Shooting a thousand wild turkeys (8)
I believe the answer is:
musketry
'shooting' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'a thousand wild turkeys' is the wordplay.
'a thousand' becomes 'M' (Roman numeral for a thousand).
'wild' indicates an anagram.
'turkeys' anagrammed gives 'usketry'.
'm'+'usketry'='MUSKETRY'
(Other definitions for musketry that I've seen before include "old weapons" , "Armed soldiers" .)