Best youth turkey shotguns: length of pull first, gauge second

Length of pull is the whole problem

A young hunter misses turkeys for one boring reason more than any other: the stock is too long. With a long stock, a kid cannot get their cheek down on the comb, so their eye sits above the rib and the pattern goes over the bird. They also cannot reach the safety comfortably, and they take more recoil into their shoulder because the gun is not seated properly.

Adult turkey guns publish lengths of pull of 13.25 to 14.25 in. Youth guns run 12 to 13 in. That inch or two is the difference between a young hunter who shoots well and one who flinches, and it is the first number to check — before gauge, before camo, before price.

Everything below is published specification. We have not fired, carried or patterned any of these guns, and none of them has a buy button here, because Amazon sells no firearms or ammunition. The picks further down are the chokes and pattern targets that actually change what a young hunter's gun does.

The five, side by side

Only one gun in that table is actually sold as a youth gun. The other four are light or short adult guns that suit a bigger teenager, and we have listed them as exactly that. Where a figure is missing, the maker does not publish it in a source we could read.

The gun built for this: Mossberg 500 Super Bantam Turkey

Mossberg describes the Super Bantam approach in its own words: a 1 in spacer “to extend the LOP from 12 to 13 inches for a proper fit for a variety of users,” and calls it “a great option for smaller statured shooters and women.” The turkey version is a 20 gauge with a 3 in chamber, a 20 in vent-rib barrel, an extended X-Full turkey choke on the AccuChoke system, and a Holosun HS407K micro dot fitted in the combo version, in Mossy Oak Greenleaf.

That specification is the whole argument. Twelve inches of stock fits a 9- or 10-year-old; the spacer buys a season or two of growth; a 20 in barrel is short enough to handle sitting down in cover; and a turkey choke and a red dot are already fitted, so the gun arrives ready rather than needing another two purchases. The 500 action is also the one you can find parts and gunsmiths for anywhere in the country.

What Mossberg does not publish in that journal entry is a weight, which is a real gap on a youth gun. If weight is the deciding factor, the published figures here are 5.07 lb (Stevens 301 Turkey .410), 5.4 lb (Stevens 301 20 ga and the Stoeger M3020 Turkey Edition) and 6 lb 4 oz (Winchester SXP Turkey 20 ga).

20 gauge or .410?

Both work now, which was not true a decade ago. Mossberg's own journal makes the point: “Thanks to the rise of TSS ammunition, sub-gauge shotguns like the .410 are now available” and a .410 with TSS loads is “easily handling turkeys at 40 yards.” Savage says it built the 301 Turkey's 26 in barrel “optimized for Federal Premium HEAVYWEIGHT TSS turkey loads,” and that those loads “have transformed the .410 into a serious gobbler gun, with powerful patterns and minimal recoil through light, fast-handling shotguns.”

Choose between them on three honest trade-offs:

• Recoil: the .410 wins, clearly. It is the softest-shooting way to kill a turkey.
• Cost per shell: the .410 loses, badly. A .410 turkey gun is a tungsten-only gun in practice, and tungsten shells cost several times what lead costs. A 20 gauge can shoot premium lead.
• Margin for error: the 20 gauge wins. More payload means a slightly more forgiving pattern, and a young shooter's aim is the least forgiving part of the system.

Our longer treatments are .410 for turkey hunting and 20 gauge vs 12 gauge for turkey, and the shells are in best turkey loads for 20 gauge and best turkey loads for .410. A 12 gauge is not on this page for a reason: even with a youth stock, a 12 gauge firing a 2 oz turkey load is a lot of recoil for a small frame.

Recoil, and how to keep a first hunt fun

A young hunter who gets hurt by a shotgun learns to flinch in one shot and can take years to unlearn it. Four things reduce the risk, and none of them costs much:

• A gun that fits. A properly seated stock spreads recoil into the shoulder instead of punching it.
• The smallest gauge that does the job. A .410 with a tungsten load, or a 20 gauge, rather than a 12.
• A gas semi-auto, if you can. A gas action absorbs part of the impulse; the 20-gauge options in best semi-automatic turkey shotguns include one at 5.4 lb, though note that a very light gun and a heavy load undo some of that benefit.
• Hearing protection, always. Electronic muffs let a young hunter hear a gobble and still be protected. A turkey gun under a blind roof is loud.

One shell, on purpose

Both Stevens 301s here are single shots, and for teaching that is a feature. One shell enforces one deliberate shot, there is no magazine to manage, and the action is simple enough for a new shooter to safely open, close and check. At 5.07 lb (.410) and 5.4 lb (20 ga), they are also the lightest guns on this page, which matters on a walk in.

Two caveats. The .410 Turkey model's stock is 13.75 in, an adult length — it is the recoil and the weight that make it youth-friendly, not the fit, and a shorter aftermarket stock or a spacer removal may be needed. And the 20 gauge 22 in model ships with a modified choke, not a turkey choke: it needs an extra-full tube before it is a turkey gun, which is what the picks below are for.

Because a follow-up shot means reloading a break action, shot placement matters even more with these guns: where to aim on a turkey and how far can you shoot a turkey are the two pages to read with a young hunter before the season.

Buying a gun that grows

A 10-year-old will not be 10 for long, and a youth gun that cannot grow is a gun you buy twice. Two routes:

• A spacer system. Mossberg's Super Bantam goes from 12 to 13 in with a 1 in spacer. Mossberg uses the same idea across its Bantam line, describing “an innovative 1" stock spacer designed to grow with the shooter.”
• Buy the adult gun and shorten it. A gunsmith can cut a stock and refit a pad for less than the price of a second shotgun, and you can put the length back later. This is the route that makes a 13.75 in Stevens or SXP work for a smaller shooter.

The Mossberg 940 Pro Turkey does it a third way, with a stock Mossberg says is user-configurable from 13 to 14.25 in of length of pull — useful for a big teenager, not for a child. It is in our turkey shotgun picks.

Pattern it together, and set the limit

With a small gauge, patterning is the difference between a clean kill and a wounded bird, and doing it with the young hunter is how they learn what their gun can and cannot do. Mississippi State University Extension publishes the method in How to Pattern a Shotgun for Turkey Hunting; our version is how to pattern a turkey gun.

Then agree a maximum distance out loud, before the hunt, and stick to it — 30 yards for a .410 or a young shooter is a perfectly good rule, and it is the rule that prevents the long, hopeful shot. The NWTF's Anatomy of a Miss and 5 Ways to Evaluate Your Turkey Pattern both give you the language for that conversation. And for a young hunter, a blind makes the whole thing easier: see best turkey hunting blinds.

Youth seasons, hunter education and the law

Most states run a separate youth turkey season, usually a weekend before the general opener, with its own rules on supervision and tags. Many also require hunter education before a young hunter can carry a gun, and some have mentored or apprentice programs that let them hunt alongside a licensed adult first.

Start with IHEA-USA's list of state hunter-education programs and your own state's regulations — Missouri's hunter education page and New York's hunter education program are two examples of how states structure it, not a national rule. Equipment rules vary too: Missouri publishes its turkey equipment guidance and New York its turkey regulations.