Turkey Choke

[red rick]

I have a Winchester SX3 3 1/2" 12ga. and a Remington 870 3" 12ga. . I am looking for a good turkey choke tube .

Do any of y'all have any experience with Kicks Gobblin Thunder or Trulock Winchester Long Beard XR chokes . I like both of their chokes , Kicks for Buckshot and Trulock for upland . I thought I might try one or the other for Turkey's .

If you have a favorite , for either one of my guns , please let me know your choke and shot size . I would like a good place to start .

 

[PapaG]

I have a "jellyhead" on my turkey gun, don't recall the brand or constriction, and it was the fifth of sixth tube I bought to try. With my load of 1 1/2 oz of copper plated fours it does just what the name implies out to forty yards or so. Longshot powder, btw.

 

[entropy]

I just use a RemChoke Superfull Trap. Wish I could report terminal ballistics, I have yet to shoot a Turkey; but then, I've never really tried all that hard either.

 

[kscharlie]

Unfortunately, choke tubes work just like shotgun barrels. One will give you a super-full pattern, another of the same brand/constriction will not. One brand of shotshell will give dense patterns, another brand of the same charge may or may not. It's all a big experiment, depending on what you really want to get out of any given choke and shotshell combination. Around 1996 or so, I bought a Mossberg 9200 Turkey gun chambered for 3" 12ga. It came with an extended turkey choke tube with a .670 restriction. The gun/choke does very well with Wincester High Velocity turkey loads, Hevi-Shot turkey loads but performs much worse with other brands such as Remington Nitro Express Turkey and Winchester Super X Turkey loads. It also produces the most dense patterns with 3" shells loaded with 1 3/4 to 2 oz loads of #5 shot.

Either of the choke tubes you mentioned should work pretty well. Of the two, I would most likely go with the Kicks. Another poster mentioned the Jellyhead. I believe this is sold by Primos. Have read lots of good things about them, and they are much less expensive than others. I, personally, would not shoot any 3 1/2" turkey loads. I am not particularly recoil sensitive, but a 3" turkey load gives me all the punishment that I care for. Had a friend who thought a shotgun that would shoot those 3 1/2" roman candles would be the cat's meow. It didn't take him too long to change his mind and get rid of that gun.

I guess I would suggest getting a choke tube of your choice, then getting several different brands and shot sizes and pattern them at 40 yards. If you plan on shooting past 40 yards, I would also suggest avoiding loads with #6 shot. I prefer shooting them inside of 30 yards, but there has been a few occasions where I killed a nice longbeard between 50 and 60 yards. #6 just won't do that.

From some of your previous posts on this forum, I am also guessing you have hunted turkeys before and most of the info I have provided is totally superfluous to your OP and worth everything you paid for it. I apologize in advance for offering more than you asked for. Glad to see you are well into the healing process and planning for the upcoming turkey season. Myself, I can't wait...

 

[Captcurt]

Turkey chokes are like women. What one man likes, another man might dislike. I think that I have had 5 or 6 aftermarket chokes ranging from .630 Hastings to a .680 Primos Jellyhead on my Win 1300. I put a 22" smoothbore slug barrel with sights on it. I am currently shooting a .670 White River Choke with #6 Winchester Longbeards. It is awesome! I am going to see what it will do with larger shot. Sixes loose their poop past 40 yards. Wish I had this combo back when I was in my prime. I hunted 21 out of 28 days in two states back in 93. That is about as close to divorce as I care to be.

I have a friend who is a turkey fanatic. He shoots the Kicks.

 

[cdb1]

I like SumToy and Trulock but don't think brand matters that much. Just find one that throws the pattern you want.