Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting 20 gauge Turkey Loads

Hunting partner wants to use his daughter's ex-shotgun. It's a youth 870 with 20" barrel and shot buttock. It's always fit me well and I love the weight, but he's taller and heavier than I. Outside of the fashion considerations, I think it will work well for him for his first time turkey hunts.

Any suggestions for good turkey loads for this rig?

Thanks.

Make sure it has a full choke & then #6 shot. I like Federal's copper plated 3" 1 1/4 oz. CB

WW Supreme XX 3" 1 1/4 oz copper plated buffered #5's modified tube real killers.

Hevi-shot #6 turkey load

Fed HW #7. It can be a fickle load due to the screwy wad. If it patterns with your rig, however, the super dense 15g shot rivals Hevi-13 out of a 12ga and simply smokes anything lead out of 12ga.

I have the same gun/ combo (came with a 21inch vent-rib Remchoke barrel, but also a 20inch fully rifled slug barrel).

The #6 Hevi-Shot would be one of my top choices too, with an appropriate choke determined by putting it on paper!

That #6 H.S. load gives a dense pattern that HITS HARD to as far as 40-45 yards, easily!

Yeah, the 3" Hevi-Shot #6 load is a good load too. The 20ga I use for turkey will generally put 90-100 pellets in a 10" circle at 40yd, which as you note is plenty to handle birds out to that distance.

I've been using the Federal premium "Mag-Shok" load with 1 5/16 oz. of copper plated lead 5's and "Flitecontrol" wad for the past couple of years. It patterns great out of my Browning BPS with the factory full choke tube, putting an average of 12 pellets {out of 5 rounds fired} in a 12 oz beer can at 40 yards. I've killed 4 turks with it so far, the farthest of which was a 21.5 lb gobbler at 42 yards.

http://www.nitrocompany.com/ammunition.htm#top%20page

Get straight #7 Hevi shot, you won't be disappointed!

Thanks for the recommendations.

How about choke tubes?

If going with a Hevi-Shot or lead load, it'd try a .555" Indian Creek first. If going with at Federal HW load with the FC wad, I've had good success with the .570" Tempest choke from Pure Gold.

I fully agree...

I've also had extremely good luck with Rhino chokes but my "Number 1" choice now is Indian Creek with standard wads and Pure Gold non ported for any of the odd ball flite control style wads.

Dawn2Dusk,

Thanks for clarifying my remarks. Anything with the FC wads (i.e., lead or HW shot) will do better with a non-ported choke. I like the Tempest from Pure Gold. In the 20ga, I found the more open .570" version worked better than .555", although YMMV.

Yeah, I, too, have had lots of luck with Rhino. In fact, they are still my #1 chokes in my main turkey rigs. However, when helping friends pattern on my range, I've found that IC is a great place to start as they seem to be more consistent performers from load-to-load.

And for folks who are more familiar with deer hunting and equipment related to it, consider Hevi Shot to be to turkey hunting what Barnes TTSX is to deer hunting, therein' a light 25 cal TTSX acts much bigger than it is (working great on deer) and so does #7 Hevi shot (for turkey, it acts between #5 and #6 lead for turkey). For 45 yards and in, I've not found a better combination than #7 Hevi shot regardless of the gauge and payload I'm pushing out the end of the barrel.

Amen! And, if you want to roll your own, 18g/cc Tungsten is to Hevi-Shot at 13g/cc what Hevi-Shot is to steel at 9.4g/cc. The upside to Tungsten is you can drop down to #8 or #9s and achieve the pattern density and penetration to kill at 70yds. The downside is the cost per shell exceeds $7-8.

I'd like to see a 70 yard pattern.

I'm personally all about the 20 yard shot. My kids tag out every year using B&P 15/16oz loads. Can you hunt as good as a couple of pre-teens with 20 gauges?

Great stuff!! That's awesome!! My son harvested his first deer this year. He'll be heading to the turkey woods for his first time this spring. I'll likely just run a 20ga for him, but I'm also consider working a .410 TSS load with #8s.

I, too, work for and prefer short shots. I even take a bow out a few times each year and kill one with stick and string most years. It's likely you bowhunt for turkey as well given your affinity for the challenge of getting them close. I don't generally use dekes or blinds, although I do from time-to-time.

I hunt in a variety of areas and conditions though. In some places and situations, it's more challenging to get within 40yd of a tom than it is to get within 20yd in others. Then, too, I've had toms coming to me on a string only to get side-tracked by a hen at 45-50yd. That's why I invest time at the loading bench and patterning board as well as through situational practice to lengthen my ability to effectively kill at longer distances.

Working on long range loads has become a shotgun looney thing for me. It's great fun although it can get expensive. I've learned so much about loads and chokes over the past few of years. For example, I've amazed at how much air density and wind affect pattern quality. Loads that look fantastic at 50yd on warm, humid, still days often look pretty ragged at 40yd when it's windy, cold and the air is dry.

To be clear, my ability to create quality 70yd patterns relies on 12ga, 2oz loads. However, 50-55yd patterns are clearly within reach for the 20ga. If willing to limit oneself to 30yd for the 20ga or 40yd for the 12ga, I can see no reason to look beyond standard lead #6 turkey loads and garden variety turkey chokes. Further, pretty much any shotgun with a bead will do fine.

I pitched a bunch of my patterns from last year while readying the house for family and Santa just before Chirstmas. But, I saved some of my 60yd patterns with my main TSS load. IIRC, they are from last June and are in the 130-150 range for pellets in the 10". I'll try to take a photo or two and post them.

Wow. Some great turkey pics with the youngsters. My son is now 47 yrs old. His first shotgun was a cut down Ithica double in 20ga. When he moved up, I kept the little 20ga. Over the years, it has has started lots of young hunters in my circle, including two sets of brothers. In the 35-40 years that I have owned it, most of the time it has slept in some else's home. I still have it. Congrats to you on the young hunters and to them on the birds.

All of these are 12ga loads. However, it does illustrate what's possible. I sold my 20ga to move to an autoloader. So, I pitched all my patterns. I'm very confident that Hevi-shot #7s will get me to 45yds in my 20ga new rig.

Here are a couple of my shots of TSS patterns at 60yd. I usually lose 25-30% center density per 10yd beyond 40yd. Thus, this load will likely yield 90-100 in 10" at 70yd if that holds true. I'm going to continue work on this load when the weather warms.





These are some 2011 Hevi-13, 3", 2oz, #7 patterns at 40yd.





Next, here are some "Old White" Hevi-shot loads, 1.75oz #6 loads. The "Old Whites" were clear hull rounds produced immediately after Remington and Hevi-shot parted ways. From my work, these old loads pattern better than the current stuff. I'm down to about 40 of these loads.



This is a 12x12 target. At 40yd, there are 261 total strikes and 70 in the head and neck. If conditions are decent, this load is lethal to 55yd. Even in the worst conditions, I would confidently shoot to 45yd.

For my son's 870 youth 20 ga, I bought several turkey loads in 2 3/4 and 3 inch to see what patterned the best. I patterned them at 50 yards as our 40 yads target stop was not woking.

I think what worked in his gun may not be the best in yours. When I get home, I 'll check to see load I decided upon, but I believe it was 1 2 3/4 inch load of Hevi-Shot.