Turkey Choke and Load help

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abramh

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I use a Weatherby PA-08 20 ga for turkey hunting, and the full choke works great out to 30 yards for the bush hunting I've been doing. In my search for bigger and better things though I got a Carlson .575 extended turkey choke for it with high hopes. I was patterning it at 40 yards though with 4 types of shells, and I was really dissappointed. Really big patterns with holes the whole turkey would fit through. I'm wondering if the choke is too tight, maybe I should try a extra full instead? Any choke or load suggestions would be appreciated, thanks.

Shells I tried, all @ 40 yards. I'm not really interested in a shorter range with this choke, factory full gets me to 30, 35 just fine.

- Winchester Double X High velocity, 1 5/16 of #5
- Remington Nitro Turkey, 1 1/4 of #5 great 25 yd round with full choke
- Remington Premium Magnum Turkey, 1 1/4 of #6
- Federal Premium Magnum Turkey 1 5/16 of #6 awesome pattern to 30 with full choke, probably go to 35 with it
 
Keep trying different shells until you find the ONE. Expensive and time consuming yes but a necessary evil of turkey chokes. My next suggestion will be against all the turkey hunting wisdom and mine included as my 12 ga is choked tight enough that I think the pellets come out single file some days.

Hornaday Versatite Turkey loads. I bought a 18 inch, 20 ga this spring for the grandson to use at the last minute and could not find an appropriate turkey choke in time. My LGS suggested these and I grabbed a box. This is the strange part. Shoot these loads through Imp cylinder choke. My thought "Ya right". At 17 yds the pattern was no bigger than 4", at 35 still more than acceptable. The 12ga didn't even leave the cabinet last spring. One bird at 27 yds the other at 36 and not a twitch. Worked as well as my 3.5 12ga and the whole 20 ga weighs about as much as 3 3.5" turkey loads. Not really but you get my point. In fact the Hornaday's pattern tighter on an Imp Cyl choke than a #4 hunting load on a full choke at the same distances in the same gun.
 
Try a lighter weight load. Every gun and choke is different. I've had custom chokes made designed for 2oz #5 and they work extremely well. However I like my old sxs guns and have found 7/8 oz #6 thru a factory full choke is more than enough out to 40 yards. Best part is there's very little recoil and I just run #6 shot in my hopper instead of the #8 I use for skeet. Except for my custom chokes lighter loads pattern better. Some factory loads have flight control wads which don't work well in my tighter chokes and do great with mod or full. Keep playing and have fun. But I do suggest just trying a normal field load of #6
 
I have some of those Hornady loads, that I shot with a full choke not knowing how they were designed, I've been meaning to try them again. I also have some 1 ounce loads of #6 I will try. Hopefully there will be some new loads to try next spring once the new regulations come into effect, Federal has some good looking loads in #7. Thanks for the advice.
 
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