The best turkey choke for a Benelli starts with one question: Crio Plus or Mobil?

How we picked

We have not screwed any of these tubes into a barrel or shot a pattern with them. Every tube here earned its place two ways: a maker's published fit chart names Benelli guns or the Benelli thread it is cut for, and the tube scored on the choke rubric in our published First-Season Score — load compatibility 30%, constriction options 20%, thread fit coverage 20%, build and porting 15%, maker guidance 15% — from maker pages read on 2026-09-24. If a turkey choke is still an abstraction to you, start at the guns and loads hub and come back.

Benelli makes that first filter unusually important, because Benelli does not use one choke system. It uses two in common circulation, and the model names on your receiver do not tell you which one you have. So we only rank tubes whose makers put the thread in print, and we say which Benellis each thread covers, so you are not guessing with a credit card. Plenty of good tubes fit a Benelli; only some makers say so on the page.

Crio Plus or Mobil? Answer this before you shop

Carlson's publishes the cleanest split of the two, and its interchange guide is the fastest way to place your gun. The newer system is Crio Plus, where the flush factory choke is about 2.75 in long with the threads 3/4 in from the top, and Carlson's lists the Super Black Eagle 2 and 3, M-2, Vinci, Super Vinci, Ultra Light, Legacy Sport (made after 2007), the current Sport II, Super Sport, Cordoba, Ethos, Montefeltro, Montefeltro Silver and 828U on it.

The older system is Benelli Mobil, where the flush choke is about 2 in long with the threads at the top, and it carries the SBE I, the Nova and Super Nova, the M-1, M-3 and M-4, the World Class, the Legacy (after 2011), the Legacy Sport and the Montefeltro made prior to 2007. Two things jump out of those two lists. First, the pump guns — the Nova and Super Nova, which are a lot of people's first turkey gun — are on the older thread, not the newer one, even though they are sold alongside the SBE 3 today. Second, Montefeltro and Legacy Sport appear on both lists, split by the year the gun was made. The name on the receiver is not enough. Pull the factory tube, measure it, and match it to the two descriptions above.

One more piece of Benelli trivia that saves money: the Mobil thread is shared with Beretta, which is why makers file it as “Beretta/Benelli Mobil.” A listing whose title names only Beretta guns can still be the correct tube for your Nova. Conversely, a listing that names a pile of Benelli models is not automatically right: Amazon titles for Kick's Crio Plus tube read “Beneli SBEI/M2/Vinci,” and the SBE I is a Mobil gun. Read the thread name, not the model list.

The five tubes, side by side

Every value links to the maker page it came from. A dash means the maker does not publish that figure, and the score treats it as missing rather than assuming the best. Constrictions are exit diameters, not the amount of constriction.

Why Kick's Gobblin' Thunder ranks first

Most turkey tubes make you choose your shells before you choose your choke. Kick's does not. On its Gobblin' Thunder page, Kick's writes that “these chokes can be safely used with lead, TSS, or other non-toxic loads,” and that the sizes are “labeled based on the pattern performance you can expect with high-density turkey loads.” That is the only load rating in this lineup that covers both kinds of shell, and for a first season — when you do not yet know whether you will end up shooting a box of lead or a box of tungsten — it removes a decision you are not equipped to make.

The rest is well documented. Kick's Benelli Crio Plus 12 ga version comes in 0.655, 0.660, 0.665 and 0.670 in, plus a camo 0.665. It is 17-4 PH stainless, 4 1/16 in overall with a 1 5/16 in ported section, and Kick's says it is “easy to install and remove with your fingers. No special wrench or tool required.” The ports are the practical upside for a new shooter: a turkey load out of a 12 gauge is an unpleasant thing to fire off a bench forty times while you are patterning, and a ported tube takes some of that off.

The honest catch is the paperwork. Kick's publishes no warranty terms at all — its guarantee page carries none — while Carlson's publishes a lifetime warranty and tells you to mail a damaged tube back for a replacement. Kick's also labels its tubes by thread rather than by gun, so you do the matching. If you would rather buy from the maker that spells out both the fit and the warranty, the Carlson's Extended Turkey is a point and a bit behind at 8.3, and it names your gun on the page.

TSS or lead: the split that decides your pick

Every other tube here is cut for one kind of shot, so buy the shells first and then buy the tube the maker rates for them. On the lead side sit both Carlson's Extended Turkey tubes — Carlson's says “Lead, Copper, Nickel, Bismuth, and Hevi-Shot can be used in any Carlson's Extended Turkey choke” — and Indian Creek's Strike, which Indian Creek says “will accommodate all lead and hybrid heavy loads with shot sizes from #2 through #10” and which sends TSS questions to the shell makers.

Carlson's TSS Turkey, item 38015, is the tungsten answer for a Crio Plus gun: one 0.650 in exit that Carlson's says is optimized for Federal Premium Heavyweight TSS and works with other makers' turkey ammunition in “Smaller shot size 7-9.” Nova and Super Nova owners get the same tube in the Mobil thread at 0.640 in, item 38010. If a box of TSS is already in your truck, buy the matching tube and stop reading this section. Our picks for TSS chokes cover the same ground across gauges, and what size shot for turkey explains why tungsten lets you drop to smaller pellets.

There is a third option worth knowing about even though it is not ranked here. Carlson's builds a Long Beard tube for the Crio Plus thread as well (item 70150, 0.665 in), designed around Winchester's Long Beard loads specifically. It is a one-size, one-load answer, so it only makes sense if you have already settled on that shell — which almost no first-season hunter has.

Which exit diameter should you start with?

Smaller is not automatically better. A tube that is too tight for your shell can blow a pattern open instead of tightening it, and Carlson's says its own chart is “a starting point; there are exceptions for every shotgun and load.” Carlson's does publish a row for each Benelli thread, though, and the two rows are not the same numbers — another reason to settle the thread question first.

Kick's and Indian Creek do not publish a shot-size chart for these threads, so treat their middle sizes as the sensible starting point and let paper decide: Kick's offers 0.655 to 0.670 in for Crio Plus, and Indian Creek offers 0.660, 0.665 and 0.670 in.

Then prove it. Carlson's tells you to shoot at a target big enough to hold a 30 in circle, start at 40 yards, and average three to five targets. Indian Creek publishes a nine-step version: a 4 ft square target at 40 yards, find the center of the pattern rather than your aiming point, trace a 10 in circle there and count the hits. Mississippi State University Extension puts the bar at 100 holes in a 10 in circle at 40 yards. Our walkthrough is how to pattern a turkey gun. Indian Creek also warns that a new tube is likely to move your point of impact, so do this before the season, not the night before.

Fitting it without wrecking the threads

Swapping a choke tube is a two-minute job that people still manage to do expensively, and the Benelli thread confusion makes it easier to do here than on most guns. Wipe the barrel threads and the tube threads clean, then start the tube by hand and let it turn smoothly. Indian Creek's instruction is blunt: “When installing chokes, make sure threads screw-in smoothly and that the choke is completely seated in the barrel. If these steps are not followed damage may be caused to barrel and/or choke.”

If a tube fights you in the first turn, stop. That resistance is the single most useful piece of information you will get, and on a Benelli it usually means you bought across the Crio Plus / Mobil line, or that your barrel is an Advanced Impact. A correct tube goes in with fingers. Kick's says its Gobblin' Thunder is “easy to install and remove with your fingers. No special wrench or tool required,” and Indian Creek says its tubes “require no tools and are easily hand-tightened.” Nobody in this lineup asks for a wrench, so if you are reaching for one, something is wrong.

Two details surprise first-time buyers. Extended turkey tubes are meant to be hand-tightened and not cranked down — there is no torque spec to hit, and over-tightening is its own way to damage threads. And the tube can loosen while you shoot, so check it is still snug after every few shots at the pattern board, and never fire a shell with anything else in the barrel.

What a tighter tube cannot fix

A turkey choke buys pattern density, not marksmanship, and it quietly takes something away at close range. The NWTF puts it in one sentence: “With today's ultra-tight chokes, shooting a turkey closer than 20 steps can be tough,” with the writer describing a pattern the size of a quarter at 11 steps and a gobbler that walked away untouched. The same article gives the sensible window: “Ideally, try to shoot turkeys at 20 to 40 yards, where you're sure to have a good, thick pattern.” Pattern your Benelli at 20 and 30 yards as well as 40, so you know what the close shot looks like before a bird gives you one.

Where you point it matters as much as what the tube does. Pennsylvania's hunter safety course states the rule for shotgun hunters: “greater success is achieved when hunters shoot at the head and neck area of the bird,” because feathers and heavy wing bones can stop shot from reaching the vitals on a body shot. Our guide to where to aim on a turkey shows what that looks like when a bird is strutting, walking or standing alert.

Buyer's guide: your first Benelli turkey tube

Benelli owners tend to arrive at this page from two very different directions. Some bought a Super Black Eagle 3 for waterfowl and are adding a spring season to the calendar; some inherited or bought a Nova because it was the affordable pump on the rack. Both guns will kill turkeys for the rest of your life with the right tube in the end of them, and the tube is the cheapest upgrade either gun will ever get: it squeezes the pattern into the 10 in circle where a gobbler's head and neck live.

Four things to settle, in this order:

1. Your thread. SBE 2 or 3, M-2, Vinci, Ethos, Cordoba, 828U, or a Montefeltro or Legacy Sport made after 2007 → Crio Plus. Nova, Super Nova, SBE I, M-1, M-3, M-4, World Class, or a Montefeltro made before 2007 → Beretta/Benelli Mobil. Barrel stamped Advanced Impact → neither; buy an A.I. tube.
2. Your shells. Undecided, or likely to shoot both → Kick's Gobblin' Thunder. Committed to lead → Carlson's Extended Turkey in your thread. Committed to tungsten → Carlson's TSS Turkey, item 38015 for Crio Plus or 38010 for Mobil.
3. Your exit diameter. Use the table above as a starting point, and expect to test more than one shell.
4. Your pattern. Nothing above is true until your gun prints it on paper at 40 yards.

On budget: there is no cut-price tube in this lineup, and that is a fact about Benelli rather than about our picks. The cheap, widely stocked turkey tubes tend to be built for the Remington and Winchester/Invector threads, which is what our best turkey chokes roundup reflects. In the Benelli threads you are choosing between premium tubes, so the money question is really which maker's paperwork you want: Carlson's publishes a lifetime warranty and a size chart; Kick's publishes the broadest load rating; Indian Creek publishes the ports and the Advanced Impact warning. If you are weighing the two brands beginners hear about most, we set them against each other in Carlson's vs Indian Creek.

One honest note about range. Choke makers publish generous numbers and shell makers publish more generous ones still. Missouri's conservation department, writing for new hunters, says plainly that “shooting at a turkey at more than 40 yards is not recommended, regardless of which gauge shotgun is used.” Read how far you can actually shoot a turkey before you trust any yardage claim, including a maker's. And if the Benelli in the safe is a 20 gauge rather than a 12, the same makers sell the same lines in that gauge — our picks are in best 20 gauge turkey chokes.