Sunday, October 19, 2025

Outdated Shotgun, New Tips – Simple Turkey Gun Upgrades


Outdated Shotgun, New Tips – Simple Turkey Gun Upgrades

Whereas they are saying you may’t train an previous canine new tips, it’s surprisingly straightforward these days to improve an previous shotgun for turkey season with only a few easy equipment. For this yr’s Spring Turkey season, I made a decision to present my previous turkey gun a few new upgrades to make it slightly extra useful out within the woods this yr. The primary and greater of the 2 upgrades immediately is including a crimson dot to the turkey gun. Whereas some could say that including a crimson dot is an pointless further price, the advantages are there. Not like a standard bead sight, a crimson dot enables you to see utterly round the place you might be aiming as an alternative of simply above it, letting you purchase and monitor that gobbler’s head lots sooner and extra simply. Moreover, with most crimson dots having little to no parallax, you don’t have to fret about being excessive on the inventory when attempting to shoulder the gun in a rush along with your adrenaline going as a gobbler is you. So, wherever the dot is positioned is the place your shot ought to affect. Now, for this specific shotgun, it’s an older, early Nineteen Nineties manufacturing Remington 870 with no actual method to mount an optic to the receiver that doesn’t contain drilling or tapping.

Turkey Searching Protection on AllOutdoor

Old Shotgun New Tricks - Easy Turkey Gun UpgradesOld Shotgun New Tricks - Easy Turkey Gun Upgrades
A Holosun 407C Pistol Dot, a Warne Shotgun Rib Mount, and a Carlson’s Turkey Choke

So, as an alternative of taking the shotgun to a gunsmith, I selected to seize a Warne 6108M Shotgun Purple-dot Rib Mount. This can be a common fashion rib mount that may connect to most shotguns which have a vent rib throughout the highest of the barrel that’s 6-10mm in width. This can be a good low-profile and versatile mount choice that may take most bigger fashion pistol crimson dot footprints like RMR or RMS.

Old Shotgun New Tricks - Easy Turkey Gun UpgradesOld Shotgun New Tricks - Easy Turkey Gun Upgrades

Attaching one of many Warne Rib Mounts to your turkey gun is simple, and also you solely want an inch-pound torque driver and possibly a set of calipers to do it. Simply observe the directions supplied by Warne to connect the mount to the rib utilizing the torque driver to lock it into place.

Old Shotgun New Tricks - Easy Turkey Gun UpgradesOld Shotgun New Tricks - Easy Turkey Gun Upgrades
Tighten the screws in an “X” Sample and keep watch over the alignment as you do
Old Shotgun New Tricks - Easy Turkey Gun UpgradesOld Shotgun New Tricks - Easy Turkey Gun Upgrades
Utilizing the Caliper to ensure the Rib Mount is centered on the turkey gun rib

This mount is suitable with a big number of pistol dots, with Warne having a compatibility checklist on their web site. So after you have the mount locked securely in place in your shotgun rib, go about attaching your pistol dot, on this case, a Holosun 407c, and lock it down in place utilizing the screws the optic comes with.

Old Shotgun New Tricks - Easy Turkey Gun UpgradesOld Shotgun New Tricks - Easy Turkey Gun Upgrades
Lining up the Pistol Dot with the Mounting Plate
Old Shotgun New Tricks - Easy Turkey Gun UpgradesOld Shotgun New Tricks - Easy Turkey Gun Upgrades
Pins in Place with the Warne Mount
Old Shotgun New Tricks - Easy Turkey Gun UpgradesOld Shotgun New Tricks - Easy Turkey Gun Upgrades
Holosun 407C Torqued in Place

As soon as the crimson dot is in place, take off the barrel of the shotgun and bore sight the crimson dot to get a tough zero earlier than you’re taking it out to the vary. This can save time and ammo on the vary, saving you a reasonably penny, contemplating the worth of turkey masses these days.

Old Shotgun New Tricks - Easy Turkey Gun UpgradesOld Shotgun New Tricks - Easy Turkey Gun Upgrades

The subsequent improve is tremendous straightforward to do. Swap out your turkey choke with a top quality aftermarket turkey choke. The correct aftermarket choke could make a world of distinction in an previous shotgun. The correct choke with the proper turkey load can convey new life to an previous turkey gun and provides it a more practical turkey-killing sample, even with the identical turkey masses you had been utilizing earlier than.

Old Shotgun New Tricks - Easy Turkey Gun UpgradesOld Shotgun New Tricks - Easy Turkey Gun Upgrades

Old Shotgun New Tricks - Easy Turkey Gun UpgradesOld Shotgun New Tricks - Easy Turkey Gun Upgrades
Eradicating the previous manufacturing facility full choke
Old Shotgun New Tricks - Easy Turkey Gun UpgradesOld Shotgun New Tricks - Easy Turkey Gun Upgrades
New Turkey Choke put in

Now, with every little thing put in, it was time to take my turkey gun out to the vary to zero it and try it out. I used some common goal ammo first simply to ensure I used to be within the ballpark. As soon as zeroed with the goal masses, I converted to the turkey masses to finalize the zero and made positive the turkey choke was doing the job. Whereas the goal masses didn’t have the very same level of affect because the turkey masses, it was shut sufficient that I used to be on track at 40 yards with simply two pictures. Whereas I used to be fairly assured in regards to the mount, I nonetheless did give it slightly little bit of a check with a number of extra packing containers of goal masses earlier than calling it a day.

Old Shotgun New Tricks - Easy Turkey Gun UpgradesOld Shotgun New Tricks - Easy Turkey Gun Upgrades

Now that I tricked out my previous turkey gun, all I’ve to do is get in some extra time within the woods this spring.

Old Shotgun New Tricks - Easy Turkey Gun UpgradesOld Shotgun New Tricks - Easy Turkey Gun Upgrades
Outdated Gun with a Couple of New Tips out within the Woods

Avatar Author ID 322 - 975275860Avatar Author ID 322 - 975275860

Author for AllOutdoor.com and OutdoorHub.com Lifelong angler that may fish for something that swim, firearms fanatic, and hunter. Instagram – mrfish49

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