Yesterday evening while performing one of the most important spring rituals – patterning the turkey guns, three gobblers sounded off at each shot. How is that for incentive? Yes, I do the patterning ritual every year because there are always new turkey loads and a hunter can never get enough practice. Those loud-mouthed gobblers on the hillside who kept me entertained weren’t the biggest surprise of the evening. It was the Improved Modified (IM) choke tube that performed better than the turkey full chokes.
The gobblers flew up to roost with a lot of shooting light left so; I assume they must have decided to study this situation more in-depth too. As I continued firing away, checking and double checking the patterns on the targets at varying range, those toms would purr, cluck, yelp and gobble in apparent “turkey deep thought”.
A few years ago Federal Prairie Storm, and their Mag-Shok turkey loads, both use flightcontrol wads with copper coated lead got my attention because the good folks at Federal recommend using an improved cylinder (IC) choke. Using IC choke makes it easy to change from regular upland bird hunting and turkey hunting in the fall. Patterns are very good for the specific game out my 20 or 12 gauges without needing to swap choke tubes. These loads raised my awareness of using a more open choke for better performance and accuracy. Still, for spring gobbler hunting my head stayed stuck on a turkey full choke.
Last year a good friend gave me a case of Federal 3rd Degree shells, thank you very much, good friend. This gift allowed me to test them without spending $4+ per shot. While patterning the 3rd degree through a variety of chokes from cylinder to turkey full, I discovered the Benelli factory improved modified shot the best pattern from 10 – 50 yards. The 3rd Degrees put the scatter back into scattergun. A turkey will need to be standing by himself, at least two feet from another bird or there will be collateral taking involved. At 50 yards it’s common for all shotshell patterns to be spread out. The good thing about 3rd Degrees is they are consistently spread into a nice pattern all the way. Nine to twelve pellets were delivered into the kill zone at 50 yards. I might try these during this spring’s hunt.
Thinking about the difference in shot metallic hardness of heavy shot, steel, bismuth, copper plated lead and nickel plated lead a light came on regarding the choke effect on each shot type.
Vicker hardness of shotgun shell metals
- Nickel 638
- Copper 360
- Iron 608
- Tungsten 3500
For decades my turkey shell of choice has been Fiocchi nickel plated Golden Turkey because they pattern well, inexpensive and efficiently kill turkeys. Plus with the moderate price a hunter can practice without breaking their wallet. The thing is my head got stuck on the turkey full choke is the better concept and until now.
Nickel plated shot is almost twice as hard as copper, meaning the nickel should perform better out of a more open choke, in the same manner, steel shot does, this is why I was at the range yesterday with an audience of gobblers testing standard factory chokes from Remington V3 and Benelli M2. With the V3 a modified choke shot best and the Benelli’s improve modified shot best, this was the patterning board surprise. Actually; the second surprise in that I should have thought of this a very long time ago.
Carlson Turkey Choke at 50 yards
IM choke Benelli 50 yards
IM Benelli choke 25 yards
I have no plans to shoot turkeys at 50 yards, my personal limit is 30-35 yards. It’s just more fun to call them in close.
As for the gobbling gobblers, well that is just pared for the course here in Wisconsin. Heck, sometimes they have the audacity to walk in front of me while I’m shooting. Not to worry, though, that reckless behavior ends come hunting season.
FirstBubba says
Hmmm…!
I’m stuck on a “X-Tra” full aftermarket for my 870.
Now I gotta go try my factory issue full and my “mortified” tubes!
…and I thought I was all through with this “turkey load” testing!
Fie upon thee, Charles Elk! LOL!
Charlie says
That will never happen, so enjoy your time on the range.
My grandson is using my V3 with Fiocchi 2.75″ field loaded with 7.5 shot. Modified or factory full produce acceptable patterns.
WRC says
Federal made some changes this year. With their old mag shot loads with the flite control wads, you had to shoot through a NONPORTED choke. Now you can shoot through a PORTED choke tube and still get the same performance.
N.C.L.W. says
As of 2017/this writing Federal says that their new Flitecontrol Flex wad (the one you’re talking about) is throughout their entire line of Black Cloud Waterfowl products. The current lead loads such as the Turkey loads and Prairie Storm retain the original Flitecontrol.
Charlie says
My preference, default, is non-port chokes. I have never gotten my mind around the idea of stripping the wad away early makes the shot string and pattern better. Nor have I noticed any reduction in recoil.
All of Federal’s flight control loads work better out of more open chokes. Usually, improved cylinder works best in my guns.
N.C.L.W. says
PHENOMENAL!!!
This article hits home and touches a lot of bases for me. Just about to get out for a touch of patterning myself. It’ll be Turkey load testing with some Hornady Heavy Magnum Turkey (12G 3″ 1 1/2oz nickel plated #4 w/ VersaTite wad). Had my eye out for some of that to try for awhile and came across a box so was glad to be able to pick it up for testing.
As for Turkeys running to the gun and reacting to the gun fire, here is a story from last year (2016) when I had a shot opportunity in May (during Season) by just such an occurrence. While taking a break from checking about for Turkey I decided not much was on the go for the day and that I’d set up and do some stump shooting with slugs. Between shots I heard much raucous gobbling and such – That bird was coming in!
So I switched gears back into Turkey Mode…
Unfortunately I did miss in my excitement as that Turkey was just about as fired up as possible and on a true displaying tear!!! I was having a hard time getting settled down for the shot, almost too hard not to laugh it up and holler.I was basically falling about the place! Plus it so happened while I was re-positioning myself for a better shot while Moseying and the Bird had come straight in. I’d thought he was roughly 60 yards west of where the encounter took place. Figured I could make it but ended up high and to the left as he went low right behind a large tree. Never did see that one again but he sure had a unique gobble, something funny about it. Heard it again a few times over the next week so I am sure he was fine and uninjured. None the less he did not choose to come at me again!
For me, thus far I am not a fan of porting/muzzle breaks in a shotgun application due to their very low pressures at the muzzle. Normally by now I’d go into some type of typing all about how many of these companies are naming tubes improperly; how they’re modern day shotgunning snake oil, each shotgun is a unique individual and that all that type of thing but not tonight. I’d not want to take up too much space and besides, I’ve patterning to do!
All the more now that federal has changed up their Flitecontrol wad… Shall have to find some ammo from them with this new version wad first though.
In closing I’ll state that I too have had good fortune with Fiocchi loads in the past. Though I have yet to try Golden Pheasant I did take a fine Whitetail with their full power (advertised velocity of 1325FPS) Exact 00 Buckshot load. As per the constriction, I have no clue what the bore/choke aspects truly are in that gun as I have not taken a bore gauge to them to find out.
Happy patterning, Happy Hunting All!
N.C.L.W. says
Well unfortunately for me the local conditions are not conducive to patterning activities at this time. I await the improvement of conditions so I can obtain data that is more comparable to that of the other loads I’ve tested! It’d also be nice to get my patterns back without them falling apart due to moisture and wind…. Would be a great day to Hunt Turkeys, not so much to pattern for them!
A couple corrections to my above post – Meant to say Fiocchi Golden Turkey (Though I have not yet tried Golden Pheasant either yet). The buckshot load is Fiocchi Exacta Buckshot (Exact is a German loading of the Gaulandi Slug from RWS).
Charlie says
Fiocchi golden pheasant loads are excellent for all upland birds. 2.75 inch with 6 or 7.5 are great grouse and partridge late season, they really bust through winter feathers.
Even taken a few turkeys with them.
Charlie says
Let me know how those Hornady shoot. I tried them when they first come out and the pattern was not too good, but they were shot using extra-full choke. Perhaps the more open chokes will pattern better.
WRC says
I’ve also shot the Hornady Turkey loads and wasn’t impressed with their patterns. I’ve had the best patterns with the Fed. Mag Shock, and the Fiocchi Golden Pheasant 3″ 5’s out of my 870 w/ a Xfull factory choke in it.
N.C.L.W. says
Will do!
Was planning on having my range report on the Hornady Turkey #4’s in by now, perhaps a little Turkey Sitrep likewise…. Unfortunately the early part of this week has not been conducive to my endeavors in that respect.
I am not planning on using any type of specialty choke with the load. They’re going through a flush fit Browning factory invector plus barrel of unknown diameter and constriction, nothing too tight though. As mentioned previously – I have yet to get its measurements.
Hope Charlie, as well as all readers, are having a good week. I sincerely hope that it’s going better as per fitting in range.recon time for everyone else than it has been for me! LOL
huntfishtrap says
Very interesting! I have always been a believer in the tighter-is-better philosophy when it comes to turkey chokes, so this is quite surprising to me. Makes some sense though, at least in terms of the hardness of the various kinds of shot. I have never had any complaints about my current setup, so not sure I’ll be switching, but it’s definitely something to keep in mind.
I’ve always used a Remington X-Full choke on my 870, and started out by pairing it with the plain old Winchester Super X 3,5″ #5 turkey loads. They killed a lot of gobblers for me. A couple of years ago I was in need of more shells, so decided to try Winchester’s Longbeard XR loads on the recommendation of a friend. I went with 3.5″ 5s as well, and they did outperform the old Super Xs, though not by a large margin. I can consistently put 8-10 pellets in the head and neck of a turkey target at 50 yards, which is about my personal max range. The only downside is the steep price, but considering I only use one per bird, it’s not that bad. The recoil is a bit stiff as well, but I never notice that while hunting.
N.C.L.W. says
Hahahaa, I haven’t written about it all month but I did manage to get a touch of patterning in after all. Comparing. Haven’t been about online as much as I was this past winter I suppose.
The aforementioned Hornady Heavy Magnum Turkey #4 did alright out of my gun and better than most others, for the purpose of taking Turkey. I do feel they would do better yet with no constriction at all – Straight cylinder bore – at least under my current conditions in this particular gun. Availability in my area may be an issue as I couldn’t find anymore on hand when I last checked.
While I was at it, I did same with some Winchester Long Beard XR 12G 3″ #4 1 3/4 oz. The extra 8th ounce and perhaps slightly lower velocity boosted my confidence in this load just a bit more so than did the Hornady, under my conditions – Under 35yds out of a gun with no Turkey specific accouterments. My confidence was also boosted by good availability of XR in town now.
So both are good loads and suitable for closer shots. That said, it was indeed true that I chose to load the gun with the Winchester while Hunting.
FirstBubba says
I had a very confrontational run in on another blog site about the ammo I use.
As a result, I talked to my vet when I took my big dog in. Her husband is a big hunter and a turkey fanatic.
Sooo….in the works is a set of xrays of the head and neck of three birds.
The jake my wife took and the two birds I took, all with the same ammo.
2 3/4″ Win AA Heavy Game loads with a 1 1/8 ounce load of lead #8’s.
The xrays should be available sometime after the first of June.
Charlie says
Those x-rays will be interesting. I look forward to seeing them.
N.C.L.W. says
+1
You’ve had a great time and contributed much, Bubba!
This is a fine site and helps to stoke up my Turkey fever.
Thank You!
FirstBubba says
N.C.L.W.. I first stumbled into Charlie over on F&S.
I’m still active there, but Charlie’s is by far THE best “turkey hunting” site!
Charlie says
Thanks for the vote of confidence.
N.C.L.W. says
Indeed, great site Charlie! It’s become a favorite that I visit as much as everything else.
I too found Charlie and this website over on F&S. I wasn’t very active there ever and lost interest entirely after the redesign of that site. I still read articles online there but haven’t posted/signed on.
FirstBubba says
Since its their business, I got it set up for just after the first of June after work hours.
That way, we can have time to check each xray as it’s made and adjust to be more informative!
Identifying shot (pellet) locations, bone fractures and displacements and joint dislocations.
N.C.L.W. says
Excellent Bubba,
Looking forward to finding out all about how the X-Ray test goes. None the less, as per whoever giving you flack concerning your load choice – It works for you and kills Turkey as you have a dead one handy – Dead is dead after all!
No clue why folks would bother you concerning your choice of ammunition. Far as I can can, that’s your business and it works for you, no worries, more power (by “power” I mean Turkeys!) to you, Sir.