Folks have been disagreeing about turkey guns and loads for decades. In Tom Kelly's Tenth Legion his response to avoid shot size arguments as to what shot size he uses is "whatever the hardware store has at the time I need shells." John is free to call those who use .410’s for turkeys as guilty of “showmanship” and “near criminal”, but I suspect he doesn’t know fully what has been done developing loads, chokes and optics to ensure reliable, ethical kills of gobblers with the small bores. If I discover that my guns and loads are inadequate, I will change guns and loads. That is currently not the case as judged by my experience in the last 6 seasons and that of others too many to count. Robert’s Rules of Disorder are no doubt based on his ethical pursuit and passion for the sport, but while not “near criminal”, his “I am correct” attitude (with all others being dead wrong implied) blurs passion with an attitude of near felony grade arrogance, particularly his attitude about those who use decoys. I was fortunate to cut my teeth turkey hunting before videos, commercially made decoys and diaphragms were readily available. A buddy, Dusty, now deceased, was a guide for Union Camp’s executives. He used .25” thick plywood silhouettes, sprayed flat black for decoys. His “vest” was a nail apron around his waist and was spray painted in black and green in which he carried his shells and Lynch box. He shot a full choked Ithaca M-37 20 gauge with 2 ľ” factory loads, lead #7.5. We made our own mouth calls from sheet lead or hammered flat coat hanger wire, waterproof tape and latex cut from several sources. It wouldn’t surprise me to hear that John has been ethically hunting turkeys longer than my 40 seasons. We probably have more in common about how we hunt turkeys than he realizes. I've tried using decoys but found them to be unnecessary and a pia in the woods. I am fortunate to have the good health and fitness to “run and gun” birds, without decoys, hunting with calls that I have made, with simple, inexpensive single-shot shotguns that I have extensively modified, tested and patterned with my own hand loads. Others because of health, hearing and mobility restrictions have no other choice but to hunt over decoys on green patches. Mr. Frank killed his last gobbler at age 95 or 96, almost two years before he died just short of 98. His son drove him to the blind in a golf cart, helped him to his chair and Mr. Frank killed a gobbler lured to the green patch and decoy. For those interested, here is his remarkable obituary.* You don’t often see “Yale graduate”, “Great Depression”, “Okinawa landing,” and “love of turkey hunting” in the same obituary today. With the abundance of slo-mo turkey “snuff” videos of today, it is no wonder that decoys are the gateway for most novices into the sport. Very few places in the U.S. other than the Deep South have the extensive history of spring gobbler hunting with calls alone to build upon. I am no fan of the musically accompanied “slo-mo” videos depicting kills with high fiving performers. Those videos are more calculated to sell equipment than to promote the sport. I have encouraged the decoyers I know who are not mobility restricted into shucking decoys and hunting with calls alone, but that is entirely up to them and ethical and perfectly legal. How Robert’s Rules of Disorder casts bushwhacking a bird strolling down a pipeline (probably to or from a green patch) as “legit” and presumably “unfooled” and a “fooled” bird over a decoy on a green patch as being “murder” is hard to reconcile with consistency. Pipe or powerline kills without calls or decoys are “bushwhacking”, perfectly legal and ethical, but seem to me to be closer in relationship (other than the legal issue) to shooting one out of a truck window than decoying. (I understand the need for woodsmanship and stealth, Kemo Sabe.) As for “fanning” or “reaping”, they are legal techniques, but not for me. I consider “fanning” to be the single-most dangerous technique that a turkey hunter can partake. At least the surviving family members can take solace in the fact that he was in the right and whoever mistook him for a strutting gobbler was wrong. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/savannah/obituary.aspx?n=frank-anderson-chisholm&pid=111280752