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Photo by J. Wanye Fears |
TriStar Hunter Mag Camo Over/Under Shotgun
In the May-June 2009 issue of Turkey Call, I wrote about some of the new shotguns that I thought the readers might find of interest.
Writing about one particular gun I stated, “For the four plus decades that I have been professionally involved in the turkey hunting business, I had never really given much thought to an over/under turkey gun. It’s not that I have anything against an over/under scattergun. I don’t, and I shoot them at clay targets and on quail and pheasant hunts on a regular basis. Several years ago, I awakened to the value of an over/under turkey gun when I saw how well they performed in the hands of master turkey hunters, such as [NWTF Chief Conservation Officer] James Earl Kennamer, Ph.D., and Jim E. Miller, professor emeritus of wildlife at Mississippi State University. Over/under shotguns are these two masters’ choice when turkey hunting.”
That struck a chord with many turkey hunters, and I heard from several readers who wanted to know more about the new TriStar Hunter Mag Over/Under shotgun I was introducing when I made those previous statements.
It seems the interest most turkey hunters have in using an over/under shotgun is that you can have two loads, each for a different purpose, ready to shoot in an instant: a full or extra-full choke tube in one barrel for those distant shots where a gobbler is hung up at 40-plus yards, and an improved cylinder or modified choke tube in the other barrel for the 20-yard shots most of us have missed because we were shooting an extremely tight extra-full pattern at a short range. By simply moving the safety, you can select the barrel (thus selecting the choke) with very little motion. You may elect to have a load of No. 4s in the long-range barrel and a load of No. 6s in the short-range barrel, as well.
I’ve had the opportunity to shoot the new TriStar Hunter Mag Camo on the range and while hunting pheasants and doves. It is a 12-gauge 3 1/2-inch chambered over/under shotgun that features a Mossy Oak Duck Blind camo finish, 28-inch chrome-lined steel, vent rib barrels, single trigger, ejectors, sling swivel studs, magnum recoil pad, fiber optic front sight and a tang safety which also serves as a selector for which barrel will fire first. The Hunter Mag Camo looks like a hunter’s over-and-under gun. Gus Bader of TriStar designed it to be a multi-purpose turkey and waterfowl gun.
Immediately I noticed it was a fast pointing gun, ideal for fast flying doves or pheasants. It is balanced and comes to the shoulder fast. Where it really shined was on the pattern board. It comes with five choke tubes: skeet, improved cylinder, modified, improved modified and full. It takes Beretta/Benelli style choke tubes, so it’s easy to get special choke tubes for goose or turkey hunting.
I used the choke tubes that came with the gun for my pattern board testing.
The first test was performed with the improved cylinder and modified choke tubes in place. The patterns were ideal for any upland birds at 40 yards. Using a variety of 2¾-inch upland game loads, the Hunter Mag Camo shot even patterns, and the gun was a pleasure to shoulder and fire.
Next, I screwed in full and improved cylinder tubes to test for turkey patterns. Using 3-inch Winchester Supreme Xtended Range HD No. 5 turkey loads, my son, Chris, and I shot at gobbler head and neck targets. At 40 yards the full tube shot a surprisingly tight pattern with enough shot in the central nervous system and heart/lungs to put a gobbler down in its tracks. At 25 yards, using the improved cylinder barrel, it produced a consistent killing pattern. With some of the new high-density loads now available, I would load the improved cylinder barrel with No. 7 shot to get an even greater number of shot into the short-range gobbler.
Purchase an after market “extra-full turkey” choke tube for this gun and you’ll have an ideal turkey gun, with an instant option for extra-long or close shots on gobblers.
With the 3 1/2-inch chambers it can be a powerful waterfowl or turkey gun. If you don’t need 3 1/2-inch loads, I found it will shoot 3- or 2 3/4-inch loads just as well.
This spring, I will be one of those turkey hunters who has discovered the advantages of an over/under turkey gun. If the Hunter Mag Camo does as well in the field as it did on the range, I won’t be disappointed.
With a price tag of around $759, it is an affordable over/under shotgun for the hunter who wants to do all his bird shooting — upland birds, waterfowl or gobblers — with one gun. It also will do well on the clay target course, as it’s great for rabbits, squirrels and even coyotes during the off-season. — J. Wayne Fears