In Ala. it is legal to hunt turkey with a centerfire pistol with open metalic sights. I have been callin' a big old tom to within 50 yds.for about two weeks now but he just refused to come within range of my 10ga. Several days ago I loaded up some 44 Special loads for my Ruger SuperBlackhawk. I had some Sierra 250gr. FPJ's on hand so I called Sierra to ask if they was going real slow would they do much damage(open up)? Sierra told me that they would not open at all and they would act like a FMJ at the speed that I was planning on pushing them at.(750 fps) I got them all sighted in at the range and I started hunting with them. The third day that I went out with my SuperBlackhawk that big old tom came in to about 45yds and would not come another yard closer(even with a decoy out). I had the 7 1/2 bbl sitting securely on my shooting stick when he turned broadside. I held high on his back and fired. The tom did the kickin' chicken for just a couple of seconds then managed to get airborne. He got up to about 10 feet then all of a sudden came crashing to the ground. He lay their motionless. I walked over to him and he was dead. He weighted 21 3/4 lbs,had a 10 1/2 ' beard and almost 2" spurs. The pistol gave me the added range that I needed to reach out and touch that turkey. Keep this in mind if your state allows the use of a pistol. ------ GOOD HUNTIN'----pruhdlr

Way to go, Pruhdlr -

Never tried turkey hunting with a handgun before - might give an all new meaning to the hunt! :D

Hey that's great! Gonna try to get one this weekend if we don't get rained out, got the 870 but who knows, the .45 Colt may get the call.... :D

Just so you leave the .35 Rem at home, Mike - ! :eek:

Nope, it's going. It's already got a turkey to it's credit, but there's always more hogs, and who knows, maybe another cross-eyed coyote!

It's sighted in for the ancient box of ammo Tom gave me. Shoots that stuff pretty well, too!

My primary concern with using a pistol was meat damage. High accross the back with a slow,non-expanding bullet was(is) the way to go. But I figure that almost all bullets at the slow velocities that you can get by with when your only concerned about 50yds.max,will not expand. Probably any old bullet that you have laying around will work,just as long as it is super accurate. Before the hunt I practiced shooting from the sitting position,with my back against a tree,with my bbl resting on my shooting stick. I figured that this would be "real world" and it seemed to pay off. I hit him just above where the wing joint is. No real eatin' type meat was damaged.Also no feathers were punched into the bird. Shotguns might be "traditional" but I was out to kill that ol' Tom that had eluded me for several weeks.------ GOOD HUNTIN'----- pruhdlr