Turkey shoot

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A turkey shoot is an opportunity for an individual or a party to very easily take advantage of a situation. It also implies that the "shooter" can't lose.

A "turkey shoot" is also a shooting contest where frozen turkeys are awarded as prizes. The shoot is most commonly held, using shotguns aimed at paper targets about 25-35 yards away. Original turkey shoots, however, dating at least to the time of James Fenimore Cooper, were contests in which live turkeys were tied down in a pen and shot from 25-35 yards.^[1] If the turkey died, the shooter received it as a prize. This gave rise to the military term (see below). Today, turkey shoots are still popular in rural America, where citizens are all likely to be familiar with shotguns. The winner is chosen according to which target has a shot closest to its center cross-mark. This removes almost all skill from the contest, and allows every shooter an equal chance.

In military situations, a turkey shoot occurs when a group or team catch the enemy off-guard or out-gunned to the point of being unfair. Examples of famous military turkey shoots:

• Battle of the Crater -- American Civil War
• Great Marianas Turkey Shoot -- World War II, The Battle of the Philippine Sea
• Operation Mole Cricket 19 -- 1982 Lebanon War
• Highway of Death -- Gulf War

"Turkey shooting" is also used to indicate the process of troubleshooting a problem in a non-logical, or non-methodical approach, by trying random stuff until the problem goes away. While troubleshooting a problem, one is said to be "turkeyshooting" if the troubleshooting approach resembles that of someone shooting a shotgun at clay pigeons.

In 1982 a feature film, filmed in Australia with the title Turkey Shoot (film) was made (aka. Escape 2000 and Blood Camp Thatcher).

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