That turkey looks bigger than your boy. Nice going.

Pete, do you have a Smith do the work to make sure the holes are dead on parallel to the centerline? I assume they'd use a mill table under a drill press to move the gun, maintaining parallel. I can drill and tap just fine, but don't have a mill table on my drill press.

I have a redfield it works pretty good, I’m not sure if they’re made anymore, but I know it’s easier to look through than trying to get open sights lined up.

Had one on kids gun, have used it as well. Just have to remember to turn it on. If left on, the battery dies, you don't check until you are in the field=making adjustments. For a few years I cut both ends off a kids marker, electric taped it to the barrel=reminder to line up and head down.

Yeah, make sure to carry extra batteries. I have a tendency to leave mine on at the end of the day. One morning turned it on to check it but it must have been its last gasp. When I called a gobbler in and turned it on, it was a dead battery. Didn’t get that one!

Yep, dad uses a red dot and he's forgot to turn it on a time or two. That's definitely a plus for the existing fiber optic open sights. No batteries required.

I have a couple of the Sightron SRS-2 that I bought last year when they were being blown out for almost 70% off. I have one mounted on a SBE3. Son used it to shoot crows this weekend coming into the caller. It works.

have two and love them

https://www.burrisoptics.com/red-dots/fastfire-3

I have had Martin in Monroe do a few for me , he just has a drill press as far as I can tell and a drill drill press vice , he explained he has a jig weaver used to sell that is a centering jig to find the middle

I am not sure if the jig has drill guides or if he just marks it uses a sharp punch and a center bit to start it

several of the new ones have batteries that last so long you just replace them once a year and leave them on

the Sig Romeo 5 has shake awake , when you let the gun set it shuts off at 4 hours but as soon as you pick it up it has turned it on before you could get it to your eye.


if you run a 1x or 1.5x even a 2X prism they are a touch less forgiving for angle but you have a recital even if the battery is dead.

I have a 1x vortex Spitfire that you always have a recital it is lit or not depending on battery and switch setting.

I have a Spark that turns off at 12 hours , just start every hunt by turning it on and it shuts it's self off

primary arms has some prisms in 1 and 2x that look very good I haven't tried them yet

if it was deer and not turkey where shots will be under 50 some magnification just a touch like 2x is nice but inside 50 I don't think it is needed and would cause more issues on 10-15 yard shots than it would help on 40-45 yard shots

Red dots are a must imo. Ive shot a couple birds left handed at a weird angle that probably wouldnt have been killed with a bead.
Im the odd man out because I found some cheapo 35 dollar job on amazon about 12 years ago and slapped it on. Ive killed about 14-15 birds with it. Last year I switched to longbeards so i patterned it and it was perfectly zero’d after shooting all those birds with 3.5 inch loads. I had no idea the cheaper ones are usually junk.

I've got two of the Burris Fastfire red dots. 3 MOA red dot. Shot pheasants with one no trouble. Actually with my old eyes think I did better than I would have with a ribbed barrel and bead.

I have a inexpensive one on my Mossberg 500 that works Great

I just checked, mine is a UTG. Still about 40 bucks. Bidens inflation didnt affect this Chinese wonder.

I have a Vortex venom on my gun which I use for turkey, plus upland, waterfowl, trap and clays.

I also shoot right and left handed, especially while turkey hunting. I'm right handed but left eye dominant, so for me the red dot helps me get focused super fast since I sometimes have to switch eyes. The only downside for me is that I have astigmatism in both eyes now, and it does change what the red dot looks like. Everyone is different, and thankfully I noticed it and can keep proper placement.

Looks like I have a bunch of options too look at.

The sig romeo 5 sure looks nice, that shake awake feature is a plus.

I'll have to look at mounts also. Looks like a good winter research project. I am in no rush, the fiber optics have been working. And part of my brain is still trying to justify the money for two or three turkeys a year.

I played with a UTG several years ago the zero changed between red and green and battery life was meh

what you can get for about 100 has gotten a lot better and they keep making the batteries last longer and the glass more clear

an early red dot option was this weaver Qwik-point
the top tube has your turrets and light gathering , you look through the bottom which made it mount very low
same idea as a red dot no battery , it works the same way bounce a light and reflect it at the eye with a coated lens
it really only had 2 issues , if you were in the dark and the target in the light like in a blind the dot was very very faint
the other was that the coating on the lens was rather blue it gave everything a blue tint.

Stigmatism can be an issue , everyone sees every dot different
going to a larger dot works for some people they then see it round again
glasses help a bunch
when sighting in I will dim the dot down as much as possible it star bursts less that way , a just visible dot on the target I may even use a 6 o'clock hold so that if I have a 1 1/2 inch center on the target I am holding the dot right under the center and the round impacts about 3/4 of an inch above the dot

they only have typically 1moa adjustments so it isn't a micrometer of a tool it is a very fast ruler with bold 1/8 inch markings and nothing smaller
your also putting it on a shotgun for sub 50 yards shots so your pattern will be much larger than the dot even at 15 yards
even with a slug gun you run out of rifle slug accuracy before the dot is much bigger than the deers heart even with a 4moa dot

go to Scheels or someplace similar and look through every one you can pick a target paced off down the isle and see how it looks to you and what your field of view is

I never thought I'd need a scope/red dot on my turkey gun until I started aging. I put the Truglo gobble stopper on my gun about 6-8 years ago and would never look back.
It has handled 3 1/2" shells great and probably shot 20 birds with it. Yes, carry extra batteries, if you have them you'll probably never need them and if you don't have them???

If you go with a reflex style sight I would highly suggest a meadow creek mount. It mounts on the rib for a low profile for a bead feel with the upside of a red dot. I have them on my turkey guns with a Burris ff3 and have fallen twice in the gummy swamps where the red dot was the first thing to hit the ground with my weight on top of them and both held zero. My buddy likes his so well he uses it for wing shooting divers and doesn't struggle with that at all.

Just about any of the red dots mentioned will fit the application. I have been hunting with a shotgun scope on my 870 for turkeys since the 90's it was a cheap Simmons pro diamond and it handled the 3-1/2" recoil with a B-square saddle mount. The Simmons finally gave up the ghost after 20+ years when it rained 2 straight days a during turkey season and it finally fogged internally. I splurged and bought a Leupold shotgun scope after that. I have not had an issue with moving targets as the field of view of the low power shotgun scope is very big. I have shot a couple running and one starting to fly using the scope. I recently gave up the 12 gauge and bought and 11/87 20 gauge which I fit with the B-Square mount and I got lucky and found a NIB box Simmons Pro Diamond shotgun scope on ebay. It has performed flawless the last 3 seasons.

If I could get it to fit low enough IU have an Eotech 512 that would be awesome for turkey on a shotgun, because I like the dot with a circle and the way the reticle is projected out at the target, but the Eotech is high profile as far as mounting and in a much higher price range than the red dots.