I knew exactly where I wanted to be come first light, so switched off the engine and gathered up my gear. I had parked in the same spot the previous morning, and watched through binoculars as three big, adult gobblers strutted around a single hen. All three toms looked as if they could break the 25-pound mark, and that’s exactly the class of gobbler I was looking to tag.Careful to avoid banging the butt of my shotgun against the aluminum frame of the low turkey-hunting seat also slung over my shoulder, I covered the half-mile to where I had watched the old gobblers strut their stuff for nearly an hour. A turkey hunter could not lay out a more perfect spot to set up. Through the years, farming had enlarged two smaller fields to the point where they were eventually connected by a long, 30-yard wide corridor. And it was near the center of this connecting passageway where I set out two of the collapsible hen turkey decoys, then settled down against the base of a big wild cherry tree 20 yards away.
Morning came slowly, just the way I like it on opening day of turkey season. About 20 minutes before daybreak, the whippoorwills really got fired up, followed by the hoots of three or four distant owls. Then, in the first dim light of the day, the cardinals began to sing.
Just as I was just about to do a little owl hooting of my own, the real thing rolled off a deep hoot less than a 100 yards away. Nothing gobbled back. But when that same owl hooted again about five minutes later, three or four mature gobblers hammered right back to the call. And all were within calling range of where I sat.
Less than 10 minutes later the toms were gobbling back and forth to each other. With every new series of gobbles, it seemed several more would join in. The morning broke dead calm, and at one point I was listening to several gobblers I knew were more than a mile away. I could easily distinguish more than 40 different toms greeting the new day. It was hard to believe that I was nearly smack dab in the middle of a public hunting area!
I held off calling until I began hearing some of the birds fly down from the roost. Several of the gobblers were barely a 100 yards away, and once they were on the ground, I simulated the sounds of flapping wings by rapidly hitting the sides of both legs with the palms of my open hands. Several soft yelps on my favorite box call were immediately answered by two throaty gobbles. From the tone, I could tell they were adult birds, but as soon as the pair of toms popped out into the field less than 30 yards away, I knew they were likely two-year-olds. I guessed their weights at about 20 pounds.I still had my sights set on taking an honest 25-pounder, so I never bothered to lift the shotgun. Then I heard the bird I had come for. A deep throated gobble sounded from the heavy timber directly across in front of where I sat. And when the bird rolled off another a few minutes later, I knew the gobbler had closed the distance by 20 yards.
As soon as the two gobblers that were courting my decoys had turned where their fanned tails blocked their sight, I eased the long-barreled shotgun to rest across my left knee. And I had gotten it there just in time. Before I could make one more call on the box call, the blue, white and red head of the big tom rose up behind some low brush along the edge of the field. Two or three more steps, and the big bird walked out into the open and immediately went into full strut—looking as big as a house.
The old tom sported a heavy 10- or 11-inch beard and in the field I could catch glimpses of near 1-inch long spurs.
The two younger birds immediately ran off a hundred yards and stood to watch as the old tom closed in on the decoys. I was just about to putt loudly on the diaphragm call to get the gobbler to lift its head when a shot sounded barely a quarter mile away. The tom quickly stood upright and looked at the two younger birds. At that moment, I centered the crosshairs on the big bird’s head and pulled the trigger.
It was extremely gratifying to take such an outstanding three- or four-year old gobbler on a public hunting area—and with a custom muzzleloading shotgun I had pretty much fashioned myself. But, I had hoped to take a gobbler that would top 25 pounds. And my big opening morning tom tipped the scales hanging in camp at 1/4-pound shy of that mark.
The shotgun I was using started out as an experiment—to see if a jug-choked muzzleloading shotgun can be loaded to perform on par with one of the modern-line muzzleloaded turkey shotguns that feature a screw-in extra-full choke tube. The first step was to actually build a jug-choked muzzle-loaded 12-gauge. And for that project, I chose to use one of the excellent Savage Model 10ML II muzzleloading rifle actions.The rifle had been one of my primary test rifles when doing comprehensive ballistics testing of the smokeless loads the 10ML II had been built to handle. And after nearly 7,000 rounds, the barrel had been shot out, plus the front “sealing shoulder” of the breech plug recess had eroded to the point that it no longer fully sealed the high pressures of the smokeless powder loads. But the action was ideal for building one heck of a turkey-hunting shotgun.
I had a machinist friend thread the rear of a 28-inch cylinder-bored 12 gauge barrel to fit the action, plus machine a removable breech plug and thread the barrel for the plug. Next, we fashioned an inside cutter that allowed us to put the barrel in a lathe, turn it at a medium speed and run that cutter in the bore, about an inch back from the muzzle. The result was a section of bore, measuring about 1˘ inches in length that was approximately .012" larger than the .729" measurement of the true 12-gauge cylinder bore. (Both ends of the enlarged section of bore, forming the “jug choke,” taper back to the original bore measurement.)
So, how does a jug choke work? Well, the theory is that when the shot charge is pushed down the bore by a burning powder charge, the pellets will tend to push outward against the barrel walls. And when those pellets enter the enlarged section near the muzzle that forms the “jug choke,” they continue to follow the barrel walls outward. Then as the enlarged choke returns to original bore diameter, the pellets turn back toward the center of the bore, much like they do when they hit the constriction of a common pinched down choke.
So, why not just use a standard choked barrel?
Two of my favorite 12-gauge muzzleloading turkey shotguns have been the old Knight MK-86, produced back in the early 1990s, and a short, custom shotgun build for me by a Michigan gunmaker by the name of Tim Lenartz. Both of these guns feature .665" extra-full Hastings screw-in choke tubes. Likewise, both of these shotguns will handle hefty loads that can actually out-perform the vast majority of modern shotguns chambered for 3-inch 12-gauge shotshells built with the same choke.
William “Tony” Knight and I have long shared a love of turkey hunting with muzzleloaded shotguns, first hunting together back in the Spring of 1986. In fact, we collaborated on the design of the MK-86, producing a muzzleloaded shotgun that would perform on par with the modern shotguns. And from the start, we knew that would require a tightly constricted choke.
One of the problems encountered when trying to load a tightly choke barrel from the muzzle is getting wads through that constriction. It didn’t take us long to realize that the ONLY sequence that worked was to first pour in the powder charge with the choke tube installed. This prevented getting the tiny granules of powder in the threads at the muzzle of the barrel. Then, with the choke removed from the barrel, a one-piece plastic wad was stuffed down the bore, the shot charge poured in, then topped with a thin card or Styrofoam over-shot wad to keep the pellets from rolling back out when the gun was carried muzzle down. The choke was then threaded back in.Generally speaking, we tended to favor loading with 100- to 110-grains of Pyrodex “Select” and a full 2-ounce load of shot. While Knight tended to favor No. 5 lubaloy shot, I preferred shooting No. 6 shot, also of the copper-plated variety. As for wads, we tried lots of different wad designs, but in the end both used wads available from Ballistics Products of Corcoran, MN. My favorite, and one I still use today, has been one they offer as the BP-12.
When this wad is loaded as described, my old MK-86 will easily produce 98% patterns (inside a 30 inch circle) at 30 yards—and will keep nearly 80% of the shot charge inside of a 20-inch circle. Stuffed with a 110-grain charge of Pyrodex “Select” and 2 ounces of No. 6 lubaloy shot, the shotgun has easily taken close to 50 spring and fall gobblers.
About 7 years ago, Knight Rifles developed a new muzzleloaded shotgun known as the TK2000. The big difference between the new shotgun and the older MK-86 is that the TK2000 features a jug choke. However, instead of being formed inside the barrel, this choke is found inside an extension that threads on to the front of the barrel.
From time to time, I would run into another turkey hunter using one of the Knight jug-choked in-line shotguns and they all had nothing but praise for the system. Most were still shooting loads similar to those described earlier. However, since there was no choke constriction to contend with, they did not have to remove the choke to load wads. And that certainly appealed to me. However, instead of just running out and buying a TK2000, I decided to build my own.
My initial shooting of the Savage 10ML II turned into a jug-choked shotgun proved that the system worked. Patterns weren’t quite as tight as with my old MK-86, so we removed another .004" from the recess, opening the .729" bore to .745", then polished the heck out of the recess and tapers at each end. The next patterning session showed noticeably tighter patterns that would definitely take any gobbler out to 30 or 35 yards. Then, I decided to try loading the barrel without using a plastic shot cup.
Directly over a 100 grain charge of FFg Triple Seven, I loaded a heavy .125" card wad, on top of which I stuffed down a ˚-inch thick fiber cushion wad. Then, over the top of that I loaded another heavy card wad. The 2-ounce charge of shot was loaded and topped with one of the Knight Styrofoam over-shot wads. At 30 yards, the patterns easily kept 97-98% of the shot load inside of a 30-inch circle, with excellent center-density.
One TK2000 owner I know continues to load with one of the slitted BP12 wads and shoots the same powder charge and shot load I use. His shotgun will easily keep 100% of the pattern inside of a 30-inch circle at 30 yards, and better than 90% at 40 yards. And after looking over the added on jug choke of his Knight TK2000, I feel that the slightly better performance of that shotgun over mine is related to the length of the jug chokes found in each. The enlarged recess area of the Knight shotgun is approximately 2˚ inches in length, compared to the 1˘-inch long recess in my barrel. The longer jug choke of the TK2000 may give the fingers or petals of the wad more room to conform to the change from a smaller bore to a larger bore then right back to the smaller bore. And this alone seems to be why his gun turns in tighter patterns.
So, now I’m playing with the idea of lengthening the jug choke in my barrel. But then, I’ve now taken 5 gobblers with 5 shots, out to about 35 yards. So, I just may leave it as it is and avoid taking any shot that’s any farther.
During the second week of Missouri’s turkey season last spring, I headed right back for the same spot to see if I could hang my second tag on an honest 25-pound bird.
By mid morning, I’d heard several dozen different gobblers. While they had answered my calls without hesitation, none had come to investigate the seductive hen yelps. Then just before noon, I got onto a bird that seemed as if it would work. By the time I finally settled down to try calling the bird in, I was less than 100 yards from where I’d taken my “near 25-pounder” a week earlier.
In Missouri, spring turkey hunters can only hunt until 1 p.m. And with only about 20 minutes of shooting time left, I headed back to where I’d parked the Jeep. About half way back, I decided to make one last excited series of yelps on my box call. A deep-throated gobble answered right back—not more than 100 yards away.
I slipped into the timber 20 or so yards, and eased down next to a big black oak. And when I ever so lightly stroked the box call again, that old gobbler’s deafening roll completely drowned out the sound of the second yelp. The bird was just over the crest and less than 30 yards away.
When I spotted the tips of the tom’s tail, the bird was coming right to me. For just an instant, I saw the heavy beard and enough of the bird to realize that it could be my 25-pounder. I shifted the muzzle to where I thought it would appear, and the crosshairs had just cleared the tree when the gobbler stepped out. As my finger tightened on the trigger, fire and smoke belched out of the muzzle, rolling the big bird halfway down the side of the slight ridge.
Back at camp, I discovered that I had redeemed myself. My second big tom of the season pulled the needle of the weighing scale down to rest at 26˘ pounds. Again, taking such a magnificent gobbler on a public hunting area with a homemade in-line muzzle-loaded shotgun made my 2006 Missouri Spring turkey season one that I will never forget.