Dedicated Turkey shotgun

Beaneater

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Jun 23, 2015
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I want to get a shotgun just to use for turkeys nothing else. Has to be drilled and tapped for optics, 3" chamber or 31/2" and a short barrel. What works and what didn't?
 
I have a Remington 1187 Supermag. It has a thumbhole stock, threaded for chokes, and is tapped for a scope. I have a reddot on it. It is a killing machine. I would feel confident killing a bird at 50 yards with it. Hard to find now, but is everything you want in a dedicated turkey gun.
 
I have a Remington 870 super mag with a red dot scope. With 3 1/2 inch shells I've killed turkeys out to 65 yards.
 
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I had two Remington Versa Max shotguns. One set up for turkeys with a Red Dot type scope, sling, turkey choke, etc. The other was my waterfowl gun. The guns come tapped for mounts. I sold one of them and used the money to buy a rather pricy Trijicon scope for a rifle. It only takes a few minutes to mount the scope and swap out chokes in the spring to make my waterfowl gun a turkey gun. A few rounds to zero the scope, and I'm in business. After turkey season I simply reverse the procedure. One gun for all seasons.
 
Lots of dedicated turkey hunters on another site are going to youth models in 20ga, with the 870 being very popular. Mounting optics, mostly red dots, and shooting heavier than lead shot like Federal's Heavyweight or TSS, or handloading their own with tungsten shot. Some of the patterns they get and shot distances they are harvesting birds are pretty crazy. The like the shotgun because it's very short and very light. FWIW...
 
I use to use my 12ga 3.5" 870 with a 26" barrel that I bought for duck hunting. I love that gun. However, I always wanted a dedicated turkey gun. For this, I bought a 20ga 3" 870 with a 21" barrel. I'm feeding it 1 5/8oz of #9 TSS. I'm getting roughly 300 pellets in a 10" circle at 40 yards.

Getting about 340 pellets in my 12ga 3.5" 2.5oz load of #7.5 size shot.
 
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I have a Remington 835 super mag with a red dot scope. With 3 1/2 inch shells I've killed turkeys out to 65 yards.

You mean Mossberg 835 or Rem 870?

For a dedicated turkey gun short is where it's at...I have a Mossberg 835 with a 24" barrel but before that I shot a Winchester 1300 20gauge. I have since switched to my Stoeger 3500 shooting the last of my Remington Duplex ammo...when that's done with I'll be switching to handloads of some sort.

Contrary to nearly every gun magazine, your dedicated gun does not have to shoot 3.5" shells.
 
Mossberg used to make a couple tacti-cool models for turkey and coyote hunting that had adjustable AR style stocks and short barrels (18" I think), pretty sure they were all drilled/tapped for scopes. If it were me I'd look for one of those, either that or make my own out of a used M500 or 835. Those AR stocks make things nice when that tom comes in from the offside and you gotta shoot wronghanded
 
I use to use my 12ga 3.5" 870 with a 26" barrel that I bought for duck hunting. I love that gun. However, I always wanted a dedicated turkey gun. For this, I bought a 20ga 3" 870 with a 21" barrel. I'm feeding it 1 5/8oz of #9 TSS. I'm getting roughly 300 pellets in a 10" circle at 40 yards.

Getting about 340 pellets in my 12ga 3.5" 2.5oz load of #7.5 size shot.

I'm doing same thing....but I put a kicklite collapsible stock and vortex venom on mine....weighs 5.8lbs and collapses down to 39". With the advances in todays turkey loads...no need for a 12ga in a dedicated turkey gun nowadays
 
I'm doing same thing....but I put a kicklite collapsible stock and vortex venom on mine....weighs 5.8lbs and collapses down to 39". With the advances in todays turkey loads...no need for a 12ga in a dedicated turkey gun nowadays

Don't get me wrong, I still prefer my 3.5" 12ga. There's no comparison to the way it crushes turkeys compared to the 20ga.
 
Benelli 20ga M2 with a Indian Creek choke, combined with the Federal Premium heavyweight shells that have the 5,6 and 7 shot mixture is by far the deadliest turkey setup I have came across. 60 yard shots all day long and its right around 5.5lbs.
 
Don't get me wrong, I still prefer my 3.5" 12ga. There's no comparison to the way it crushes turkeys compared to the 20ga.

Boy I don't know... last yr, I either shot or saw shot, 9 birds using my 20ga and fed heavy weight 7s. Most didn't even flop. My experience with the new improved 20 loads is they are every bit as good as a 12 without the weight/recoil. LOL I cant wait to use the new hand load TSS #9s this yr.
 
If you call in a turkey close a .410 works too.
Been there, done that.

Did you hit them over the head with it, as you better have him in dang close and be right on the button to either cut his head off or miss him with that pipsqueak of a gun! I have a Model 1200 Winchester that I bought in 1967 with a smooth slug barrel that is real short and a 28" barrel that has a modified choke. When I really got into turkey hunting back in the 90s and wasn't using the gun for deer hunting any longer I had the slug barrel threaded and bought a Carlson turkey choke for it. Along with that I had the regular rear sight taken off and replaced with a bigger one with orange for better vision. It's just a 2 3/4" chamber, but with the Winchester turkey loads in #5 or #6 shot it will easily kill a bird at 40-45 yards every time.
 
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Did you hit them over the head with it, as you better have him in dang close and be right on the button to either cut his head off or miss him with that pipsqueak of a gun! I have a Model 1200 Winchester that I bought in 1967 with a smooth slug barrel that is real short and a 28" barrel that has a modified choke. When I really got into turkey hunting back in the 90s and wasn't using the gun for deer hunting any longer I had the slug barrel threaded and bought a Carlson turkey choke for it. Along with that I had the regular rear sight taken off and replaced with a bigger one with orange for better vision. It's just a 2 3/4" chamber, but with the Winchester turkey loads in #5 or #6 shot it will easily kill a bird at 40-45 yards every time.

With the new TSS shot 410 shooters are getting 40 yd patterns that are better than many 12ga's .... 160-180+ hits in the 10". Tungsten has brought turkey hunting legitimacy to the .410
 
Did you hit them over the head with it, as you better have him in dang close and be right on the button to either cut his head off or miss him with that pipsqueak of a gun! I have a Model 1200 Winchester that I bought in 1967 with a smooth slug barrel that is real short and a 28" barrel that has a modified choke. When I really got into turkey hunting back in the 90s and wasn't using the gun for deer hunting any longer I had the slug barrel threaded and bought a Carlson turkey choke for it. Along with that I had the regular rear sight taken off and replaced with a bigger one with orange for better vision. It's just a 2 3/4" chamber, but with the Winchester turkey loads in #5 or #6 shot it will easily kill a bird at 40-45 yards every time.

Yep ...3 yard shot. Only did it cuz some knucklehead was bragging about how far he could shoot turkeys, which doesn't impress me, and also railed away about how a turkey cant be killed with a .410.
 
With the new TSS shot 410 shooters are getting 40 yd patterns that are better than many 12ga's .... 160-180+ hits in the 10". Tungsten has brought turkey hunting legitimacy to the .410

Learned something today---thanks, as that's amazing! I'm with Hem on bringing them in close though and then there is no guessing that he's going down for the count.
 
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