Home Forums Birds & Dogs Shotguns Whats the Best Bang for the buck in Turkey choke for an 870?

Don't want tp spend a fortune but I do want a good Full or Turkey choke for a 28 inch 12 gauge.
Can you help me narrow it down?

TIA

Bang for the buck... might check out the Jellyhead choke. I have always had good luck with the several Jellyhead chokes I've owned and patterned. I have other more expensive turkey chokes and most of them beat the Jellyhead patterns - but not usually by very much. In some cases not at all.

Factory

I've been using factory full for years, it kills just fine. No reason for me to change.

Thanks I'll see what I can find.

What gun you looking for the full choke for?

I have no empirical data to back this up, so I'm upfront about that but I don't think spending big $ on chokes is needed. I have some primos one that was like $25 or so that I bought b/c I didn't have an extra full factory choke. I've shot 4 turkeys with it and well they all died. I see brileys are like $80 but I can't justify spending the $ only to be let down.

Buy a choke and a few different loads and pattern your gun. It's kinda amazing how certain combinations will yield holes in your pattern. Maybe that's how I missed so many ducks over the years.

Even the full choke on many factory guns doesn't always yield the tightest turkey patterns. My wife's Beretta Urika 12 patterns best with the factory modified choke with most loads.

John,
Have you ever patterned her gun with something like an Indian Creek Black Diamond Strike, Kick's Gobblin' Thunder or a Pure Gold turkey choke? Are you shooting lead or tungsten?

I have never had a problem with the factory full choke. I found that just trying different laods yeilded different patterns.

That being said, I don't turkey hunt with a full choke anymore. I just leave what ever choke I have in from duck season now, usually an IC. I have had no problems killing turkeys. Most of the turkeys we kill are under 15 yards however, rarely do I have to shoot further.

MOGC,

Sorry bot to answer your post earlier, but was gone on a bird-hunting trip.

I've tried several custom turkey chokes and found that while they do usually cluster shot into tinier places, the clusters tend to move around from shot to shot.

Also, for the last 10 years the shotgun I've used for almost all my turkey hunting is a side-by-side German gun with tapered bores and medium-tight chokes. It has whacked the snot out of a bunch of turkeys out to 45+ yards.

In other words, I've yet to fail to kill a spring gobbler anytime in the past decade with a conventional side-by-side with tight chokes. That means ANY gobbler I've shot at. My wife has also killed a pile of birds with various 20-gauge loads, both lead-shot and otherwise.

Which is why I quit screwing around with custom chokes years ago.

John,
Thank's for the reply. I began my turkey hunting in the 80's with either my Remington Wingmaster pump gun or my Browning A5. Both are 12 gauge and have 28" barrels and 2 3/4" chambers. I killed a lot of gobblers with those two shotguns back in the day. In the late 90's I bought a Benelli M1S90 camo turkey gun with a 3" chamber and interchanable choke tubes. I began playing with all sorts of chokes and turkey loads seeking that ultimate 10" pattern. And I got some extremely center dense tight patterns which are great for stretching the range when needed. Problem is for the first time I began to experience the occasional miss on those real close birds. It didn't happen often, but just enough to nag at me and upon reflection I couldn't really remember missing any gobblers way back in the day with my more open chokes. Since I am not "stretching the range" anymore than I ever did I am now considering regressing back to something less constrictive. Thinking of patterning a plain Jane old factory full choke and looking for a more even 20" pattern rather than a smoking hole 10" pattern.

I've had pretty much the same experience.

One thing I might add is that often the chokes (whether factory or after-market) that produce those tiny center patterns often change point-of-impact from shot to shot. This is most obvious with a scope--something I'm not fond of for turkey hunting, but a trendy deal. A really dense pattern doesn't do you much good if the center shifts several inches from shot to shot.

An even 30 yard pattern wins every time. If your factory choke gives it, no sense looking for something better.

I've had really good luck out of the Truglo strut stopper extreme choke tubes. Have tried a 20 remchoke and 12 benelli mobil and really like both. About $35 shipped if you shop around.

I recentl bought 2 boxes of the Hornady heavy mag turkey loads. The box recommends I.C. to MOD. Ounce and a half loads.