Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting Chokes

Over the years I have puchased 6 turkey chokes and yet, not a one of them give me the tight patterns. I get "duck killing" patterns.
What brand and constriction would y'all recommend?

12 or 20?
In my wife's 20, I use the primos jelly head
In my 12 I use the Indian creek black diamond.

I have a jellyhead and it is OK in my 12. I am looking at the Indian Creeks and Carlsons. Just trying to get some opinions. Thanks for the reply.

Don't forget that you need to experiment with several different shot sizes and weights too.
In the beginning I spent hundreds of dollars finding the right load for my shotguns and once I found my load I bought a bunch of that particular loading.
It's pricey but once it's done it's done.
Good luck.

I have a choke/load combo that works but I am wanting a tighter pattern because some of my shots tend to be on the long side. I mainly hunt public land and military installations where the birds get real skittish after about a week.
And you are right about costs. chokes and good ammo are not cheap. And the punishment to my shoulder is tremendous.

TGRIF,
I don't think you'll go wrong with a Indian Creek. I have one in just about all my turkey hunting set ups (6 or 7) and I'm overly impressed with each. One thing I will tell you however is that for the limited amount of shooting you do with regards to turkey hunting it PAYS to purchase some extremely good turkey hunting ammuntion. If you only take shots to 40 yards, you can not go wrong with Hevi Shot #7's! It'll put gobblers down like you can not believe!!! I shoot it now pretty much exclusively in 12 and 20 gauge but I will admit I use Nitro Company's loads but it's still straight #7's...

Most of my shots are within 40 yds but I did kill one last year at 52 yds. I shoot 12 ga 3" Winchester Extended Range with #5 shot. I was using the jellyhead choke at that time. It did take 2 shots to kill him. The Indian Creek is looking better and better.

For some reason my Browing Maxus likes the HeviShot choke with Hevi13 3" #6.

I have never tried HeviShot but a buddy uses the hevishot choke and coyote load. It knocks the snot out of ole wiley.

I like Hevi-13 12ga 3" #6. Call Rogers and they have them for $20 a box. Hevi also has a $10 rebate on their website. Kinda hard not to like it for that price.

http://www.rogerssportinggoods.com/

Dang, I still use my factory full choke out of my 870. I've used 4's, 5's & 6's----killed gobblers out to @45 yards. It's my shotgun that I bought when I was 15 back in 71. It onlu shoots 2 3/4" shells but those "Baby Mags" are plenty.

You know, I have a buddy that shoots an 1100 with a modified barrel and 2 3/4" #5 "duck" loads and he kills a turkey every year. Maybe I need to rethink spending $100+ on a new tube and ammo. Hell, I kill 2-3 every year.

LOL-----That's what I've been using for years. Old left over Federal lead duck loads. I had to buy a box of turkey loads last year----#5's. Bob

I use a Carlson's .660 and 3.5" Hevi Shot Mag Blend in my Remington SPR 453. Also patterns #6 Hevi 13's very well with the same choke.

The Federal loads with Flitecontrol Wad do give you a little more range but they do not like a lot of choke or chokes like PM that "grab" the wad. Mine shoots Fliteontrol 3" 2oz #5's fine with a regular full choke. Given the price of Mag Blend, I will be going back to good ol lead #5's for most of my hunting.

Try experimenting with Tungsten then tell me about cost. I shoot 2.5 oz of #6 Tungsten in my handloads...my cost - about $11.00 a shell. That's why we'll never see Tungsten shot used for Dove hunting. I spent so much on chokes and patterning my SP-10, I felt it was irresponsible of me. But, I got over that and had a great season.

Those XR 5s don't tend to pattern worth a darn from most set ups. You'll find better patterns at range with an ammo swap vs a choke swap. Some of your existing chokes will work just fine with better ammo. H13 6s are great shells. The 3-2-6 is a darn good shell out of many chokes. The 3-2-7 is the one to buy if you have to see lots of holes in the target. And yes, those little 7s will kill the heck out of toms at ridiculous ranges if the pattern is there.

I wouldn't be a bit surprised if you saw twice the counts you have now by the simple swap to H13 3-2-6s and your existing choke.

Didn't know you could shoot hevi-shot thru a lead only choke.

Thought you said you were using a JH? It is HS approved.

Pretty much all of your more expensive chokes now days are.

10-4. didn't realize it was rated for Hevi-shot- Thanks for the heads up.

Get some Hevi-13 and try it through the Jellyhead you already have. If that doesn't do it then get either an Indian Creek BDS or a Hevishot choke made by the same people who make the Hevi-13 shells.

Here is what my 835 will do with a Hevishot choke and either Hevi-13 6's or 7's. Both of these are 40 yard shots counting the number of pellets inside a 10 inch circle at that distance.

First Hevi-13 6's at 40 yards. 200 pellets inside 10 inches.


Next Hevi-13 7's at 40 yards. 285 pellets inside 10 inches.