Beretta Blog

I admit that I was worried when I looked around the gun shop's tremendous inventory. I'd need nerves of steel to depart without making a purchase. That said, shotguns are like potato chips, you can't just have one. And so I squared my shoulders and started reviewing the Over/Unders, Side-by-Sides, Pumps, and Semi-Automatics to find one I couldn't live without. I'm always in the market for a new firearm, so that makes me a salesman's low-hanging fruit. And I'm sure it's a similar situation with you.

Shooting a shotgun to successfully hit a flying target is often called “instinctive” shooting. In comparison to the precision aiming of a rifle or handgun at a stationary target, swinging a shotgun is indeed more of an art than a science, but at best it’s a “learned” instinct. No one is born with an innate ability to see the mental pictures required to break speeding clay targets.

Opening Day is always hot, but last year shattered records. The only saving grace was the light breeze that blew the sweet smell of drying hay down from the field and into the grouse and woodcock woods. Mr. Brown, the farmer, was happy for he would get in a fourth cut before the temperature dropped and the snow flew. My wife and I did not share his joy and instead swatted mosquitoes while wiping sweat from our brows.

It’s 8:20 on a summer’s evening as I type this, and twilight is starting to settle in over the small town in Florida where I live. My wife and I will go for a walk after I’m finished with this article. I’ll have a concealed carry pistol with me as I usually do, along with a mobile phone, some other stuff, and a powerful handheld “tactical” flashlight. I consider a small, powerful light to be an absolutely essential part of my everyday carry, and I’ve come to see the benefits of having a light on my firearm as well. Both are useful, and both have their roles for self-defense.

Turkey hunting becomes a real challenge late in the season. After all that hunting pressure on the turkeys, they can become scarce. You’ve tried your calls. You’ve moved your blind from location A to B to C, to D — and finally, all the way to Z and have yet to bag a big bearded bird. The clock is ticking and days are dwindling. Now it’s time to put your real hunting skills to the test. It’s time to learn to stalk a turkey, just as you would an elk.

The sport of practical shooting requires you to make fast, accurate shots under the pressure of a shot clock, giving your body a taste of what it might be like to deal with the stress of a real-world encounter.

There are plenty of things that are obvious additions to a range bag. You’ll need eye and ear protection. If you like to bring guests, then pack extra safety glasses and hearing muffs, so everyone has a set. Targets, a stapler, and spare staples are also a given. Is that all you need? Not if you want to guarantee an interruption-free outing.

You need tools to make sounds to entice a wild turkey into shooting range. There are a variety, and if you ask veteran turkey hunters, they’ll give you their opinion as to which is best. While insight from the experienced hunter is important, you’re going to need to demo, practice, and decide for yourself.

Pot calls, mouth reeds, box calls, and others need to be staples in your hunting vest. "What the heck are those," you ask? Allow me to explain a few of them.

How to Hunt Turkey Series

Part 1: Why You Need to Hunt Turkeys

Part 2: How to Locate Wild Turkeys

Part 3: The Gear You Need for Your Turkey Hunt

Part 4: Learn the Art of Talking Turkey

Part 5: Tools You Need to Call a Wild Turkey

Part 6: Hunting Turkey Like Elk: End of Season Tactics

Maybe you don’t even reload your own ammunition. That’s OK, read on anyway, because this article still might apply to you.

For purposes of this discussion, let’s consider a universe containing two types of ammunition: practice and self-defense. Practice ammunition is designed to do one thing – go forward in more or less a straight line. As a bonus feature, it should also drill holes in paper or cardboard targets and make a clanging noise against steel plates. If a practice round doesn’t go bang once in a while, it’s no big deal and presents a training opportunity to work on your malfunction drills.

Some decades ago, conversations over newfangled inventions for guns went something like this...

“Hold on there son; you want me to put a thing made of GLASS on top of my trusty rifle? Are you kidding me?”

The discussion was about the idea of adding a scope to a rifle to perform the task of accurately getting sights on target. For hundreds of years, shooters had relied on a solution of simplicity and extreme durability: iron sights. Adding a potentially fragile, and more importantly, unproven invention had to be just asking for trouble, right?