Todd1700
Member
Wow.
First of all unless you plan to call turkeys in to 25 yards before you open fire forget the nonsense about using number 8 lead shot. Not even sure lead 8's are legal in most places but no matter. Just forget that horse pucky.
Second, for the love of God don't body shoot them with 4's either. Can you kill a turkey that way? At very close range, sure. But at very close range it would be like hitting him with a slug and would destroy the edible meat. Which is the reason we are shooting him in the first place, right? And at a longer range? Well I'm sure the turkey would die......eventually. The question is where and when. Possibly close to where you shot him. Or possibly after he runs a 1/4 of a mile through a thicket and crawls up in the middle of a downed tree top with no blood trail between where you shot him and where he finally expired. Or depending on the range of the shot he might die a week later from infection. Horrible, horrible advice in my opinion.
But back to your original question.
Does your gun accept screw in chokes? I would not hunt turkeys with a modified choke tube unless I had to. You don't have to go out and spend 70 bucks on an after market tube either. Any extra full turkey choke out there will out shoot that internal modified choke and some of them cost less than 20 bucks. As for shells, it just depends on how much you want to spend. Hevi-13 denser than lead shells combined with a choke safe to use with denser than lead shot will give you awesome patterns but are expensive. With lead shells I have always had the best luck with Winchester Supreme shells. See what patterns best between 5's and 6's. Never been a fan of lead 4's. The individual number 4 pellets will kill way out there if they hit the right spot but I have never seen what I would call a good pattern with them at even 40 yards. And I seriously doubt you will get a good pattern with them out to 40 yards from a 20 ga using a modified choke.
When you pattern forget the turkey head targets. Shoot at a dot in the center of a large sheet of poster paper. That way you can see what the whole pattern is doing. It will also allow you to see exactly where the center of your pattern is hitting. Trust me it is not always perfectly in line with the bead or sights. You may need and adjustable sight to get your point of aim and point of impact together. I would consider 100 pellets inside a 10 inch circle an acceptable pattern. The farthest your shotgun will give you at least that pattern density is your maximum range.
First of all unless you plan to call turkeys in to 25 yards before you open fire forget the nonsense about using number 8 lead shot. Not even sure lead 8's are legal in most places but no matter. Just forget that horse pucky.
Second, for the love of God don't body shoot them with 4's either. Can you kill a turkey that way? At very close range, sure. But at very close range it would be like hitting him with a slug and would destroy the edible meat. Which is the reason we are shooting him in the first place, right? And at a longer range? Well I'm sure the turkey would die......eventually. The question is where and when. Possibly close to where you shot him. Or possibly after he runs a 1/4 of a mile through a thicket and crawls up in the middle of a downed tree top with no blood trail between where you shot him and where he finally expired. Or depending on the range of the shot he might die a week later from infection. Horrible, horrible advice in my opinion.
But back to your original question.
Does your gun accept screw in chokes? I would not hunt turkeys with a modified choke tube unless I had to. You don't have to go out and spend 70 bucks on an after market tube either. Any extra full turkey choke out there will out shoot that internal modified choke and some of them cost less than 20 bucks. As for shells, it just depends on how much you want to spend. Hevi-13 denser than lead shells combined with a choke safe to use with denser than lead shot will give you awesome patterns but are expensive. With lead shells I have always had the best luck with Winchester Supreme shells. See what patterns best between 5's and 6's. Never been a fan of lead 4's. The individual number 4 pellets will kill way out there if they hit the right spot but I have never seen what I would call a good pattern with them at even 40 yards. And I seriously doubt you will get a good pattern with them out to 40 yards from a 20 ga using a modified choke.
When you pattern forget the turkey head targets. Shoot at a dot in the center of a large sheet of poster paper. That way you can see what the whole pattern is doing. It will also allow you to see exactly where the center of your pattern is hitting. Trust me it is not always perfectly in line with the bead or sights. You may need and adjustable sight to get your point of aim and point of impact together. I would consider 100 pellets inside a 10 inch circle an acceptable pattern. The farthest your shotgun will give you at least that pattern density is your maximum range.
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