I have a Winchester Ranger 120 in 12 ga. I'm going turkey hunting at the end of the month. Does anyone know if they make a turkey choke for this gun? It came with Improved Cylinder, Modified and Full choke tubes. If I can't find a "turkey" choke, I will probably use my full choke.

Also, I'm going to take my boy. He will be using a Rem 1187 in 20 ga. What is a good turkey choke for it?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Rooster

For the 20 ga I highly recommend a Trulock tube made for the Fed Heaveyweight 3" #7 load.

For the 12 ga, your options are wide open. Your tube selection is highly dependent on what load you are planning to use.

Rooster,
some thoughts- First, I would pattern your Winchester with the full choke tube it came with, using whatever load you want to use for turkey. There are a lot of choices out there, as well as arguments as to the best shot size. Personally, I shoot #5's with great success over the years. My average shots are between 20 and 30 yards.

Patterns should be sufficiently dense at normal ranges to put a lot of hits in the head and neck area of your turkey target, with out a lot of gaps in the pattern. It also tells you whether or not your shotgun is shooting where you are looking.

I am also a firm believer in fiber optic sights, front and rear. With tight chokes and only a front bead, it is entirely possible to miss- seen it too many times. If your shotguns have vent ribs, these sights are a simple add-on.

Just remember- folks have been killing wild turkeys with shotguns for many, many years, long before all the fancy stuff we have available to us nowadays was even thought of. Tighter chokes, better ammo, and better sights simply up the odds of making a clean kill shot.

As far as chokes go- there are a ton of aftermarket chokes available. If you can swing it, try more than one in your shotguns, as well as a brand or two of different ammo, to see what patterns best. No one choke, or ammo type, can be prescribed for your guns, they are all different in performance.

Jim,

Use your full choke and Hevi-shot of some sort. You'll be fine with a full choke and almost anything you use really. Just find one that patterns well. Keep your shots at 40 yards and under and you'll be eating an easter bird.

If you can find it, run a Primos Jelly Head in the Remington. Try #5 hevi-shot in the 20. You should fine to 40 yds as well in that. If for some reason the #5 heavi doesn't work, try some others that does. You can call me tonight if you want to BS about it.

Good advice Bighorn.

The Winchester 120 should take standard Invector chokes (NOT Invector plus). These are widely available and are still used in the Mossberg 500. I'd pattern your full choke and then see about a dedicated turkey choke. I'll second the suggestion that you get some fiber optic sights on the rib.

Why the fiber optics?

Also, I bought Remington Nitro Turkey in #5 shot for the 12 ga.

Tom,

Thanks for the advice on the 20. DNR emailed me yesterday and said kids between 13 and 17 can hunt all seasons for $5 bucks

Thanks for the advice Bighorn!

So, I shoot pheasants and used to shoot a lot of ducks and geese with this gun. It's hard to imagine missing a standing bird but I have to remember the shot is way denser.

Here's a pattern target, at 25 yds, from my turkey shotgun.

With tight patterns, if you are off a little, it is indeed possible to miss a bird, or hit him so lightly that he gets away.

Enter the need for sights.........

Went and bought some fiber optics and some turkey targets along with some magnum turkey shells for the 20 ga today at lunch. Starting to get pumped! lol

I just painted my front bead on my 20ga, blaze orange and it works fine. I've never been one to use the FO beads and rear "sights". They're not very durable.

My Benelli SBE has a factroy FO front bead and a steel mid bead. This set up works fine for me as well.

This is turkey hunting, may folks make it out to be a lot more than it is. If you miss, go find another one. That's the fun part anyway. YMMV though.

I used to have every gadget made to shoot one of these suckers. Now I don't even use a vest. Sometimes I carry a decoy, but mostly it's my bino's, a slate call, a few strikers, and a two diaphram calls in my pocket. I've shot more birds since going "light". I can move to them much easier. It's more fun since I don't have to worry about all the crap I have with me.

I'm not a run and gunner per say, but if I don't have any action, I'll try to drum some up.

Just be sure to shoot the guns and verify your POI as well as the maximum effective range. Too many people think that a shotgun shoots true to the bead which is simply not true for most. Your POI can vary tremendously from one choke to the next as well as one load to the next. Shoot large sheets of paper(3'x3') to determine the POI. For your maximum effective range, draw 10" circles around the most dense portion of the pattern after the shot and determine what distance your patterns fall to 100 hits in the 10" circle.

Well I'm not a gadget guy either....much...

Yeah... I realized who I was typing to when I wrote that. You're going to need a Duluth Pack for all your turkey gear at the end of the seson.

I like to move around a bit, the hunting day is only about 16 hours long.

I'm trying not to get too carried away with the gear...yet. The youngest boy (formally known as the basement dweller) has really taken interest in this so I really just want to get him in a position for a shot. I want to show him that there is more to life than playing playstaion on line with his friends.

Amen!!

Get him involved, let him call and shoot the birds. When you hear that tom blast off, 150 yds from you in the dark.... if his heart stays in his chest, he's better at it than I am.

MAN I love getting those toms fired up. One really, really good way I've found to do that is when you get one to gobble a few times at your yelps, you'll be able to tell after a few if he's gobbling at you.

When he starts to gobble, cut him off with some yelps. If he gobbles at that, cut him off again. Lots of times your get doubble or tripple gobbles. They get all fired up and it seems like they don't know what to do. It's like a 15 year old in a strip club. He doesn't know which way to turn and just strarts slobbering. Thats SUPER agressive though. If there are hens near him, they'll probably pull him in a different direction at flydown... but sometimes they don't. and it's fantastic when it works!

You got me fired up just reading that! lol

if you can't can't shoot steel out of the std full choke then you can't shoot heavi shot out of it either. i have the same win pump except it was a ted williams branded for sears. i believe they say to not shoot steel out of anything tighter than mod on those chokes. if you are shooting lead then go for it.

I've shot lead Remington nitro turkey out of it before but good point. That is something I should be double checking.

How about the 1187? I've never shot anything heavier than phesant loads out of that

1187 should be fine. If you want an aftermarket choke, that's probably the easiest gun to find one for. The RemChokes should say right on them if you can use steel shot.

I'm going to shoot the 1187 with the full choke this weekend and see what it does. I found a jelly head at gander yesterday but not going to shell out the $50 buck for it until I see what the full choke does.

Dude, that Jelly Head is worth twice that. It will run circles around your RemChoke. If it doesn't, I'll buy it from you.

This. The 'Win-choke'. Invector and Mossberg 'accuchoke' are all the same.

That's good to know.

Welp, my full choke worked in the 12ga. I got my tom this morning.

Put up a picture goofball. You manage a company, I think you can figure out how.

haha got it