Choke for Turkey?

[Guyon]

I have a Remington 870 Express with a 28 inch barrel. What is the best choke to use for turkey hunting?

[Dave McC]

There's no pat answer here,Guyon. just some guidelines.

There's extra full tubes out there, both factory and aftermarket, but sometimes, in SOME bbls, a plain full choke will give a tight but even pattern. And, loads can make or break your hunt, there's no hunting more dependent on proper patterning.

Set up at 25 yards, and use a full or extra full for turkey tube. Pattern a few loads,and see what ones produce the best patterns in your shotgun. Then, go to a tighter or looser choke and see what happens.Repeat at 40 yards.

A cheap patterning target....

Grab a sheet of typing paper and a pencil. Make a fist with your non writing hand and lay it on the paper, thumb side up. Trace around it, and Voila! A silohuette of a turkey head and neck.What you want is the load and choke that puts the most legal shot in that area.

Here in Md, only 4,5,and 6 shot are legal. Check your local laws and regs.

I'm no local legend among the turkey experts. My setup uses a Extra full Colonial tube and the Remington Duplex 4X6 load.

I think I have a Remchoke Extra full tube I'm not using. If you want to try it out, E me. No charge....

[Guyon]

Thanks for all the information Dave. I'm going to try my full choke with the target you recommended. If I'm getting good results there, I'll just stick with what I've got. Otherwise, I may take you up on your offer to try the extra-full choke.

[Dave McC]

No problem, Guyon. Quite a few of the turkey hunters I've known have used full chokes with good results. And, lots of Turkey shoot shooters do, and have the forcing cone lengthened also.The more gradual transition keeps more pellets in the pattern.

A lot of the advances in chokes, boring and forcing cone work have been the result of the turkey shoot folks, kinda like NASCAR competition has seen improvements in street cars.

[mjcitra]

Most people use a full choke. You can try the following site and see if they have some turkey chokes that will fit your gun.

http://www.carlsonschokes.com/

The constriction is only slightly less for the extra full choke and turkey chokes than the full.