What gun did you start turkey hunting with?Calls? Shells?Vests?

[owlhoot]

I started with a single shot 12guage, unknown brand(ST. LOUIS on receiver)?
Remington 2 3/4" number 6 shot magnum
A lynch Jet slate and a Penn Woods mouth call. Leroy Braungart 33 sized album for instructions.
Tiger stripe camo for the spring, and some tubes of penn woods face paint.

[Gooserbat]

Lets see it was some woodland youth camo that Wing Supply used to sell for like $20 a set and a "bag" head net in a wwII camo that had deer, bear duck and turkey silhouette printed into the patern.  I used a H&R single shot 20 choked full and 3" win #4.  My first call was a plastic push pin HS Strut.  I remember dad buying me the camo and the call when I was about 9 or 10.  Never killed a bird using any of it, and I would love to have that old call back but it's long since been misplaced.  Further more I would rather have one of those old headnets.

[Rokhal07]

Remington 870. Win 3" #4s. Camo was treebark then mossy oak and realtree. Loved the treebark w the green leaves. Old lynch box call and primis limb hanger

[redarrow]

H&R 10 ga. single shot. Remington #4 magnums. Lohman box and a gobble shaker.Only a knot headed newbie would walk around the woods with a gobble shaker acting like a tom.Lucky I didn't get my own beard shot off.

[reynolds243]

Remington 870 and whatever shells I could find lol

[jakesdad]

Winchester Model 12 20 gauge fixed modified choke(still have,belonged to my g'pa)
Remington 2 3/4 #6 shells
ML Lynch foolproof box call(still have)
Quaker Boy single reed diaphragm

Had a set of bibs,shirt,hat,headnet,and gloves in old WWII camo

Killed my first bird with that stuff on my 16th birthday at a distance of 8 yds!

[slamman]

870 REMINGTON with #4 2 3/4" Federal shells.  vietnam tiger stripe camo with jungle boots.  don't think they made a vest back then but it didn't matter much I only had one call a Ben Lee box call Lee's Champion Gobble Box which i still have.

[guesswho]

Killed my first turkey with a Revelation bolt action 410 with my Dad, no idea about the shell, but it was paper.  Then killed my first gobbler with a Winchester model 37 20 ga. also with my Dad.  Again I have no idea about the shell.  First turkey I called up by myself was with a PS Olt scratch box of some type.  I guess I left it at the base of the big Live Oak I was sitting at.  Never saw it again.  I was eight or nine years old at the time and had no idea how to call birds but apparently he was hard up.  I was so shook up from the in your face encounter with a strutting Osceola I'm surprised I didn't pee myself.   No camo, just jeans and a flannel shirt. 

I'd give back every turkey I ever killed to get to go back and relive that one, one more time. 

[slamman]

Killed my first turkey with a Revelation bolt action 410 with my Dad, no idea about the shell, but it was paper.  Then killed my first gobbler with a Winchester model 37 20 ga. also with my Dad.  Again I have no idea about the shell.  First turkey I called up by myself was with a PS Olt scratch box of some type.  I guess I left it at the base of the big Live Oak I was sitting at.  Never saw it again.  I was eight or nine years old at the time and had no idea how to call birds but apparently he was hard up.  I was so shook up from the in your face encounter with a strutting Osceola I'm surprised I didn't pee myself.   No camo, just jeans and a flannel shirt. 

I'd give back every turkey I ever killed to get to go back and relive that one, one more time.

wouldn't most of us that first bird you ever call in yourself is the one that really hooks you. 

[ericjames]

When I first started I had revelation single shot 12 with a mod. choke. The shells, I don't remember brands but I remember having 6 and 7.5's high brass. Here is my first call I ever used.

[allaboutshooting]

When I started "turkey guns" were not yet defined as they are today. You used the longest barrelled full choke gun that you had. Probably a Model 37 with a 2.75" chamber, pretty much worn out blue and the finish was gone from the wood. WWII camo was all that was available and we frankly knew nothing about what we were doing.

There were no videos back then and I'd never heard of a book about turkey hunting. There were also very few turkeys. Hearing one was a rarity and seeing one was almost unheard of. I hunted for years before I heard or saw one.

I have no real recollection of the shells that I used but they were probably "high brass" Winchesters and probably #4 shot.

We hunted other game and just had some "turkey shells" in case we ran across one. It didn't happen.

Fast forward several years when states and the NWTF began the trap and release programs. I hunted another 3 years before I shot my first turkey. By that time Winchester had a dedicated turkey load but specific guns and chokes were still several years in the future.

That's as much as I recall about the very early years. I should have kept better notes.

Thanks,
Clark

[spurman]

Rem. 1100 3in. with 30 in. full choke, Rem. heavy load #4's. Lynch box call, home made camo, old green army shirt with dabs of black and brown paint on it. And no idea how to hunt turkeys.

[WildTigerTrout]

A H&R "Topper" 20 ga. choked modified with Win. 3" Mag. #4 shot. The only call I had was a Lynch "World Champion" box call that I got from my parents for christmas in the early 1970's. No turkey vests then and the only camo I had was the old WW II pattern stuff. I started hunting in 1972 and spring gobbler season had only been around a few years(the first season in Pa. was 1968). It did feel weird to hunt in the spring then.

[bbcoach]

Remington 1100  2 3/4"  1 1/2 oz  #5 lead reloads that I hunted ducks with, prior to everything going to Steel.  I had an extra full choke on the 1100 and took my first bird at 29 yards.  Realtree APG camo.  Slate pot call and box call.       

[harvester]

Winchester 1/2 hammer 16ga
M. L. Lynchs World Champion box
H.S. Strut mouth call