Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting how many pellets in the head?

It made it that far?

Makes me wonder when the shot left the cup if it had that much momentum

Yeah, I'm guessing the wad went 60 yards. I could only have done that with 19 year old twins.

Thanks for the clarification.

I was looking at my little 20 ga browning BPS upland with its 22 inch barrel thinking I should pattern that guy....

Going from a 28" barrel to a 20" will drop about 75fps. That's not per inch, it's 75 fps total.

The turkey will never know the difference.

If it takes 100 pellets on a pie plate to kill a turkey, then the turkeys have gotten a lot more durable. I started hunting in the early 80's. Back then the rule we went by was 2 pellets on a Dixie cup.

You took a Dixie drink cup and stuck it on the end of the stick and put newspaper up behind as backing, so you could see if your pattern was centered. They did not have dedicated turkey guns in those days. A decent trap gun was considered as good as you could get. However, any shotgun would do so long as you stuck to the 2-in-the-dixie-cup rule. I first hunted with a 2 3/4" Win Model 12 Trap and later with an Rem 1100 TB Trap. Both of them would put two in at 40 yards, but it was pushing it. It didn't hurt my hunting any, because up until about 10 years ago, I'd taken all my shots inside 20 yards. Truth is I've missed more with a too-tight pattern up close than not enough pellets further out.

I've hunted with lead #4's throughout. It's old school to be sure, but it is not meant to be deliberately so. Those bigger pellets help put down coyotes. In these parts, you're quite likely to have a pair of them come into your calls.

TSS is lead free, it's a handloading only proposition, and it's wicked expensive. It's also completely awesome if you don't like to call birds in close and want maximum killing range.

870 Youth 20 gauge and Federal HeavyWeight 7's for me. That's all I've used for the last several years. My 12 gauge looks good sitting in the safe.

Gonna hafta try this 20 ga. #7 HW thing I keep seeing. Maybe the 10 bore and 12 bore would start collecting dust!!

I use an 20 ga 870 youth with the 21" barrel and load TSS. I drilled and tapped the receiver and mounted a Burris Fastfire 2. I did the same thing for my son. His 870 is the Compact Jr with an 18 3/4 barrel. He shoots the reduced recoil Federal HW #7's. He killed his first bird at about 35 yards with the combo last year. The 20 with the right ammo still amazes me.

A few pics...

How far was that pattern target?
What restriction / make on the choke tube?

Get a good choke, mine like the Tightwas .570 and a SumToy .562-5. The Rem Super Full lead only seems to be very effective also. I added a set of Williams Slugger sights to mine but would like to add a FF3. My gun is solid to 50yds.


42yds:



Another:



Hevi 13 #6's @ 42yds:



Another HW 7 @ 42yds - 16" circle

Indian Creek .555 -- TSS #9's. For some reason, I'm thinking 30 yards on that one? IIRC, that target was the first I shot after zeroing the FF2.

Me too, never got into the super duper camo 3 1/2" blah blah but did carry a double 12 for several years. Now, this 20 gets it done just fine with 2 3/4" 6"s

SAS got me sold on the 20ga and the turkey umbrella, not so much on his calling skills...

The Flitecontrol wads in Federal loads will go a LOOOOONG way !!! Yep.

I've had the Flite Control wads smack a plywood backer at 40 yards while doing pattern work.