The best 20-gauge turkey chokes, and the loads they were built for

How we picked

We have not installed or patterned any of these tubes. Each one is currently listed by its maker, and each was scored on the choke rubric published with our First-Season Score: load compatibility as published 30%, constriction options 20%, thread fit coverage 20%, build and porting 15%, and published patterning guidance 15%. Every number below was read on a maker page on 2026-09-22 and links back to it. For how a 20 fits into a first-season kit at all, start at the guns and loads hub.

A 20 gauge is a real turkey gun, and it is often the right first one. Missouri's Department of Conservation puts it the way most mentors do: 12-gauge shotguns “are the standard among turkey hunters. Smaller gauges, particularly 20 gauges, are a great choice for young hunters.” It also says the shot matters more than the gauge, because you are aiming at a head and neck either way. A 20 carries less shot than a 12, so the tube's job, keeping as many of those pellets as possible inside a 10 in circle, is the same job under more pressure. The gauge decision itself is worked through in 20 gauge vs 12 gauge for turkey.

The five tubes, side by side

Every value links to the maker page it came from. A dash means that maker does not publish the figure; the score treats it as missing rather than assuming.

Why the Kick's Gobblin' Thunder wins in 20 ga

It scores 8.7, well clear of the 7.2 pair behind it, and it wins for the same reason the 12 ga version wins our best turkey choke rankings: Kick's is the only maker here that names both lead and tungsten on its own page. Its statement covers the whole Gobblin' Thunder line: these chokes “can be safely used with lead, TSS, or other non-toxic loads.” In a 20 gauge, where TSS is the thing that closes the gap to a 12, that flexibility is worth more than it is in a big bore.

The rest of the sheet holds up. Kick's publishes 17-4 stainless steel, a diagonally ported extended section for recoil, and installation “with your fingers. No special wrench or tool required.” The Remington 20G version is 3 11/32 in overall with a 1 9/32 in ported section over a 0.620 in standard bore. There are 12 separate 20 ga thread versions, and two exit diameters, 0.560 and 0.570 in, in the common ones.

Two honest caveats. Kick's publishes no warranty terms anywhere, while Carlson's publishes a lifetime warranty on the two tubes ranked behind it. And Kick's names threads rather than guns, so it never says “Mossberg 500” on its 20 ga Invector page, which is exactly the gun a lot of first-season 20 ga hunters own. If that is your gun, the two Carlson's tubes and the Indian Creek Strike all name it.

Carlson's TSS Turkey 20 ga and the Indian Creek Black Diamond Strike 20 ga tie at 7.2, and Carlson's Long Beard 20 ga is 6.9. Those gaps are too small to choose on. Choose on the shells.

In a 20 gauge, the load comes first

Pick the shell, and the tube picks itself. Three of these five are built around a named load or load family, and the makers say so.

• Federal Premium Heavyweight TSS: Carlson's TSS Turkey is “optimized” for it, and Carlson's calls the pairing ideal “for .410, 20ga, and 12ga.” Federal lists Heavyweight TSS in 12, 20 and 28 gauge and .410, and puts its density at 18 g/cc, “56 percent” more than lead.
• Winchester Long Beard XR: Carlson's Long Beard 20 ga was cut for it. Winchester sells Long Beard XR in 20 gauge in #5 and #6 copper-plated lead and claims “twice the number of pellets in a 10" circle out to 60 yards compared to traditional lead turkey loads.” That is Winchester's claim about its ammunition, measured on its own terms; your gun will print its own number.
• Lead and lead-like loads generally: Indian Creek rates the Strike for “all lead and hybrid heavy loads with shot sizes from #2 through #10” and tells TSS shooters to check the shell maker's recommendations. Primos rates the Tight Wad for lead, copper-plated lead and HEVI-Shot, and not for steel.

Why tungsten matters more in a small bore is arithmetic. Writing for the NWTF, Federal's JJ Reich notes that a typical 12 ga 2 oz load of No. 5 lead averages 340 pellets against 717 for the same weight of No. 9 TSS. A 20 gauge starts with a smaller payload than either, so denser, smaller pellets are how it gets to the same count. Which shot size suits which load type is laid out in what size shot for turkey, and our TSS choke picks cover the tubes whose makers rate them for tungsten.

The sizes a 20 gauge turkey tube is sold in

Published exit diameters for these five run from 0.555 to 0.570 in: Carlson's TSS at 0.555 in (0.565 in for Invector Plus), Indian Creek at 0.555, 0.562 or 0.570 in, Kick's at 0.560 or 0.570 in, Carlson's Long Beard at 0.568 in and the Primos Tight Wad at 0.570 in. That is a narrow band, and the smallest number is not automatically the best pattern in your barrel.

Indian Creek offers all three of its sizes in every 20 ga model, which is the most room to adjust on this page. That matters after a range session: if 0.555 in throws a tight pattern that sits off center or a ragged one that blows a hole in the middle, you can step to 0.562 or 0.570 in without changing brands. Carlson's and Primos give you one size per thread, so your next move would be another maker.

What a 20-gauge pattern actually has to do

The target is small and it does not get bigger because your gun is. Writing for the NWTF, Federal's JJ Reich describes the working standard as at least 100 pellets inside a 10 in circle with at least 10 of them in the vital area, and notes that a turkey's head and the spinal column in its neck “represent about 4 square inches.” He puts the per-size requirement bluntly too: No. 4 shot “should connect with eight pellets, and No. 6 should consistently send home a full dozen.” A 20 gauge starts with a smaller payload than a 12, so it needs a tube and a load that waste fewer of the pellets it has. Where that small target sits on a live bird, and how to hold on it, is covered in where to aim on a turkey.

The other half of that is the mistake nobody expects, which is a bird too close. The NWTF's account of why turkey hunters miss is worth reading before you screw in any turkey tube: “With today's ultra-tight chokes, shooting a turkey closer than 20 steps can be tough,” and at 11 steps the writer's pattern was “the size of a quarter.” The advice is to keep shots between 20 and 40 yards, where the pattern is thick but still wide enough to forgive you. Federal recommends the same homework in its own guide to choosing turkey loads: shoot “from 10 to 50 yards and compare the number of hits within a 10-inch circle.”

A tight 20 ga pattern also raises the value of a sight you can actually aim with. Indian Creek says as much about its own tubes: Black Diamond Strike turkey chokes “achieve optimal performance when used with a turkey scope/red dot sight or other optic.” If a bead is all your 20 has, our red dot picks for turkey hunting cover what changes when you add one, and it is worth re-patterning after you do.

Which of these fits your 20 gauge

Thread, not brand, decides what screws into your barrel, and 20 ga threads have their own traps. Take the factory choke out, read the stamp, and check it against the maker's chart before you order.

• Mossberg 500 in 20 ga: Carlson's files it under its Winchester / Browning Invector / Mossberg 500 20 ga thread (TSS item 38008, Long Beard item 70105), and Indian Creek's model #0011 lists “BROWNING, WIN, MOSS 500/9200, H&R, WEATHERBY, SKB, STEVENS 301.” Kick's sells a 20 ga Invector tube but does not name the Mossberg 500 on its own site.
• Remington 20 ga: all five lines publish a Rem Choke version. Carlson's TSS is item 38003, its Long Beard is 70125, Indian Creek's is model #0012, and Primos sells the Tight Wad PS6776 at 0.570 in.
• Winchester SX-series: Carlson's prints the warning in capitals on its 20 ga page: “DOES NOT FIT WINCHESTER SX-2, SX-3, SX-4 or SXP.” Those take the Browning Invector Plus tube, which in Carlson's TSS line is a slightly wider 0.565 in.

If you are not certain which family your gun belongs to, Carlson's choke tube interchange guide identifies threads by the length of the flush factory tube and where the threads sit on it, gun by gun. Five minutes there is cheaper than a tube that will not seat.

The budget pick, and what it gives up

The Primos Tight Wad 20 ga is the wallet-friendly tube here. Primos machines it from chrome alloy steel, sells it at 0.570 in for Remington, Invector, Invector Plus and Beretta/Benelli Mobil threads, and it hand-tightens by the knurled end with no tools. It is rated for lead, copper-plated lead and HEVI-Shot, and specifically not for steel.

It scores 6.2 on what is absent: no TSS rating, one exit diameter, chrome alloy steel rather than stainless, a one-year warranty and no published patterning guidance. For a first season shot with lead out of a borrowed or hand-me-down 20, that is a defensible place to start, and it leaves money for the shells you need to pattern it with.

Buyer's guide: a first choke for a 20 gauge

Buy the shells first, in your head at least

Every real decision here follows the load. Lead or copper-plated lead points you at Carlson's Long Beard, the Indian Creek Strike or the Primos Tight Wad. TSS points you at Carlson's TSS Turkey. Undecided, or likely to shoot both across a season, points you at Kick's. Sorting out which load to start with is the job of TSS vs lead turkey loads.

Check your thread the boring way

Unscrew the choke that came in the gun and read it. A Mossberg 500 20 ga and a Winchester SXP do not take the same tube even though both say “Invector” somewhere in the family tree. Confirm on the maker's own chart, not on a retailer listing title. If you want the general rules for every gauge, our guide to what choke to use for turkey hunting has the thread systems in one table.

Prefer a line that sells more than one size

Your first pattern board session may tell you the tube is wrong for your barrel and load. If the maker sells two or three exit diameters for your thread, that is a small correction. If it sells one, it is a new purchase. Indian Creek publishes three sizes in every 20 ga model; Kick's publishes two.

Do not expect the choke to add yards

A tight tube concentrates what the shell already carries; it does not create pellets. A 20 gauge with TSS can put up a dense 40-yard pattern, and Missouri's wildlife agency still recommends against shooting at a turkey beyond 40 yards in any gauge. Our page on how far you can shoot a turkey works through what the makers claim and what a pattern board actually proves.

The first-season mistake: changing two things at once

New tube and new shells on the same range trip and you will not know which one moved the pattern. Shoot the gun as it is first, then fit the choke, then change one shell at a time. Keep the targets, write the date, the load and the distance on each one, and you will have a record worth more than any roundup.