20 gage full choke for Turkey ?

[luberhill]

So … I’ve never Turkey hunted before , I’ve got some nice birds on my property.

I only have 20 gage shotguns , would a 20 gage full choke with a 2-3/4” 4s kill a tom ?

Im sure it has to be a head shot at close range ..

Thoughts 

[DirtTime]

Yes. Get out and run a few shells to pattern the gun and make any adjustments to any scopes/adjustable sights. If you're not using an adjustable sight, you'll still know where your shot is hitting, so you can adjust aim. Aim at the neck about 1/2 way up.

 

But, you're going to get some replies stating that only 3 & 1/2" TSS will do.

[Pygmy]

Many full choke 20 gauge guns  will give you killing patterns out to 30 or 35 yards, as Dirtime said you will need to pattern it  to find out... Number 4 shot is pretty coarse for the 20 gauge  lighter shot loads..I would suggest trying  1 or 1  1/8 oz loads of number 6 or  7 1/2 shot for a  denser  pattern and more pellet hits on target... Good luck  !!...

[Buckmaster7600]

Absolutely, your shell choice and pattern will decide what your max range is. My guess with 4’s is that you’ll be very thin at 30yds. As stated 4’s are pretty big in a 20ga hull so you won’t have a lot of them in there.

I also agree 6’s or 7.5 would by my suggestion but even with those you won’t have much over a 30yd gun if it’s even a 30yd gun. Don’t let that discourage you, I’ve killed more than my share of turkeys and refuse to shoot one over 30yds and set my guns up specifically for those closer ranges.


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[Larry]

If you have removable chokes I would replace it with a turkey tube and try some turkey loads in #5's you don't need tss shot.l use #5s in long beard in my 20ga.

 

[reeltime]

Depends on what you want out of your 20 ga. Last week I changed up the kids Tristar 20 ga to beco.e my backup as the kids are old enough now and I have bought them their own turkey guns.
I did a barrel touch up with polishing, replaced the red dot with a 1-4 circle duplex scope, put on a Carlson longbeard .555 tss scope.
Sigthed in at 15 yards with 7.5 which was a pattern size of about 2 inches. Moved out to 30 yards with same loads tweeked the scop settings a little.
Taped out 120 feet set up the turkey target and then dropped in the 3 inch tss 7 shot. Not a bad pattern at 40 yards.
I think I can live with that.

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[Lawdwaz]

On 4/28/2022 at 9:51 PM, luberhill said:

So … I’ve never Turkey hunted before , I’ve got some nice birds on my property.

I only have 20 gage shotguns , would a 20 gage full choke with a 2-3/4” 4s kill a tom ?

Im sure it has to be a head shot at close range ..

Thoughts 

Did you pattern this gun?

[G-Man]

20 , 16 , 28, 410 all will kill birds at appropriate ranges. With appropriate load that has been patterened.   

Best of luck!

[luberhill]

Well I took a few of the 4s I had and set up a homemade target 

this is three rounds.. the hole is from the wad on a shot from about 40 ft away

[luberhill]

Just now, luberhill said:

Well I took a few of the 4s I had and set up a homemade target 

this is three rounds.. the hole is from the wad on a shot from about 40 ft away

One I was aiming at the head , the other the neck