Chokes and loads by gauge, explained

Start with the gun you already have

Almost nobody needs to buy a turkey gun. A 12 gauge or 20 gauge pump or semi-auto that takes screw-in choke tubes will kill turkeys for the rest of your life, and the three things that actually change what it does downrange are a choke, a load and knowing what the two of them do on paper. That is roughly the order to spend money in, and the order this section is built in. If you are still deciding on a gun, we walk through what matters in choosing your first turkey gun. If you have decided to buy one anyway, the current models are compared in best turkey shotguns for beginners, with the autoloaders in best semi-automatic turkey shotguns and the short stocks in best youth turkey shotguns.

One thing to know before you read further: you cannot buy a gun or a box of shells through this site. Our retail partner does not sell firearms or shotgun ammunition, so guns and loads are named here for information only, with no buy button anywhere on them. What you can buy here are the parts that bolt on: choke tubes, red dots, pattern targets and slings.

How this section divides

Chokes are the first purchase for most first-season hunters. A turkey choke squeezes the shot column tighter than a full choke so more pellets land in the head and neck. The tubes we score run about 0.640 to 0.690 in at the exit in 12 gauge, 0.555 to 0.570 in in 20 gauge and 0.380 to 0.390 in in .410, as their makers publish them. The whole field is ranked in best turkey chokes, with a separate list for 20 gauge guns, and the concept page, what choke for turkey hunting, explains constriction before you spend anything.

Loads split into ordinary lead, premium lead, and tungsten super shot (TSS). The difference is density, and density buys pellet count: writing for the NWTF, Federal's JJ Reich gives a typical 12 gauge, 2 ounce No. 5 lead load an average of 340 pellets and the same weight of No. 9 TSS an average of 717. That gap is the entire argument, and it is laid out in TSS vs lead turkey loads and what size shot for turkey. If you go the TSS route, buy a tube built for it — our list is best turkey chokes for TSS. The shells themselves, with the pellet counts their makers publish, are listed by gauge in best turkey loads for 12 gauge, 20 gauge and .410.

Sights are the optional third piece. A bead points; a red dot gives you an aiming point on a target the size of a playing card. We rank them in best red dots for turkey hunting and argue both sides in red dot vs bead. If you would rather have magnification than a dot, the four scopes we could source are in best turkey shotgun scopes, which starts with the mounting question rather than the glass.

What decides price and quality in a choke

Not the number stamped on the tube. What separates a budget choke from a premium one, in what the makers actually publish, is material, porting, how many exit diameters you can choose between for your gun, and whether the maker tells you which loads the tube is rated for. Kick's Gobblin' Thunder, for instance, is 17-4 PH stainless, extended and ported, and Kick's says it “can be safely used with lead, TSS, or other non-toxic loads” — one tube for either kind of shell. At the other end, the Primos Tight Wad is the budget tube in our registry and Primos rates it “for use with HEVI-SHOT and lead shot only.” Neither is wrong; they are built for different shells.

The trap that costs beginners money is threads, not price. Choke threads are gun-specific and the naming is genuinely confusing: a Mossberg 500 takes the Winchester/Browning Invector pattern, while a Mossberg 835 or 935 takes a larger one, and Kick's warns flatly that Mossberg “has multiple thread systems that are not interchangeable.” Check your exact model against the maker's own chart before you order, which is why we build gun-specific lists like the Mossberg 500 chokes, the Remington 870 chokes and the Benelli chokes, where the same trap runs between Crio Plus and the older Mobil thread. If you are choosing between the two brands beginners hear about most, we compare them in Carlson's vs Indian Creek.

The mistake beginners make

Buying the tightest choke and the most expensive shells, then walking into the woods without ever shooting at paper. A choke and a load are a pair, and the only way to know whether your pair works is to count pellet holes. The published standard is plain: Mississippi State University Extension says a standard acceptable count is 100 holes in a 10-inch circle at 40 yards. Our step-by-step is how to pattern a turkey gun, and it is the most useful hour you will spend before opening day.

The second mistake follows from the first: trusting a range claim on a box. Ammunition makers advertise 50 and 60 yards for their own loads, while Missouri's Department of Conservation says shooting at a turkey past 40 yards “is not recommended, regardless of which gauge shotgun is used.” Both statements are real, and only one of them is about your gun. We set them side by side in how far can you shoot a turkey.

The rules are not the same everywhere

Legal gauges, legal shot sizes, legal shot materials, shooting hours and whether a rifle or handgun may be used at all are set state by state, and they change. Missouri prohibits shot larger than No. 4 in the spring season; New York allows shot no larger than #2 and no smaller than #9 and does not allow taking a turkey with a rifle. Read your own state wildlife agency's current turkey regulations before you buy shells, and read them again each season. Nothing on this site is a substitute for that.

Where this fits in your first season

Guns and loads come late in the beginner path, and that is deliberate. A bird you never called in is a shot you never take, so if you have not picked a call yet, start in our first-season section and work forward. The setup that puts a gobbler inside your range — the tree, the decoy, the distance you stake it at — lives in decoys and blinds, and a decoy set at a paced-off distance doubles as a yard marker when a bird finally commits.

Then the order here is short. Get a tube that fits your gun and matches the shells you can find, buy two or three boxes, and pattern them. Count the holes, pick the winner, write down the range it holds to, and if you want a more precise aiming point, add a dot and pattern again. For a small gauge, the specifics are in 20 gauge vs 12 gauge and .410 for turkey hunting. That is the whole job: one afternoon at a target buys you more confidence on opening morning than any tube on this page.