The best turkey hunting gun is usually the one you already own

Start with the gun in the closet

Every spring, somebody walks into a gun shop to buy a turkey gun and walks out having solved a problem they did not have. A turkey gun is a shotgun with a tight choke, a pattern you have checked on paper, and a stock that fits the person holding it. Nearly any pump or semi-auto in 12 or 20 gauge can be all three. That is the whole argument behind our guns, chokes and loads guides, and it is why this page carries a choke, a sling and a sight instead of a gun rack. If you have read that and still want to buy a gun, the current models are compared, model by model, in best turkey shotguns for beginners, with the autoloaders in best semi-automatic turkey shotguns and the short-stock guns in best youth turkey shotguns.

Missouri's Department of Conservation puts the baseline about as plainly as a state agency can in its turkey hunting equipment guidance: “12-gauge shotguns are the standard among turkey hunters. Smaller gauges, particularly 20 gauges, are a great choice for young hunters.” On chokes it says “the most popular is an extra-full choke, which gives the tightest pattern. A tight pattern is important in order to strike the vital head-and-neck area.” Notice what is not in there: a brand, a model, a camo pattern or a price.

Fit is what actually matters

Turkey hunting is the one kind of shotgunning where you aim rather than swing. You are sitting against a tree, often twisted toward the bird, holding the gun up on your knee for minutes at a time. A gun that is too long in the stock pulls your head off the comb when you are seated and turned. A gun that is too heavy shakes by the time the bird is in range. Neither problem is fixed by a nicer receiver.

Three things to check with an unloaded gun, in the living room, before you spend anything:

• Length. Sit on the floor with your back against a wall, mount the gun the way you would on a bird quartering to your left (or right, if you shoot left-handed). If your nose ends up crowding your thumb or your arm is fully stretched to reach the fore-end, the stock is wrong for you seated. A shorter youth or compact stock is a far cheaper fix than a new gun.
• Weight, held up. Hold the gun in the shooting position for a full minute. Turkeys take their time. If your muzzle is drawing circles at forty seconds, you want the lighter gun, not the one with the longer barrel.
• Where your eye lands. Mount the gun with your eyes closed, then open them. If the bead is not sitting on top of the rib where you expected, that is the gun and your face disagreeing, and it will show up on the pattern board.

Recoil belongs in the fit conversation too. Turkey loads are heavy for the gauge, and a light gun with a stout load produces a flinch that no optic will fix. If a young or recoil-shy hunter is the one shooting, that is the strongest argument for a 20 gauge there is.

12, 20 or .410

Gauge is the only gun decision that changes what you can do, and even it changes less than it used to. Missouri's guidance is the practical summary: 12 gauge is the standard, 20 gauge is a good choice for young hunters, and “shooting at a turkey at more than 40 yards is not recommended, regardless of which gauge shotgun is used.” That last clause is the one to tape to the gun cabinet. The full head-to-head is in 20 gauge vs 12 gauge for turkey.

• 12 gauge. The most load choice, the most choke choice, the most recoil. If you already own one, you own a turkey gun.
• 20 gauge. Lighter to carry and to shoot. Fewer choke options than 12 gauge, but every maker in our choke registry builds turkey tubes for it. The right answer for a lot of adults too, not just kids.
• .410. Real now in a way it was not a decade ago, and still the least forgiving. The NWTF's piece on whether .410 shotguns are ready for turkey hunting reports that a 13/16-ounce load of No. 9 TSS holds about 295 pellets and that test guns “averaged 125 to 150 pellets in a 10-inch circle at 40 yards.” It also flags the catch for a first-time buyer: “most current .410 bore shotguns come with fixed full-choked barrels,” meaning you may not be able to fit a turkey choke at all. We go deeper in .410 for turkey hunting.

Five checks before you buy anything

Run these five in order. The first two cost nothing and settle most of the question; the last three are where the small purchases live.

1. Does the barrel take screw-in chokes? Look down the muzzle for the notches of a removable tube, or check the barrel markings. A fixed full-choke barrel can still kill turkeys, but you lose the single biggest upgrade available to you.
2. Which thread system is it? This is where beginners lose money, because gun names and thread names do not line up. Carlson's choke tube interchange guide files the Mossberg 500, 535, 590, 930, 940 and Maverick 88 under its Winchester / Browning Invector / Mossberg 500 threads, while the Mossberg 835, 935 and 535 Turkey Thug take a different, larger pattern. Kick's says it outright on its Gobblin' Thunder page: “Mossberg has multiple thread systems that are not interchangeable.” Same trap on the Remington side, where Carlson's guide puts most 870s on Rem Choke threads but the 870 Bone Collector on Remington Pro Bore. Find your exact model on the maker's chart before you order a tube. Which constriction to then pick is covered in what choke for turkey hunting.
3. Can it carry a sight, if you ever want one? Most turkey guns wear a bead on a vent rib and nothing else. A red dot needs a drilled-and-tapped receiver, a Picatinny rail, or a clamp-on rib mount. Vortex publishes a compatible shotguns list for its shotgun sight covering Benelli, Beretta, Browning, Franchi, Ithaca, Mossberg, Remington, Retay, Savage and Stevens, Stoeger, TriStar and Weatherby models, with different screw threads by gun. That list is a useful reality check even if you never buy that sight. Our ranked options are in the best red dots for turkey hunting.
4. Does it have sling studs? You will carry this gun a long way before you shoot it. Slings attach differently by gun, so check for studs before you buy one.
5. Will it feed the shell length you want? Most turkey loads are 3 in, some 3.5 in. A 2.75 in chamber is not a problem in itself, but it limits which loads you can pattern. What to feed it is in what size shot for turkey.

Pattern it before you trust it

A turkey gun is not finished until you have shot it at paper. Mississippi State University Extension's publication on patterning a shotgun for turkey hunting gives the routine that everything else on this site refers back to: 40 yards is “a standard distance among turkey hunters,” shoot from a stable rest, then “lay the target down and draw a 10-inch circle around the heaviest part of the pattern” and count the holes. The publication puts the accepted number at 100 holes inside that circle.

Missouri's guidance adds the reason to shoot more than one load: “pattern your gun with several sizes and select the load and shot size that pattern best,” and notes that “the most common shot sizes are No. 4, 5, and 6.” Two guns of the same model can prefer different loads, which is exactly why no chart, ours included, can tell you your range. The full walkthrough, targets and all, is how to pattern a turkey gun, and the choke that makes the biggest difference to that session is in our turkey choke picks.

What your state says about the gun

What to skip in year one

• A dedicated turkey gun. Short barrels, full camo dips and factory turkey chokes are nice. None of them out-shoots the gun you already own with a good tube and a load you patterned.
• A choke bought before you know your threads. The single most common wasted purchase in this category. Check the maker's chart, not the gun's name.
• An optic on a gun that cannot take one. If there is no rail and no drilled receiver, a dot means a rib clamp or a gunsmith. Decide that before the sight is in the cart, and read red dot vs bead for turkey hunting first.
• The most expensive shells on the shelf, in bulk. Buy one box each of two or three loads, pattern them, and then buy the winner. Scores follow the rubric on our methodology page; your gun follows nobody's.