Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting What is your favorite choke?

All:

I bought a Remington Hevi Shot Super Full Turkey Choke about 15-17 years ago when the Hevi Shot ammo first came out for sale. Anyways, I still have not been able to get a better choke for my 870 12 ga in turkey hunting. As a result, no turkey that was shot at, escaped its wrath. My personal longest shot so far was 43 yards. Though, I have not tried everything out there for sale now.

What do you use, and what is your 'max' effective range for turkey hunting?

RAS

Kicks .660 in the 870 12 gauge with H13 #7's - 50yds

Colonial Arm .570 in my 20 gauge 870 youth and other Fed HW #7's - 50yds


Farthest was Mossberg 835 with StarDot .676 and H13 7's. A new area, some fog and poor range estimation skills gave me a stone dead bird at 58yds.

I have Indian Creek Black Diamond chokes in a Benelli SBE2, and in a Remington 20 guage, and both chokes pattern very good. But, I have a Winchester 1300 3 inch 12 guage with a .665 Hastings choke that will out-pattern both of them.

Indian Creek hands down. I've tried a bucket full of chokes and I'll only buy IC from now on...

Pure Gold .670 combined with 12 gauge 3" Magnum Blends by Hevi-Shot. 50 yards is no problem.
Ps. Personal best was a 53 yard shot (last season).

Those 3" Mag Blends are badazz! Factory Browning X-Full Choke is a killer too.

Jebs Headhunter .655" Longbeard #5's out of my SBE3, first year to use and have t shot a bird yet but it puts the swarm of pellets there.

Used to use Rem 11/87 supermag with Indian creek black diamond and Hevi 13 number 6's, took many a bird in the 50+ range

Primos JellyHead .665 for my Remington 11-87, shooting 3 1/2" Hevo-Shot Mag Blends. 54 yards ranged is my personal best.

Jebs in my Remington 870 20ga with Federal Heavyweight #6

Longbeard XR (Carlson's) in my SBEII with XR 3.5" #4 or the Hevi-Shot Triple Beard Lead (just patterned them this weekend and they shot NICE)

Rhino .670 or .680 or strut stopper extreme .670 in a 835 ulti mag

Rhino .660 in my 11-87 with Nitro 4x5x7 HeviShot - devastating. First time out with this combo I doubled on Rios in central TX - 1 shot, 2 birds at at a lasered 45yds.

Moving away from the 12ga, and have my heart set on a 20ga rig for next season. Plan on using Fed HW #7s or Nitro #7 HeviShot and a Rhino .575

I had a Carlson's Dead Coyote recommended to me about a decade ago to complement the Flite Control Wad of my Federal #4's. I have been most happy with the combination. The gun is quite deadly out beyond my normal operating range.

In my 1187 20gauge I shoot a 560 Indian creek, killed at 48 with no problem with #9tss
In the m2 benelli 20 gauge is a 555 Indian creek, which is the tightest pattern I have. Buddy killed at 39yards with this
In my 870super mag 12 I shoot a jelly head. Farther kill was 64 yards with a 3 1/2 mag blend last year.
I only carried my lil 20 this year as I feel they are just as deadly and lighter with less recoil.

Don't even notice recoil with one shot In the field.

12 GA- Benelli Nova 3 1/2" with Rhino .660 ported and Nitro Ray's 4x5x7 Hevi Shot

20 GA- REM 870 3" with Trulock Federal #7 nonported choke and Fed Heavy Weight #7s.

Both equally devastating on ol' Tom at any sane yardage.

Rhino shooters coming out of the woodwork....

I used to shoot nitro 501l econ load 4c x 5c x7h got 325 to 330 with rhino .680 he went to brown fiocchi hulls insted of red federals and he also sent me bait and switch his 501 copper load, made good when i complained numerous times but pattern dropped to 250 range with his diff components. Now shhot long beard 3.5 # 6 with .670 rhino. Get 274 to 277... working on getting tagged out right now on # 4 bird here on fort campbell as i type this.call shy birds this time of year. Been educated from every call knowm to man. Sitting here 10 yards in the woods overlooking my dekes out in the feild 35 yards out. Stay silent waiting game this late in the season.

This is true but when I can match the performance with a lighter easier to handle gun and save my shoulder on patterning day it's well worth it to me. Not everyone agrees and I understand. I've also learned it don't take a cannon to kill a whitetail, I've killed with everything from 22 to 45 caliber and dead is dead. Hunt with what your confident in and that's half the challenge

I've had a great season, 4 Toms down between the Son and I. After a passed shot due to a range I wasn't comfortable with,

I just spent the morning patterning shells in the backyard with 2 different chokes and 3 different loads, at 40 yards and 50 yards.

First observation, its not just the choke, you need to find the best shell/choke combo.

My Carlson Long Beard choke can't save the Remington Nitro Turkey load no matter what,

Same with the Carlson choke and Hevi-shot Triple beard load, not too impressed over 30 yards.

The Tru-glo choke or the Carlson wins with Winchester Long Beard loads, with the Tru-glo giving me a small surprise at 40 and 50 yds, I had expected the Carlson combo to take all.

Totally agree, I sometimes find myself using/liking the feel of a youth sized rifle or shotgun.
As a matter of fact my wife has a youth 870 20 gauge with an 18" vr barrel I really like carrying in my backpack when I'm hiking

40 yards with a 22" 1187

Holy fuc.... a 20 with tss .... damm

Indian Creek in my Beretta and Comp-n-Choke in my Winchester. Both perform well.

Whatever came with the NWTF Browning Gold I bought several years ago. If not that, then a Trulock Full choke for my 10 ga.

I have a Primos Jelly Head in 3 shotguns now for turkeys. I haven't tried to find a "better" one because I don't need to. I've shot birds now at 49 yards with a 20 and 50 something with a 12. Plenty far.

My longest shot was last year on a my biggest tom. the shot was 55 yards. (I had to look it up) There was almost no chance of getting him closer. I had tried for a while. I was using a Benelli M2 12ga with Primos Jelly Head Choke and a 3" Hevi-shot Mag blend. I do remember that he was very dead when I shot. Not any different than when they were closer.

My longest shot with a 20ga was 49 yards a few years ago. I didn't think the shot was that far, as he was closer when I was going to shoot, but he wouldn't come out of full strut, so I waited. I thought he was about 40. That was with a Remington 870 Express, 20 ga, with a Primos Jelly Head Choke, Hevi-shot #5's.

I MUCH prefer to get them in close because I like the game. Those 2 were the exception. The closest was 7 yards, with Remington Nitro-Mag #5's.

NAILED IT! Yes.

That said, I've had Hevi-shot 13 #5's shoot great in every 20ga I've tried them in. No matter the model of 20ga. I've had some finicky guns/chokes over the years though!

Mag-Blend makes my Benelli look like a slug gun at 20 yards.