.410 vs 20 gauge for turkey: which small gauge should you actually buy?

What you actually give up

This is a payload argument, not a velocity argument. A smaller bore carries fewer pellets, and pellets in a 10 in circle are the whole game in turkey hunting, because you are aiming at a head and neck rather than a body.

What rescued both of these gauges is density, not the guns. Apex Ammunition publishes Tungsten Super Shot at 18.1 g/cc against lead at 11.34 g/cc, and the NWTF puts the same comparison at 56 percent denser than lead. That density is why a pellet small enough to fit a useful number into a .410 hull still carries enough energy at 40 yards to break a gobbler's neck. Lead in a .410 does not get there, and that is not a close call. The full argument is in TSS vs lead turkey loads.

The 20 gauge has the same tungsten option and more room to use it, which is the entire comparison in one sentence. The .410 needs TSS to be viable; the 20 gauge is viable with lead and better with TSS.

The published pellet counts

The number worth knowing is the one the NWTF publishes in its own work on the .410 for turkeys: TSS .410 guns averaging 125 to 150 pellets in a 10 in circle at 40 yards. That clears the long-standing 100-pellet benchmark that turkey hunters have used for decades, and it is why the .410 stopped being a joke in this context.

Recoil, and the shooter in front of you

Most people asking this question are asking it on behalf of a young hunter, and the answer there is well established. Missouri's Department of Conservation, in its own guidance on turkey hunting equipment, points young and smaller-framed hunters at 20 gauges. That is a state agency recommending the 20, not a magazine.

The .410 recoils less still, and for a genuinely recoil-sensitive shooter that is a real advantage: a flinch costs more birds than a gauge does. But the trade is a tighter yardage leash and a shorter list of shells and chokes to buy. If you are kitting out a kid, read best youth turkey shotguns alongside this page, and put the saved money into a patterning session and a seat they will sit still in.

One practical note that has nothing to do with ballistics: a youth-sized gun that fits is worth more than a gauge choice. A 20 gauge that is too long in the stock will get shot badly.

Choke choice is not equal

This is the part buyers underestimate. The 20 gauge has a deep bench of turkey tubes; the .410 has a short one, and the first question is whether your .410 is even threaded for a choke at all — many single-shots and older guns are not, which we cover in .410 for turkey hunting.

• 20 gauge: our registry carries TSS-rated and lead-rated tubes from Carlson's, Kick's, Indian Creek and Primos, in multiple constrictions per thread. The ranking is in best 20 gauge turkey chokes.
• .410: fewer makers, fewer threads, and usually one or two exit diameters. The ranking is in best .410 turkey chokes.

Fewer constrictions means fewer chances to fix a pattern without buying different shells. With a 20 gauge you can chase a tighter core by changing the tube; with a .410 you are more likely to be changing the load.

Four tubes, two gauges

Two tubes per gauge, read off the makers' own pages. Note how the published rated-load lines differ: that is the single most important column on this table if you intend to shoot tungsten.

What your state says about shot and gauge

Which to buy

If you are buying one gun for a first turkey season, buy the 20 gauge. It has the payload margin, the choke choice, the load choice and an agency recommendation behind it for young shooters, and nothing about it is unpleasant to shoot with modern turkey loads. The 20-against-12 version of this question, which is the next one most people ask, is in 20 gauge vs 12 gauge for turkey.

If recoil is the real constraint, the .410 is a legitimate turkey gun now in a way it was not fifteen years ago — on three conditions, all of them non-negotiable: tungsten shot, a .410 turkey choke, and a range ceiling set by your own paper target rather than by a box claim. Mississippi State Extension's patterning publication is the procedure; ours is in how to pattern a turkey gun.

One last thing that applies to both: a small gauge makes your setup matter more. Decoys at a known distance and a bird that has to walk inside 30 yards do more for a .410 hunter than any choke, and that is a free upgrade — see how to set up turkey decoys and where to aim on a turkey.

Legal means are a state question as well as a ballistics one — the East Zone in Texas, for instance, is limited to shotgun and lawful archery equipment. The zone-by-zone rules are in turkey hunting in Texas.