Best turkey loads for a .410: tungsten, and nothing else

The short version

There is no lead answer for a .410 turkey gun. The bore holds too little payload for lead pellets to arrive in useful numbers, and no major maker sells a lead .410 turkey load. What exists instead is a small group of tungsten shells with published pellet counts between 282 and 358, and those shells are the entire reason the .410 is on a turkey-gun list at all.

So the decision is narrow and the discipline is wide: pick one of the loads below, buy a choke cut for a .410 bore and tungsten shot, pattern it, and set a range limit you will actually keep. Every figure here is the maker's published data, read 2026-09-26 and linked. There is no buy button on a shell, because Amazon sells no ammunition; the picks are the two .410 chokes and the pattern targets.

If you have not decided on a .410 yet, read .410 for turkey hunting first — it is the page about whether the gauge is enough, and it does not sell you the idea.

The .410 loads, side by side

Why lead is not an option here

A .410 3 in shell carries roughly 13/16 to 27/32 oz of shot. Fill that with No. 5 lead and you have a handful of pellets: not enough in a vital-sized circle at 30 yards, let alone 40. Fill it with 18 g/cc tungsten in No. 9 and Federal publishes 294 pellets, because each pellet is far smaller while carrying a heavier pellet's energy.

The density numbers behind that: Federal publishes HEAVYWEIGHT TSS at 18 g/cc, “56 percent more than lead,” and says the density “allows the use of smaller shot for more than 800 pellets in certain payloads.” Apex publishes its TSS at 18.1 g/cc and states the consequence: reduce the shot size without losing knockdown performance. The NWTF makes the comparison directly, noting that a No. 9 HEAVYWEIGHT TSS pellet carries at least as much penetration energy as a No. 5 lead pellet at all ranges, and that “A 13/16-ounce load of No. 9 TSS has about 295 pellets” — which matches Federal's 294 almost exactly.

Gun makers say the same thing out loud. Savage describes the Stevens 301 Turkey's 26 in barrel as “optimized for Federal Premium HEAVYWEIGHT TSS turkey loads,” and says those loads “have transformed the .410 into a serious gobbler gun.” The full argument, with the numbers, is in TSS vs lead turkey loads.

No. 9, No. 9.5 or No. 7?

In a .410, smaller is generally better, because you need every pellet you can get in the pattern. The published options:

• No. 9.5 (Apex only): the highest published count here at 358 pellets in 27/32 oz. The smallest pellet, so the densest pattern and the least energy each.
• No. 9 (Federal, Apex, HEVI-18, Winchester): the standard .410 turkey pellet, at 294 (Federal) and 282 (Apex) published pellets. This is where we would start.
• No. 7 (Federal, HEVI-18): a bigger pellet with more energy each and far fewer of them, and neither maker publishes the count for the .410 version. In a bore this small, we would want to see that count before choosing it.

Whichever you pick, this is a decision to make on paper rather than on principle: buy two shot sizes, shoot both, count the hits in the vital circle at the range you will hunt, and let the paper choose. The shot-size logic across all gauges is in what size shot for turkey.

What the pellet counts actually mean

A count on the box is the number you start with, not the number that arrives. What matters is how many of those pellets land inside a turkey's vital area at your shooting distance, and that depends on the choke, the barrel and the shell together. This is exactly why Apex publishes its test conditions rather than a bare claim: its .410 pattern data is stated as shot through a Yildiz over/under with a .385 in choke at 40 yards.

That transparency is worth copying in your own notes. Write down the gun, choke, load, distance and hit count for every pattern you shoot, and you will know within one session which combination your .410 likes. The NWTF's 5 Ways to Evaluate your Turkey Pattern and Apex's own note on patterning at 40 yards in 10 in and 30 in circles are the two things to read before that session.

Your .410 needs a .410 turkey choke

Two questions, in order. First: does your .410 even take a screw-in choke? Many .410s, particularly older single shots and inexpensive over/unders, have fixed chokes. If yours is fixed, your pattern is whatever the barrel gives you, and the load is the only variable you control.

Second: if it does take a tube, it needs one cut for a .410 bore and rated for tungsten. There are only two in our registry, and both are below. Note the thread question too — Carlson's publishes separate .410 tubes for different systems, so check your gun against the interchange chart before ordering.

The range limit, stated plainly

Apex says its .410 load turns the bore into “a consistent 40-50 yard turkey gun.” Mossberg says a .410 with TSS loads is “easily handling turkeys at 40 yards.” Both are maker claims about a tested combination of gun, choke and shell — not a promise about yours.

Our position: treat 40 yards as a ceiling you earn on paper, not a starting assumption, and be entirely comfortable setting the limit at 30 yards. A .410 has the thinnest margin of any turkey gauge, and the cost of guessing is a wounded bird. The NWTF's Anatomy of a Miss is worth reading alongside how far can you shoot a turkey, and where to aim on a turkey covers the placement that matters more here than in any other gauge.

The flip side of a short limit is that it changes how you hunt, not whether you can. Calling a bird to 25 yards is the skill the whole site is about: start with how to call a turkey for beginners and how to set up turkey decoys.

Guns built around these shells

Two current .410s are sold specifically for this job. Savage's Stevens 301 Turkey is a 5.07 lb single shot with a 26 in barrel Savage says is optimized for Federal HEAVYWEIGHT TSS, an extra-full choke tube and a removable Picatinny rail. Mossberg's 500 Turkey comes in .410 with a 20 in vent-rib barrel, an extended X-Full choke and an available factory Holosun micro dot, at 6.25 lb.

Both are in best youth turkey shotguns and best turkey shotguns for beginners. The low recoil is the real appeal: a .410 with a tungsten load is the softest-shooting way to kill a turkey, which matters for a young hunter or anyone who flinches at a 12-gauge magnum.

Patterning a .410 is not optional

In a 12 gauge, a decent choke and a premium shell will usually throw a killing pattern even if you never check it. A .410 gives you no such cushion: with fewer than 300 pellets leaving the barrel, a pattern with a hole in it is a miss or a wound.

Follow Mississippi State University Extension's How to Pattern a Shotgun for Turkey Hunting, shoot at the distance you intend to hunt, count the hits in the vital circle, and change one variable at a time. Our step-by-step is how to pattern a turkey gun. Budget three or four shells for it, and count the cost as part of the gun.

Cost and availability

We do not print prices, because they move. Two things that are stable: a .410 turkey shell is the most expensive turkey ammunition per round in common use, and Apex sells its .410 in boxes of 10 rather than the 5 most makers use, which is worth noticing when you compare boxes.

Availability is a real constraint. When we read Federal's store on 2026-09-26, the .410 No. 9 HEAVYWEIGHT TSS was listed as currently unavailable. If a .410 is your season plan, buy shells in the autumn, and buy enough to pattern with as well as hunt with.

Check your state first

A few states set minimum gauge or shot rules for turkey, and shot-size rules vary widely. Missouri publishes its turkey hunting equipment guidance and New York its turkey regulations; both are examples of how specific a state can be, not a national rule. Confirm that a .410 and the shot size you plan to carry are legal where you hunt before you buy either.