.22 wound on big gobbler
About 20 yrs ago, , a group of Hispanic tree planters were working on our hunting lease. They got caught plinking turkeys with a .22 rifle by one of our members. There was a big stink with the employers, but we had little say as we simply leased the land..... we were not the landowner.
As I recall, this happened early spring, before gobbler season. A year later, the following spring, I got on a big gobbler I named "Goliath". That tom had the biggest white head and stood taller than any I have ever seen. He was uncallable, and walked away from my calling on two separate occassions, not a real confidence builder. I ended up killing Goliath when he made the mistake of following some hens down a club road on a PM hunt. I had seen many gobbler tracks on this road, and set up at an intersection, and he tried to hustle past, keeping up with his hens, who were doing there best to give him the slip and get back to roost.
When I dressed out Goliath that evening, low on the breast bone, there was a peculiar funnel shaped hole. The center was just a tad over .22 size, and there was no exit wound on the breast bone. Appearance's were the shot had come in low from the front and just clipped the breast bone, then exited through the soft tissue of the abdomen, low enough not to catch any abdominal organs it would seem. That would make sense on a standing turkey. Healed completely, and one super sly tom was the result.
So yes, you can kill a turkey with a .22 lr, but you can wound one, (and he might survive, or he might not) as well.