20g for turkey

[bankwalker]

Anyone using a 20g for turkey? If so. What is the realistic shot range with turkey specific ammo.

[C-Money]

I'd set up a target out to 40 yards and give it a go. I'd be surprised if your pattern wasn't lethal at 40 yards using a good quality turkey load. 1 1/4oz of #5s launched from a 20ga surly will do the trick!

[birddogdad]

yes, 20 GA with 3" 1 5/8 #9 TSS good to 60 yards once you get a good pattern/ right choke and gun setup but my standard is 40yds to setup for the shot. never had one get away inside of 60.

[phildobaggins]

yes, 20 GA with 3" 1 5/8 #9 TSS good to 60 yards once you get a good pattern/ right choke and gun setup but my standard is 40yds to setup for the shot. never had one get away inside of 60.

  I've never used a 12 gauge on a turkey. I always use my 20 gauge or my bow 

[B0wman]

People get way too hung up on and rely on ‘more and bigger’. 20 will work fine with the right load, as will as other small gauges.
Same with a bow.

[phildobaggins]

People get way too hung up on and rely on ‘more and bigger’. 20 will work fine with the right load, as will as other small gauges.
Same with a bow.

Registered 10 years ago and first post finally... congrats 

[birddogdad]

yes, 20 GA with 3" 1 5/8 #9 TSS good to 60 yards once you get a good pattern/ right choke and gun setup but my standard is 40yds to setup for the shot. never had one get away inside of 60.

  I've never used a 12 gauge on a turkey. I always use my 20 gauge or my bow 

i walk a lot of mountains for turkeys, carrying a 5# 20 ga is very nice compared to a heavy 12 ga .. this was my reason to downsize with TSS for sure.. many semi's are now in that 5# class, i run a red dot, .555 tss choke tube, and specialty outdoor rubber sling is my setup.

[washingtonmuley]

I put a 20 gauge together for my kids when they were younger and that thing has killed birds out to 50 yds. we using hvy shot blend but liked heavy wt #9's when they were available. I like the performance so much that I carry the 20 often when not hunting with the kids.

[GWP]

People get way too hung up on and rely on ‘more and bigger’. 20 will work fine with the right load, as will as other small gauges.
Same with a bow.

Registered 10 years ago and first post finally... congrats 

‘Professional’ lurker for the most part. Fade to black. Again.

[salish]

I'll be hunting this year with a 20ga 3" using a tight choke of .555 and Apex TSS #9. I hope I don't regret buying that tight of a choke. Don't want to throw baseball sized patterns at 20-25 yards, but from what I've heard it's a good 40 yard combo, and longer. If it's overkill I can always use the more open factory choke. The manufacturer lists the gun as weighing 5-1/4 lbs, so it's going to nice to carry.

[GWP]

From what I have read on TSS, it is even harder than Hevi-Shot. Does the manufacturer suggest that tight of a choke? I have seen barrels hammered out from ‘hard shot’.

[bankwalker]

Awesome thanks for the replies.

[Karl Blanchard]

20 gauge?! Heck .410 and tss is scary good. I recently picked up a little rossi tuffy turkey for my son and with red dot its under 4lb. Amazing pattern out to 60 yards.

[HillHound]

20 gauge?! Heck .410 and tss is scary good. I recently picked up a little rossi tuffy turkey for my son and with red dot its under 4lb. Amazing pattern out to 60 yards.

Wow 60 yards with a 410! That’s got to be with the TSS loads and choke right? I also started my son and wife hunting turkeys with the 20 gauge and take it often myself over the 12 even if they aren’t going. As everyone will tell you it’s all about knowing your pattern and effective range. Shoot you could take a 10 gauge out and not know your pattern and Karl’s  gonna be more deadly with his 410 than your gonna be with the 10 gauge at any range

[birddogdad]

From what I have read on TSS, it is even harder than Hevi-Shot. Does the manufacturer suggest that tight of a choke? I have seen barrels hammered out from ‘hard shot’.

simply = yes, but shot size is restricted in those ultra tight tubes.. smaller ok larger not.. clear on manf. instructions... 9TSS hits like 4 lead at 40yds.. density is high and energy is maintained.. kind of like tossing a baseball and wiffleball same initial velocity.. impact energy is much higher with first..TSS is no joke and with 9shot size, you clear like 3x the number of pellets for same round which means pattern density is much higher too. still only takes a couple pellets in the kill zone even for that tiny size pellet. they will break bones out there~!

[salish]

From what I have read on TSS, it is even harder than Hevi-Shot. Does the manufacturer suggest that tight of a choke? I have seen barrels hammered out from ‘hard shot’.

I hope so. I didn't think about this until after I bought the choke (cause I didn't know there was a potential issue). It's a model from Jeb's Chokes. I've looked at the literature, at their website, and can find no info on this topic of concern. I've called them and left a voice mail two weeks ago but haven't heard back. I also left an email on their site and never heard back. Likewise, I posted a message on their FB page and never heard from them. It's been two weeks. Really crappy customer service. I regret buying from them and now wish I would have bought one from a competing company.

[Karl Blanchard]

20 gauge?! Heck .410 and tss is scary good. I recently picked up a little rossi tuffy turkey for my son and with red dot its under 4lb. Amazing pattern out to 60 yards.

Wow 60 yards with a 410! That’s got to be with the TSS loads and choke right? I also started my son and wife hunting turkeys with the 20 gauge and take it often myself over the 12 even if they aren’t going. As everyone will tell you it’s all about knowing your pattern and effective range. Shoot you could take a 10 gauge out and not know your pattern and Karl’s  gonna be more deadly with his 410 than your gonna be with the 10 gauge at any range

  yeah tss. Probably should have lead with that 

[Dan-o]

20 gauge?! Heck .410 and tss is scary good. I recently picked up a little rossi tuffy turkey for my son and with red dot its under 4lb. Amazing pattern out to 60 yards.

Wow 60 yards with a 410! That’s got to be with the TSS loads and choke right? I also started my son and wife hunting turkeys with the 20 gauge and take it often myself over the 12 even if they aren’t going. As everyone will tell you it’s all about knowing your pattern and effective range. Shoot you could take a 10 gauge out and not know your pattern and Karl’s  gonna be more deadly with his 410 than your gonna be with the 10 gauge at any range

  yeah tss. Probably should have lead with that 

I mean, even Karl can hit them with tss.

(Sorry.   Been too long.)

[lewy]

Wow!

[Karl Blanchard]

Man, Dan-o over there spittin fire 

[Limhangerslayer]

20 gauge?! Heck .410 and tss is scary good. I recently picked up a little rossi tuffy turkey for my son and with red dot its under 4lb. Amazing pattern out to 60 yards.

Wow 60 yards with a 410! That’s got to be with the TSS loads and choke right? I also started my son and wife hunting turkeys with the 20 gauge and take it often myself over the 12 even if they aren’t going. As everyone will tell you it’s all about knowing your pattern and effective range. Shoot you could take a 10 gauge out and not know your pattern and Karl’s  gonna be more deadly with his 410 than your gonna be with the 10 gauge at any range

  yeah tss. Probably should have lead with that 

I mean, even Karl can hit them with tss.

(Sorry.   Been too long.)

Karl doesn’t kill turkeys, just pretends he does!

[Karl Blanchard]

Wow

[lewy]

Karl I just ordered my daughter one of those little Rossi shottys, did you run the factory choke options?

[Karl Blanchard]

Karl I just ordered my daughter one of those little Rossi shottys, did you run the factory choke options?

yes sir. It will come with a modified and an extra full.

[duckmen1]

20 gauge?! Heck .410 and tss is scary good. I recently picked up a little rossi tuffy turkey for my son and with red dot its under 4lb. Amazing pattern out to 60 yards.

Wow 60 yards with a 410! That’s got to be with the TSS loads and choke right? I also started my son and wife hunting turkeys with the 20 gauge and take it often myself over the 12 even if they aren’t going. As everyone will tell you it’s all about knowing your pattern and effective range. Shoot you could take a 10 gauge out and not know your pattern and Karl’s  gonna be more deadly with his 410 than your gonna be with the 10 gauge at any range

  yeah tss. Probably should have lead with that 

I mean, even Karl can hit them with tss.

(Sorry.   Been too long.)

Karl doesn’t kill turkeys, just pretends he does!

Love the TSS. Few years back in the fall I went on a hunt and brought the over under 410 along. Improved cylinder and modified chokes. I got a lot of trash talk at me for bringing it. But after shooting at 4 turkeys throughout the week and bringing them all back to camp no one had another thing they could say about it. I still love my .410 for hunting all birds. It's all about learning the gun you have. And TSS shot is no joke.

[Russ McDonald]

For those that run TSS you really should run a TSS rated turkey choke.  There has been a few barrels split uaing tss or even he i shot through a regular turkey choke.  A regular turkey choke is a bit tighter than a tss/hevi shot turkey choke because lead being a bit more forgiving.  .20 gauges are awesome turkey guns wife started with a 870 and now is shooting a Benneli.  Carlson tss choke killing birds out to 30 yards no problem with Federal 3rd degree. I just went to a .410 last year 2 falls birds with a Carlson tss choke but shooting Federal Turkey Loads might have been xr longbeard at 30 yards.  Had Federal TSS for my Teanaway bird about cut its head off.   For those who don't want to use a turkey choke which I highly recommend you distance is going to down even with tss loads.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk

[bearpaw]

Anyone using a 20g for turkey? If so. What is the realistic shot range with turkey specific ammo.

I've seen quite a few 20 gauges used for turkey and I've seen quite a few birds taken, I've also seen birds wounded that have not been recovered. The key take away is that you need to have a quality extra full turkey choke tube and pattern the gun so you know the effective range because every gun/choke/ammo combination shoots different.

Generally speaking, most 20's are good for 30 yards with a turkey choke and lead turkey loads, a few will shoot reliably at 40 yards, but not many.

With TSS and a TSS choke tube in the same gun you usually get 10 to 20 yards or more range. Most 20's will shoot 40-50 yards or more with TSS shot and choke, of course you need to pattern your gun in advance so you know this is true with your gun. I regularly tell people with TSS any 20 will shoot like a 12 gauge, actually probably even better than a 12 with regular turkey loads!

You can get turkey choke tubes for most guns on Amazon more affordably than most places and they seem to have a pretty good supply on hand compared with other sources. If you aren't sure what to get I'll be glad to offer advice, feel free to send me a message.

If you want to spend the extra money for TSS cartridges you also need to get a TSS specific choke tube to be safe.

BTW - Get your ammo now, it's very hard to find turkey ammo again this year.

[Jason78]

20ga is a solid gun.  My 20 has killed almost every legal game bird in WA, no problem.  We (me and my 3 boys) have killed turkeys with 20's using Winchester long beard and Heavy Shot. 

Smoked a bird at 45yds with 26" barrel, factory full choke, Heavy shot 3".

Smoked 3-4 with a Moss Y 500 20ga, 18" barrel, moss turkey choke, Win long beard 3".  It's current limit is 40yds but I have a Jebs Choke and some TSS coming in the mail very soon to test.