Best turkey loads for a Mossberg 835, and what the back-bored barrel changes

The short version

The Mossberg 835 Ulti-Mag was built to be a 3.5 in turkey and waterfowl pump gun, and it remains one of the most common first turkey guns in the country. Because it is over-bored, choosing a load for it is really two decisions at once: the shell, and the choke that shell needs in a bigger-than-standard barrel.

The shell decision splits the same way it does in any 12 gauge:

• Tungsten (TSS and HEAVYWEIGHT TSS). Denser than lead, so a smaller pellet carries the same energy and you get far more of them in the shell. Expensive.
• Premium lead (copper-plated, buffered). Bigger pellets, fewer of them, at a fraction of the cost. Proven inside 40 yards for a century.

Everything below is published maker data, read on 2026-09-28 and linked. What is not here is a buy button on a shell: Amazon does not sell ammunition, so shells on this site are editorial references only. The buy links further down are the chokes and pattern targets that decide what any of these shells does out of your barrel.

The 835's bore is the whole story

Kick's publishes the number that explains this entire page. On its Mossberg Ultimag Gobblin' Thunder page, the standard bore size for the 835 thread is listed as .775 in. For comparison, Kick's lists .730 in for the Remington 12 ga thread and .743 in for Invector Plus. The 835 barrel is wider than either.

That matters twice. First, a wider bore means the shot column starts out wider, which is part of why Mossberg marketed over-boring as gentler on pellets. Second, every choke constriction for the 835 has to be larger to end up at the same amount of squeeze: Carlson's TSS tube is 0.640 in for the Mossberg 500 thread and 0.675 in for the 835/935, and its Long Beard tube is 0.683 in in the 835 thread. Same tubes, same names, different numbers, because the barrel is different.

Six 12-gauge loads that fit an 835, side by side

Two things jump out of that table. The heaviest payload here is a tungsten blend at 2 1/2 oz and only 1,000 fps — Federal trades speed for pellets. And Winchester's own 3.5 in lead loads come in two flavours: 2 oz at 1,200 fps or 2 1/8 oz at 1,050 fps. More payload costs velocity in both families, which is the trade nobody advertises.

Is the 3.5 inch shell actually worth it in an 835?

The 835 can shoot them, which is not the same as needing to. Compare Federal's own 3 in and 3.5 in TSS loads from the table: 1 3/4 oz at 1,200 fps against 2 1/4 oz at 1,200 fps. That is half an ounce more tungsten at the same speed — a real increase in pellet count, paid for with a noticeably harder push on your shoulder and a higher price per shell.

For a first season, we would shoot the 3 in loads. The reason is not a pattern argument, it is a flinch argument: you will pattern the gun properly if each shot does not hurt, and a properly patterned 3 in load beats an unpatterned 3.5 in one every time. Keep the 3.5 in chamber as the reason you can buy either, not as an obligation.

The tungsten loads

Federal's HEAVYWEIGHT TSS line is the reference point, and Federal states plainly that its “high-density TSS allows the use of smaller shot for more than 800 pellets in certain payloads.” The practical effect is that No. 9 tungsten hits with the authority of much larger lead, so you can put hundreds of pellets into the 10 in circle instead of dozens.

The cost is the catch, and it is a big one: tungsten turkey shells run several dollars a round. If you are shooting your first season, buy one box, pattern three shells, and hunt with the rest. Our TSS vs lead comparison works through whether the upgrade is worth it at all for a beginner, and what size shot for turkey explains why tungsten lets you drop to smaller pellets in the first place.

The lead loads, and why they still sell

Winchester's Long Beard XR is the lead load that changed the conversation, and Winchester publishes what it thinks the technology does: “Shot launches from barrel near perfectly round for extremely tight long-range patterns,” with a claim of twice the pellets in a 10 in circle out to 60 yards versus standard lead loads. Treat the 60 yard figure the way you would treat any maker's number — as a marketing claim from a company selling shells — and note that the pellet-integrity mechanism is real and well documented.

There is a second reason lead makes sense in an 835 specifically: Carlson's cut a choke for it. The Long Beard tube in the 835 thread, item 70160 at 0.683 in, is “specially designed to produce the best patterns when shooting Winchester's New Long Beard Turkey loads.” A named shell with a named tube in your gun's thread is as close to a solved problem as turkey hunting gets.

The choke has to match the load, and the bore

Carlson's sells five different turkey tubes in the Mossberg 835/935 thread, and they are not interchangeable in purpose:

If you want one tube and have not committed to a shell family, the Bone Collector is the honest answer: it is the only one in this thread whose maker rates it for lead, nickel-plated, copper-plated, bismuth, HEVI-Shot, tungsten and TSS in shot sizes #4 through #10. If you have committed, buy the cheaper specialist tube instead. And if you want room to experiment, Kick's Ulti-Mag Gobblin' Thunder offers four exit diameters (0.670, 0.675, 0.680, 0.685 in) where Carlson's offers one.

Recoil in a 7 lb pump gun is a real variable

An 835 is a pump gun, which means nothing absorbs recoil except you. Put a 2 1/4 oz load through it and you will feel every bit of it. That is an accuracy problem as much as a comfort one: a flinch moves the bead, and a turkey's neck is 4 square inches of target.

Two of the tubes above do something about it. Carlson's Bone Collector and its Ported Turkey are both ported, and Carlson's says the ports allow gases to escape quickly, reducing recoil and muzzle jump. Kick's builds its Ulti-Mag tube with an “extended choke with diagonally-ported design for recoil reduction,” with a 1 1/2 in ported section on a 4 5/16 in body. None of them will turn 3.5 in shells into 20 gauge shells, but ported tubes plus 3 in loads is a combination a new hunter can actually shoot well.

Then prove it on paper

Carlson's patterning instruction is a target big enough to hold a 30 in circle, starting at 40 yards, averaged over three to five targets. Indian Creek publishes a nine-step version: a 4 ft square target at 40 yards, find the centre 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.

Pattern at 20 and 30 yards as well. The NWTF warns that “with today's ultra-tight chokes, shooting a turkey closer than 20 steps can be tough,” and recommends a 20 to 40 yard window. Our step-by-step is how to pattern a turkey gun.

The Mossberg thread trap, stated plainly

This is the single most expensive mistake an 835 owner makes. Carlson's files the “Mossberg 535 Turkey Thug, 835, 935 Shotguns” on its own thread, completely separate from the Mossberg 500, 510, 535, 590, 930, 940, 1000, 5500, 9200 and Maverick 88. Kick's says it in one line: “Mossberg has multiple thread systems that are not interchangeable.”

So a tube sold for a Mossberg 500 is not a tube for your 835, even though both say Mossberg on the box. If you own both guns, mark the tubes. Our Mossberg 500 choke page covers the other side of that split.

Shot rules vary by state

What you may legally shoot at a turkey is set by your state wildlife agency, not by the shell maker. Missouri prohibits shot larger than No. 4 for turkey hunting. New York allows “shot no larger than #2 and no smaller than #9.” Those two rules alone rule different shells in and out of the table above. Check your own state's current turkey regulations before you buy a box to pattern.

And on range: 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.” A 3.5 in shell out of an 835 does not change that. Read how far you can actually shoot a turkey before you trust any yardage claim.