New Vortex Viper Shotgun Enclosed Micro Red Dot: Hunting Turkeys

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When you get a text that says, “Sorry, short notice, but do you want to come to turkey camp?”, the only option is to quickly respond with “Yes, when and where?” This last-minute invite was for the industry-famous Arterburn turkey camp in the southern sandhills of Nebraska, a mere hour’s drive from my home. With minimal time to plan or pack, I set off.

I headed west, cutting through the flatland ag fields until the sand dunes started rolling. If you’ve never hunted Nebraska’s Sandhills in spring, picture waves of blowing grass and cedars breaking into tangled draws, canyons where turkeys roost in cottonwoods and gobble down through the valleys at first light. It’s boots-on-the-ground, burn-your-legs kind of country. The kind that can humble you.

Jack from OnX and I teamed up for the first morning. We worked a ravine on the edge of a cornfield and quickly spotted a longbeard trailing two hens. He was lit up and locked in, but not on us. We called, we ran, we flanked, we gave him every excuse to come our way, but nothing worked. He wasn’t leaving his girls. The ravine was narrow and isolated, so we knew if we left undetected, he’d likely be right back in that field tomorrow morning, so we carefully retreated and left him be.

That evening, we set out determined to cover country and find a bird on foot. We crossed eight miles of sandhills and cedar thickets, each ridge revealing a new challenge, each draw full of opportunity. With daylight bleeding out, we finally heard a gobble from a lone tom. He was on fire, hammering after every call we threw, but he was on the move, working up a draw quickly.

Busting a Move

We moved fast, hoping to beat him to the top of a ridge that stood between that draw and what we guessed to be his roosting area. It was a gamble. The last fifty yards were wide open, and we knew it. But we had to try. We belly-crawled part of it, then sprinted the last stretch. Just as we neared the peak, I saw him, silhouetted in the fading blue sky. He saw me too. He wasted no time evading us, gone before I could even lift the gun.

We left camp the next morning, still sore from the hike, and returned to the ravine where we saw that tom with his two hens the morning prior. Eagerly waiting for the sun to rise, we knew we were in the perfect ambush point. The sun peaked over the ridge and sure enough, the hens came in like clockwork, right to our setup, clucking and purring. But he wasn’t with them. Maybe he got pulled off for another hen, maybe another hunter got him, maybe he was just gone.

Frustrated, we made our way back to camp, trying to salvage a plan for the rest of the morning. We arrived at camp, disgruntled about the result of our seemingly full-proof plan. We no more than shut the truck door and heard a gobble echo through the canyons. He wasn’t far from camp. We hustled to get our gear back into hunting order and set out on foot.

Strutter decoy in one hand and my Retay ACE-R in the other, we hustled until we crested a rise and spotted a flock of turkeys in an alfalfa field below. We decided to work our way to the flat about 100 yards around a bend. Upon arrival, I dropped to my belly and began crawling to the field edge with the strutter in front of me. The birds were maybe 150 yards out. The grass gave me cover, so I eased forward slowly, trying to get to where the turkeys could see the decoy.

Cutting the Distance

I crawled as far out into the field as I thought I could without getting busted, jammed the decoy into the ground, and laid right under it, motioning left and right to simulate a strutting tom, and it worked. The flock broke, a group of birds headed right for me, wings out, on a dead sprint. They were ready for a fight. I laid as still as I could, grasping onto the shotgun, knowing I was going to have to shoot from a prone position.

They quickly closed the gap to under 15 yards, and I had to act fast, or they were going to be on top of me. I snugged up against the shotgun and found the dot. I didn’t have to lift my head or adjust my position. Even flat on my stomach with my elbows buried in the dirt, the dot was easy to find, and I didn’t find myself wanting to adjust or lift my head. One bird broke off from the pack, I put the dot on his head and pulled the trigger. The Hevi-Shot TSS did the trick, and there he laid not 8 yards from me.

Not two weeks later, I set out on a solo hunt, looking to punch my last tag. It was a quick hunt, but very similar to the first, belly crawling, close encounters and a sub 10-yard shot from the prone position. The compact profile of the Viper Shotgun Enclosed Micro Red Dot is the reason I could stay behind the gun without breaking position while on my stomach. A taller sight would’ve forced me to lift my neck, and a bead may have made me twist my neck further to find center. The Viper was right there, to the point I didn’t have to think about it.

The optic held zero the entire time, never fogged over on the cool mornings, never snagged on brush, and never gave me a single reason to think twice. It’s built like a tank but doesn’t weigh the gun down, and the clean 3 MOA dot was easy to find, and the brightness feature was a great addition for the low light mornings and peak sunshine hours. I didn’t baby the sight either, it rode through eight-mile hikes, belly crawling through grass and dirt, and survived a few days of bouncing around in the truck. Through all of it, the Viper performed.

If you like to run and gun for turkeys, crawl through brush, or hunt without a blind, this red dot gives you a serious edge. It’s quick on target, built to stay out of your way, and holds true in the worst conditions. In a season of tough country and demanding hunts, it proved itself the way good gear always does, by letting me forget it was even there until the moment I needed it most.

First Lite’s Treeline Vest

On both hunts, I wore First Lite’s new Treeline Turkey Vest, and it performed flawlessly. The padded seat flips up and stays put, the straps adjust just right for crawling and sitting, and all my calls and gear were held tightly and avoided any annoying rattling. I had all the essentials, nothing extra, and I never once felt like the vest was in my way, even while dragging a strutter decoy and crawling on my belly. The large pocket in the back made carrying the birds out a breeze. 

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