"The more pellets I can put on target, the higher the probability of a fatal pellet strike."
Sounds good if the pellets have enough energy to reliably break bone and scramble things. In this article that you wrote with the turkey head X-rays it is actually quite surprising how few pellets there are in those turkey noggins considering that was a load of #8 shot. Using the standard 10" circle at 40 yards as a metric to compare results between various combinations, a good turkey gun, choke and load will score well over 100+ pellet strikes with lead #6. Tungsten patterns even tighter. That means there will be double digit pellet strikes in the skull and neck vertebrae with those #6 pellets. That at 40 yards. Better than your results with #8 shot. Did I miss what choke constriction you used?
The shotgun was a Rem 870 w/after market "X-Full" tube.
"... if the pellets have enough energy to reliably break bone and scramble things. ..."
A turkeys skeleton isn't that tough. It's just bone. Even if it is a turkey, birds bones are more lightly constructed than say, even a squirrel or rabbit. It's a natural thing when God designed them to fly to reduce weight. (...and no, I'm not a biologist! ....but I DO know which bathroom to go to! LOL!)
I honestly wish I had x-rayed more heads and I may in the future.
My entire point is: "dedicated turkey ammo" is overrated and overpriced.
I'm not going to argue that tungsten or bismuth or some other non-toxic shot is any better or worse, just that it makes the ammo more expensive when plain Jane lead ("chilled shot" is very hard to locate) works just fine for a lot less money.
