Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting 12 Gauge 3" verses 2 3/4"

I’ve only killed two with a shotgun, and many more with bow.
I used a 12 ga, modified choke, 2 3/4” and I believe 1 3/8 ounces of #6 shot. They both went down instantly.
It seems that “marketing” of ammo, choke tubes and specialty shotguns have made turkeys much more difficult to kill than they used to be. They are not.

Exactly

I don't know if it's made it more difficult, unless you're referring to all the options now. But that seams to be what we always do, constantly tweaking and tweaking and tweaking...

What made turkey hunting difficult for me, back when I started, was I wanted to hunt them on my terms! Lol! Took me a couple years to hunt on a turkey's schedule as I educated myself more and more about it. Or tweaking my hunting style...

In any event, I truly enjoy it...

Turkeys are a little like God in that respect. They operate on their own terms. Took me a while to figure that out about both.

The more I hunted turkeys and listened to folks who knew how the more I’ve hunted on the bird’s terms. One great truth is, generally, like learning. That is talk a little, listen a lot. But the greatest truth I’ve learned is “It’s a lot easier to call in a turkey if you’re already where the turkey wants to go”. Applies to much of life’s challenges.

That is talk a little, listen a lot.

My one grandma always said, "you have 2 ears and 1 mouth, you should listen twice as much as you talk"!

And listen about 100 times more than you call.

TSS is a game changer. Unless you're shooting a ton of them, a 2 3/4" 12 will murder birds. It worked so well, I have gone from a 12 to a 20 and still piledrive birds out to 55 yards so far with the 20 gauge and the TSS #9's.

Good luck

I've lost track of how many I've killed with standard 1 1/4 oz high brass 12 gauge loads through a modified choke but it's a bunch.

TSS shot, new tech, high tech... old school cool... it's ALL want. I enjoy being able to do my turkey hunting like I want. Unfortunately, both IL and WI don't allow spearing! Lol!

Agreed. I like to run and gun myself. So, the lighter and handier 20 is just heaven for me.