Pulled out my S&Ws last Friday and tried a few loads. The 38Sp shot to POA from 18-50yds and looks like I will be using the Speer 135gr HPSBGD with 5.5grs of Universal gives a little over 900 FPS
Haven't decided yet what I will use for the second one.

Nice. If I could lawfully hunt wild turkey with a handgun in my area it would be a TC Contender with either a 10 inch 22 K Hornet barrel or a Super 14 in 22 WRM.

ct, wish you the best of luck... I took one turkey in my life and was lucky I got it....

Good luck on the .38 SP. I searched for years for the perfect turkey handgun. Had failures on decent hits with: .223 T/C, .357 Python- 158 gr. Sierra JHC, .44 Mag(?!?)-240 gr. Sierra jhc, 240 gr. XTP, but I did get one with a 180 Sierra JHC at 150+ yds, .45-70 T/C- 400 gr. lead HP- broke one wing and opposite leg. He flew/hopped away. Never recovered him.
Despite all these failures, I was determined not to give up. I finally found the perfect packin', turkey pistol- .454 Casull, FA, 7 1/2" barrel, Speer 260 gr. Mag HPs. I've had , I think, 35 or6 one shot kills with no losses. Bullet damage is about 1 1/2" on a double wing butt or low neck hit. Who'd a thunk it?

Good luck. Hope you bag one.

Thanks for all the encouragement.

Hmmm You have me thinking that I should consider pulling out the 45 with my 335gr cast? Especially as a backup,,, In talking with the ranch foreman, he encouraged me since he has a client that shoots a 410 pistol. Usually called into within 10yds. Now that is the tough part calling a bird in that close. Anyway we will see how this turns out. I have been on one ranch that had plenty of turkeys. The next thing is getting good cooperation between Weather and the birds. Wind Rain etc....
I have some 429215 cast w/HP for my 44 mag. I was thinking that this would be a good choice. Groups 2" at 50yds. Forgot how fast they are running,
WVhitman I was hoping for a low neck hit. As most of us know these things are not always possible. BTW Your records stand alone my friend. Excellent shooting.

Be careful with casts on a turkey. Forgot. I did use one like yours. Hit a little low below the wing butt and lost it. Saw feathers fly low.
I can't prove it, but I think the 260 HP creates a little extra tissue destruction over the cast IN TURKEYS which goes against normal thought processes for larger game.
Since I've done 35 or 36 straight one shot kills without any losses I'm not about to experiment any more with bullets. I'm not big on using new guns/bullets/powder for the heck of it. I usually stick with things that work well, especially my turkey gun/bullet.

I just got some cast HPs from GTbullets. The ones for the 44were the Penta HP so not sure it would open much or not. the 255gr HP for the 45 looks better. I do have a few more choices. I may try to come up with something different.

I wish we could hunt turkey with handguns here.

We cannot hunt them with handguns here either. I have never done so but reading this and other threads about them it almost sounds like they are hard to kill with a handgun.

Are they difficult? I don't mean to get a shot, I imagine that is hard, but to kill them cleanly with a handgun? Is it because they have a small vital zone?

The problem, with WV turkeys, is that they are so spooky. The few TV shows I've watched on turkey hunting showed the shooter and caller talking, moving a little. Ain't that way in WV.
A few years ago a friend and I went out together. I called in what I thought was one, but ended up being 2 gobblers. We had already set up on both sides of a large oak with our handguns hoping for a double. It was hot and flies were buzzing us. My friend flicked his FINGER at a fly on his shooting hand. The turkeys were at 45 yards (later measured). They looked up at us. In 2 seconds they were gone. The finger was the only movement between the two of us.
I've gotten away with (very few times) of repositioning my gun on the side of a tree just a little to get on one. They all froze, not figuring out what I was since most of me was behind a tree. I got every one of those.
So, spinsail, they are extremely difficult to kill (in WV) due to the small size of the kill zone (about 3" in diameter), but more so because they are so blasted smart and spooky. I've taken a lot of animals in my time, but the ones I'm most proud of are my turkeys.

THE EASTERN TURKEYS ARE SUPPOSEDLY THE SMARTEST AND WARIEST, THE RIO GRANDE (WHAT WE HAVE IN TEXAS) IS A LOT EASIER TO HUNT. MANY OF THE TURKEY REINTRODUCTIONS WERE DONE WITH TEXAS RIO GRANDES. IT PAYS TO KNOW WHAT TURKEY SPECIE YOU ARE HUNTING.

Spinsail: 2 things make the turkey a difficult target and that is 1: Kill zone is small and 2: eyesight vary good. If they could read,,, they could probably read a newspaper at 100 yds.

45MAN These will be Rio Grande Turkeys. Saw them before and have hunted the area. Just always Deer Hunting. Calling can be difficult since most are bilingual. (joke)

Use to be a goal of mine to get a Grand Slam but that is becoming more and more difficult. I actually gave up on it long ago.

I always look forward to spring turkey season every year because it gives me something else to hunt mid year. To date I've killed exactly one turkey with a handgun.

I also love calling turkeys in. My best turkey call is a large metal barrel that goes off twice a day and throws little yellow nuggets of magic. Hehe.