This is my first post on the forum, so I might as well jump into a subject that has given me fits. I am a turkey hunter and live in Alabama where we have a generous spring season limit and lots of turkeys. I've always loved a good sxs, but had never used one for turkey hunting except for one season back in my youth.
I have been thinking for some time that the perfect turkey gun would be a sxs 20 gauge shooting the heavy tungsten shot. With one open barrel for close shots, and one tight barrel for longer shots, every possible shot should be covered. I also needed to be able to mount some type of sight on the gun. My eyes are too bad to get by with beads, so I wanted to be able to mount a Burris FastFire on it.
Obviously, you don't walk into the gun shop and buy a monstrosity like this, so I knew it would be a project. I settled on a Yildiz; it was the lightest double available because of the alloy receiver, but the downside was that it only came with a single trigger. I can select the barrels easily, but nothing is as fast as a double trigger.
I first determined that both barrels shot to the same POA, and they did very well. I sent it to my gunsmith and he did a great job of creating my dream gun. He cut the barrels to 24" and rethreaded, opened the forcing cones, shortened the stock and added a quality recoil pad, and did a great job of mounting the sight. He also made 2 turkey chokes.
I shot the gun with light field loads when I got it back and both barrels centered well at 25 yards. Then I shot my heavy 1.75 oz tungsten turkey loads and found I had a problem. The left barrel shot 10" to the left at 40 yards, and the right barrel shot 7" to the right. It was only then that I started to get serious learning about barrel regulation of a sxs. I found that its impossible to get a sxs that will shoot all loads with both barrels to the same POI. You have to regulate the gun to shoot one basic load, and all others will be off somewhat.
In the case of the Yildiz, it is regulated to shoot light field loads and does it very well. It was not made for what I wanted to do. I was able to load some lighter shells that produced POIs that were about the same for both barrels, but I wasn't satisfied. I sent it to Brileys and had them make eccentric chokes for the heavy loads. It took them 2 tries, but they made it usable.
Its proven to be a very good turkey gun, and at 5 lb 2 oz is a dream to carry. It balances right at the receiver and now comes close to being the perfect turkey gun. I won't call it perfect because of the lack of double triggers, and the pattern on the tight barrel is not as good as I would like.
So my search for the perfect turkey gun continues. I don't think anyone makes one like I want, so I am probably out of luck.
