at one time they became an equipment game so now they use one of the junior shooters and they use one shotgun to shoot all five X target with trap loads or they use one target with dots on it with a name next to the dots.

[Gator 45/70]

Last one I went too was on school grounds (GASP) Back in the 80's
Turkeys head drawn on paper, everyone in the shoot got 1 shell from the same box of shells.
Most BB's in the turkeys head won a frozen turkey, 5 bucks entry fee.

[jgstrug]

I have never been to a live turkey shoot or one like this for that matter,but I tried not to miss the running deer ones we had. We would sit around the wood stove and sign up over and over. It was 5$ to shoot,when it was your turn you stood in a box the size of a pallet and shot one shot when the target went from right to left,and one shot left to right the target ran on cable loop with a bicycle at both ends for power. Had a NRA target so if you hit the 5 ring twice you would hope that a ten would be good enough out of the dozen shooters,if not you signed up again.

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[Hogtamer]

We’re having one in downtown Appling next year just before Thanksgiving.

[gunther]

Eastern KY, it's the most shot hitting the 3x5 card to win. A shotgun with a very long choke section, like the full length of the bore, was a prized possession, if you knew where the pattern center was likely to be. The required use of factory shells reduced the incidence of "doping" the shells with STP or honey.

[wv109323]

The ones I attended were shot on a card about 5 inches square with a 4" circle. Winner was most shot inside the circle. One place had a three sided hut. The front was 1/8" inch steel to stop the shot. The open side had an "X" wheel. A person stayed behind the steel wall and hung your target on one of the spokes of the wheel. He then rotated the wheel out so that you could shoot at it. That eliminated running targets out for each shot.

[rockrat]

The one's I attended had a V drawn on a piece of paper and closest to the "V" notch won. I had one of those H&R "long tom" shotguns and ended up with a couple of turkeys.

[HWooldridge]

I looked at a lot of targets when I was a runner and you could pretty much always see a “doped” round. It might have been the white construction paper they used, but was easy to see clumps and residue. When something peculiar was noticed, one of the judges would go to the shooter and ask for a shell, then cut the end off with a pocket knife and checked the shot. Another cheat was to pull the wads and put one disk over a reduced powder charge then refill the shell with shot and close the crimp. However, those rounds always had a different report. People usually couldn’t cheat for too long before they were found out.

[elk hunter]

The only one I went to, about 50 years ago, involved a live turkey tethered behind a RR tie wall where only it's head could show above the tie's. I don't remember the distance but one shot from my Bedford County style 30 caliber muzzleloader, shooting a #1 buck shot ahead of 15 grains of FFF-G. secured a turkey for me.

[rbuck351]

It has been years ago now but where I lived they used a piece of 8x11 paper with 10 circles on it about 1 1/2 " dia.It cost a dollar to put your name in a circle and picked some one not signed up on that target to shoot one shot at the paper. The circle with the most hits won. The other method for those wanting to shoot was five shooters at two dollars each did a five round shoot on the trap line at 16 yds. Ties were broke by coin toss to pick distance for shoot off taking turns picking distance until some on missed.
I also shot a turkey shoot at a rifle pistol club where they had different types of shoots for different guns. 22 pistols at the chicken pig ram thing at 25,50,75 and 100 yds off hand. 5 shots groups with center fire rifle. I won a turkey at that shoot with a scoped Ruger MKI T.

I haven't seen much of the turkey shoots in a long time.

[ioon44]

My American Legion Post used to have Turkey shoots with X's on paper as well clay targets, good times sure do miss them.

[FISH4BUGS]

Here in NH, when I first came in 1970, I used to attend Turkey Shoots held by various F&G Clubs.
The shooters threw in a buck each, used deer targets at 50 yards, you could shoot off hand muzzle loader, rifle or handgun class, and high score for three shots won the pot.
I think the hosting club took a few bucks from each pot as part of their fund raiser.
No turkeys or hams....just cash.
Haven't seen them in a long time.

[Rickf1985]

Used to go to them around here all the time back in the 80's till it was found out that a lot of them were rigged in favor of club members or favorite people. At one shoot one of the guys took notice with a good spotting scope that certain shells were putting down more pellets than others. Those shells were only being used by club members and the general public was getting shells from other boxes. This guy suggested that a comparison be done with a standard factory #8 shot shell, of which he had a box of in his truck, to what was being used at the shoot. Naturally all the club members rejected that idea wholeheartedly but there were a lot more general public there than club people so they relented. Several large sheets of cardboard were posted and using only one gun he took two shots from each of the factory rounds, the box the club members were using and the box the general public were given. It was found that the club members had more pellets than a factory round and the stuff they loaded for the public had far less. They reimbursed all of the entrance fees for the day and that was the last shoot there for many, many years. It was found that practice was pretty common and a lot of the local shoots ended because of it. I have not gone to one since that day almost 40 years ago.