Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting Highly Customized Turkey Shotguns; What Do You Run?

I gave my favorite 870 Wingmaster turkey / water fowl gun to my son and needed a replacement so I bought this 870 Express.



The first thing I did was fill the butt stock with 4 ounces of lead and builders foam to balance the gun. I put a PVC pipe over the bolt to keep an open access to it in case I ever need to remove the stock or tighten that bolt. After the builders foam was set I removed the PVC pipe.



Then I took it out and shot a round of skeet.

The next modification I made was to dissemble the gun and carefully file and polish the machining burs left inside the action that were hanging up the fired shells and causing every other shot to jam. While I was at it I also polished the trigger and slide rails to smooth out a very rough action.

The second trip to the skeet range I didn't get any hung up hulls, the trigger was better and the action smoother though still rather "tight".

Next I installed the extra full choke and patterned the gun with my favorite 3 inch turkey loads. Those patterns were good. I did the same with the Skeet II choke and my steel duck loads. Those were good too.

So I took it duck hunting. Every two to three shots a fired shell hung up and didn't clear the action. This only happened with the three inch shells. The short shells cycled fine. For a while I could not figure out why the three inch shells were hanging up.

Then I got the cuff of my jacket hung up under the stock forearm when I cycled the action open. It was stuck tight and required some pulling, tugging, and bad language to remove. That's how I discovered that my hand was too far back on the forearm. Those longer shells were hitting my fingers and not clearing the action. I made an effort to correct my hand position but after getting my cuff hung up several more times I decided something had to be done about that new styled forearm. It might look snazzy but it sucks for function.

I removed the forearm and cut it shorter on my band saw. (Don't cringe, it's only a piece of plastic)
That solved the problem of hand placement and getting my jacket jammed up under that damned thing.

During all this BS the gun was patterning well and hitting everything I pointed it at. I broke targets, killed ducks, doves, and turkey gobblers. It seems I can't miss with it. I just had a lot of trouble getting it to function properly.

Here she is after I replaced that newfangled, Benelli looking, POS forearm with the old traditional style forearm, polished and slicked up the moving parts, and shot a case of shells through her.


This is about as "custom" as I ever want to get with a hunting shotgun. I have always liked 870 shotguns and like this one now, but I wish I had kept my old Wingmaster and given my son the "new" gun.

As to the original question about customizing a shotgun specifically for turkey hunting; I have never felt I was missing anything when killing turkey with a standard 870 pump action shotgun. That model shotgun fits me well and hits where I point it. With the correct shotshell/ choke combination it kills turkey as far out as I would want to shoot at them.

I have tried to like the fiber optic sights and can't. I haven't seen a need for three and a half inch shells, cammo paint jobs, or extended choke tubes. About the only modifications I make to change my water fowl shotgun into a Turkey shotgun is to change to a tighter choke and attach a sling.