Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting Federal Heavyweight. 20 ga / choke.

I was at the range last fall and a guy was patterning a 20ga with the 3" Federal Heavyweight 7 load. I don't know what the gun was but he was using a fixed MOD. barrel and at 35 yards his pattern was very impressive. He said that traditional turkey chokes don't do well with this load because they are to tight. I have a mossberg 500 turkey with a ported barrel and the stock non ported xx-full choke. I have read that ported chokes don't do well with the flight control wad but does the ported barrel affect perfomance? Also has anyone shot this load out of an xx-full choke and if so how did it pattern? I know the simple thing to do would be to just shoot a few for myslelf but this load is so expnseve that I would like to experimet as little as possible.

I shoot that load through a standard Remington 20 gauge extra full turkey choke -- it works great!

Best chokes out of my youth 870 with that load are the Primos Tightwad .570 and the Tru-Glo SSX .550" constriction. The SSX is ported and tight constriction but this is a great choke in lots of guns. The Tightwad throws a super even pattern with several loads from mine so it gets the nod.


41yds - 50 degrees - 90% humidity - wind 0-5mph


.550 SSX - Fed HW 7's - 10" average - 125 - 16" average - 223
.570 TightWad - Fed 7's - 10" average - 122 - 16" average - 222

.550 SSX - Hevi13 7's - 10" average - 135 - 16" average - 225
.570 TightWad - Hevi13 7's - 10" average 127 - 16" average - 225


Another pattern from the .570 Tight Wad, 16" circle total 218





Tightwad .570 with H13 3" #6's 10" - 115 20" - 119.

74, Looked for that Tightwad choke, but Sportsmans in Casper had sold out.. Will pick one up in my travels the next few mths.. Thanks for all the work in patterning..

I'm glad to see such good results with tight chokes. I guess I'll just have to get some and try it. It's to bad I can't mail order ammo anymore. Gander Mountain is the only place that has it in stock and their prices are fairly high. Thanks NY state. I see federal is offering $10 back on ten rounds. That takes a bit of the edge off the price.

I bought my Tightwad from Walmart for $12-$15 I think. I bought it just to have something to shoot until I could order a real choke. So far the stupid thing has out shot everything I've bought to beat it. It shoots the hevishot #6 duck loads 120-130 in the 10" @ 41yds also.


I just put the other chokes up on the shelf.



None of mine have been real good with lead but I think that's fairly normal for a 20 gauge.



The guys @ oldgobbler.com know their stuff as far as chokes, loads and pattern results.

My little youth 500 gave 160s at 40 with the cheap nonported HS Undertaker choke(.572 IIRC) and 3" 1-1/2oz HW 7s. Killed some toms a long ways out with that combo.

This is what I got from federal today "When using our heavyweight turkey loads I would not use a ported choke tube and would not go any tighter then a full. I would even consider using a modified choke. Make sure you pattern your shotgun to confirm good patterning."

I would go to oldgobbler and look at all the smoking pattern over there with chokes from .550-.580.

20 gauge patterns

^^^^ this

This is about what I am getting with my 870 youth 20 and a Primos Jellyhead. I really don't like a super tight pattern cause I don't shoot much past 40-45 yds and I don't want to miss at 10-15 yds.