Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting First 20 gauge birds for me

I've always toted the 12 gauge and never thought anything about it. Jumped on the 20 gauge bandwagon this year for fun. I had an old 20 not being used for anything else, so I figured I would transform her for giggles. Who doesn't need a backup turkey gun right?? It's been fun. After a little gun makeover, and some lessons on handloading, I've managed to kill a couple with it already this spring. I do see the advantages of a 20 already. It's considerably lighter and easier to carry, the lack of recoil is a nice change from my 12, and the TSS sure gets the job done. I can see myself carrying it much more in the future.

Congrats. It's all I hunt with now. I sold my 12ga turkey gun. In the process of building a 28ga.

Very nice!! I'll be trying a 20 in a couple of weeks for the first time. Eventually I'd like to try TSS, but we can't go smaller than 7.5s here in IN, so I'm not sure if it'd be worth it. Hope to see how the Heavyweight 7s work.

7's work fine, and 20's work real fine!!

Ya, those HW 7's seem to do the trick as well. I wouldn't hesitate to hunt with those.

I took a pot shot at a pheasant with a 3" 20, and it hammered me so badly I never forgot it. Has a pad on it too. Maybe it wasnt seated right.

I thought if I gonna get hammered like that, i might as well tote the 12.

Gonna have to reeval with all these good reports.


...congrats on the birds, DIY

As far as recoil goes, I put a "recoil reducing" stock on the gun and it has helped a bit as well. The long term goal of this gun was to build a gun that I can confidently put in a kids hands and have it be an easy 40 yard gun. Easy to carry, and without the recoil. I'm shooting 3" 1-5/8 oz loads and I'll admit that there is still some recoil there. Nothing like a 3.5" in my 12 ga 870 though. Not even close. I plan to reduce down to maybe 1-1/8 give or take. This was test number 1 and the gun did great. Now it's time to make it better for the kiddies. I may add some weight to the gun, and load some lighter turkey loads, and get it where it needs to be so that they can hunt it. Hopefully my oldest is carrying this gun next year.

Congrats


I fed some Federal HW 7's to a bird today, rocked his noggin!

Just get you some of the overshot cards printed up with a big 7 on them to put over your #9 tss. That tidbit of info was given to me by a dnr officer that knows how effective TSS is.

Ha! Might have to restamp a rifle that I know works for deer to make it meet our good rules here as well...

Congrats