Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting 20 gauge with lead

And some 62 year old guys have more stainless steel & titanium in their bodies than other guys on account of broken bones & worn out joints.

A lot of ammo is far more effective than paper indicates.

For me turkey hunting is a close range game. A regular full in 20 will easily get a guy to 30 yards. We make things more complicated than needed.

Apex ninja 8.5 tss in 20 ga adjusted after this shot. 40 yds


Longbeard#5 lead in 20 ga 41 yards

They’ll both kill any turkey at 40

Every joint and my spine is inflamed with arthritis and deteriorating. Knees, hips, shoulders, hands. Have had several surgeries and in need of more. Cry me a river. Like I said. People are soft and lazy.

Quit eating sugar & processed meats for the inflammation. Haven't had any for going on 5 years. Fish oil & turmeric daily works wonders for me. But ain't no gettin' around the stainless steel plates, screws, and titanium balls riding in ceramic sockets.

Already on it.

Boss ammunition loads a 20 ga. 3" 2 oz TSS load,, they are 11 bucks a shot, order 100 bucks worth they ship free, so your looking at 22-33 bucks for a season worth of ammo, compared to gas, camo, and other hunting gear ammo is the cheapest part of turkey hunting even shooting TSS

I ran across some longbeard xr 20 ga 6's tonight . I bought my wife some. I set me up a Mossberg SA 20ga turkey gun. Indian Creek. 555 TSS 9.5 shot. This yr i went to a 28ga.

I'm a believer in the Carlsons Longbeard XR choke. I have one in 12 gauge, .665, and it patterns Longbeard XR better than any other choke I have, save the Pattermaster Code Black turkey, which is pretty close. The Carlsons Longbeard XR choke is the choke I'd use in 20 gauge if I were going to use Longbeard XR or Double X.

Dang. Those are showing as 43% off. $36.99 per box of 5. If I wasn't stocked up on Federal #9, I'd get some.

Patterns about what I'd expect with half your shot over the turks head wasted. Think about it and hold lower on the neck. Mb

Mangum Go, what load/shot you referring to there?

Not lazy, just smart. I can load 20ga tss for 3.50 ish a shell. And it is just as if not more lethal than any heavy 12 ga w lead. Plus it weighs 4.5 pounds..

I agree 100% 👍.....BUT I pay the $15 😁.....Hb

No steel in my body and i am almost 60 years old but I dont turkey hunt on the back 40 out of a turkey blind that takes all of 10 minutes to walk to through the open pasture where carrying a 7.5lb 12ga makes no difference, my preferred turkey hunting method envolves hiking several miles (2 to 8 miles) of rugged Appalachian ridges and hollows each hunt so why would I want to carry the extra weight? I travel light with my gear and good lightweight boots are also a must.....Good hunting...Hb

Used to do the same when I got my first 10 at age 17. Probably 10+ pounds loaded up and I never missed a beat in some of the Southern Missouri Ozarks. Got to where I hated packing that thing even a half mile.

62 years old, morning junior! Lol!

A 20ga, using lead, IMO, is a 30 yard gun. Will it kill further? Of course it will. But is further a good shot? TSS sure makes up the difference for a 20ga! I don't use TSS for ridiculously long distances, but that swarm of #9's give incredible patterns and allows the 20ga to stretch its legs a little further. If you look at the price of a single round, do you also calculate the cost of every bite? Way cheaper to just go get a Butterball....

Best to you and to everyone headed out this spring, enjoy!

I will take that 30 yards and in nowadays. I enjoy the show more than anything. I chased those 40 yard numbers with my 12 gauge about 10 years ago.

These days I enjoy the hunt far more than the kill.

In fact the last bird with the 10 gauge was shot at about 25 yards in the timber, couldn't even see any farther. It was about that time I realized even a 20 with a standard field load would kill 99% of the turkeys in my AO. That other 1% will get a pass and gives us another day to play the game.

Not knocking anyone but a $15 load isn't needed to kill a 40 yard turkey.

I remember my grandpa telling me that giving $.80 a shell was nuts when I first got my 10, I would hate to think what he would think about the cost of ammo now.

I'm glad that it's up to each individual what we want to use. The mention of TSS sure steps on a lot of toes...

And yes, the hunt/experience is way more important to me than a kill too.

That statement right there is about as true as anything I've ever read on here. I'm not going to knock anyone on what they choose to spend their money on, as it's their dollar, but killing a turkey doesn't require a lot of expense.

I knew two deer hunters in our community who were total opposites when it came to their equipment. One used a Savage 110 rifle and Tasco scope that he'd bought at Walmart, and whatever shells were the cheapest. The other guy had a custom rilfe built on a Model 700 action, and loaded his own ammo, using whatever bullets were the latest rage. Though the latter fellow had the best deer hunting land, it was the first guy who was by far and away the best hunter and killed the most deer. Why..........because he knew that the equipment was only part of the game.

I have never used anything but lead shot, and have killed a slew of turkeys over the years. I honestly can say that I have never felt handicapped by not using a shell that might gain me 5 yards or so. But, that's just me and my opinion.