Each spring, turkey hunters from North to South begin experimenting with their shotguns with the desire to maximize performance of the firearm/choke/ammunition combination. The vast majority of turkey hunters choose a 12-gauge shotgun, with a 20-gauge gaining in popularity.
Much of the reason for the increased use of the 20-gauge is the fairly new heavier-than-lead pellets available today — namely tungsten pellets. Because tungsten is denser (heavier per volume) than lead, you can get away with using smaller pellets while still having great penetration on birds. Smaller pellets means you can fit enough of them in a 20-gauge shot shell to be deadly on turkeys. In fact, some hunters have been killing turkeys effectively at closer ranges with tungsten .410 loads.
In the 21-minute YouTube video below, four guys from The Hunting Public share their recent gun/choke/ammo testing for turkeys. They aren’t field testing a bunch of new gear — instead, they’re using their four go-to shotguns and turkey chokes. However, a couple of them are experimenting with some different ammo than used in previous seasons.
Specifically, you’ll see two 12-gauge shotguns and two 20-gauge shotguns, and a mix of traditional lead, lead with nickel plating, and TSS (Tungsten Super Shot) ammo. You shouldn’t draw any conclusions for your gun/choke based on what you see here because every combo can yield different results. The only way to test shotgun patterns and figure out your effective range is to shoot various loads into paper and then examine the results.
The primary reason I’m highlighting this video is the crazy-cool, super-slow-motion footage. You’ll see the pellets in flight, at distances of 20 and 40 yards, and then see the results on paper — specifically, 12x18-inch Birchwood Casey Pregame Turkey targets. As described near the end of the video, these targets have different-colored reactive zones, meaning a turkey’s vitals (spine and brain) react in a high-vis color when hit by a pellet.
FYI: The one downside to using Tungsten Super Shot and similar heavier-than-lead ammunition is the high cost. Example: The 20-gauge APEX/Woodhaven Next Level Ninja TSS (size 8.5 shot) used by Ted in this video is priced at $64.99 for five shells; that’s $13 per trigger pull. And 12-gauge options are even more money — $15 per shot— because those shells contain more pellets.
One final comment: Because turkey ammunition produces a serious recoil punch, it’s a smart idea when testing various gun/choke/ammo combinations to use a Caldwell Lead Sled, which is shown in the video.
