Turkey choke vs full choke: what the .015 inch between them actually does

The short verdict

Nobody here has patterned either tube. This page compares what the makers publish — constriction values, exit diameters, load ratings, materials and warranties — against the choke rubric in our published scoring method. If you are still working out what constriction means, read what choke to use for turkey hunting first, or start at the guns and loads hub.

Side by side, on published numbers only

All three of these tubes thread into the same Winchester / Browning Invector / Mossberg 500 barrel. Every value links to the page it came from; a dash means the maker does not publish it.

What each name actually means

Choke names are not marketing. They are amounts of constriction, measured as how much narrower the choke's exit is than the barrel's bore. Carlson's publishes the whole ladder on its choke tube information page, and it reads like this.

So a turkey choke is not a different species of tube. It is at least .015 in tighter than Full, and often more. Full is the tightest of the general-purpose chokes; Turkey sits a rung and a half past the end of that ladder, past Extra Full.

Same gun, same thread, two different jobs

This is easiest to see when one maker sells both tubes for one gun. On Carlson's flush mount replacement page for the Winchester / Browning Invector / Mossberg 500 thread, the constrictions are published as exit diameters: Modified 0.710 in, Improved Modified 0.705 in, Full 0.700 in and a Turkey constriction at 0.680 in. Move up to Carlson's dedicated turkey lines in that same thread and it keeps tightening: the Extended Turkey runs 0.640 to 0.680 in, and the TSS Turkey tube is a single 0.640 in.

That is the whole argument in one row of numbers. From Full to a TSS turkey tube in the same barrel is 0.060 in of exit diameter. Nothing else about the gun changes.

What that .015 to .060 inch does to the pattern

A tighter exit holds the shot column together for longer, so the pattern opens later and there are more pellets in the middle of it where you aimed. That matters for turkeys more than for any other bird, because the target is not the bird. The NWTF puts the killing area of a gobbler at roughly 4 square inches of head and neck, and the standard every choke and load is judged against is a count inside a 10 in circle at 40 yards. Mississippi State University Extension sets the bar at 100 holes in a 10 in circle at 40 yards.

Neither Carlson's nor Kick's publishes a head-to-head Full-versus-Turkey pattern count, so we will not invent one. What Kick's does publish for its turkey tube is a claim it is prepared to print: the Gobblin' Thunder “dependably delivers a 14-16 in pattern at 40 yards.” A general-purpose Full choke carries no such claim, because holding a 14 in pattern at 40 yards is not what it was cut to do.

When a Full choke is genuinely enough

Plenty of turkeys have been killed with Full chokes, and they were killed close. Three situations where the Full tube in your drawer is a defensible choice:

• Thick timber, short sight lines. If you cannot see 30 yards, you are not shooting 40. A more open tube is more forgiving of a bird that steps into your lap.
• Good plated lead in #4, #5 or #6. A buffered, copper-plated turkey load does some of the work a tighter tube would otherwise do.
• A first season on a borrowed gun. Spend the money on shells and a pattern board before you spend it on a tube. You will learn more from twenty rounds on paper than from a new choke.

One condition applies to all three: prove it. Carlson's patterning instruction is to use a target that will hold a 30 in circle, start at 40 yards, and average three to five targets. Do that with the Full choke and your actual shells, then draw a 10 in circle around the densest part and count. Our walkthrough is how to pattern a turkey gun.

When it is not enough

Past about 25 yards, the case for a Full choke falls apart, and the reason is arithmetic rather than opinion. You are trying to land enough pellets in 4 square inches of neck to break it. Every yard of extra distance spreads the same number of pellets over more area, and the choke is the only part of the gun you can change to slow that down.

There is also the legal floor to respect. Missouri's conservation department, writing for new turkey hunters, says plainly that “shooting at a turkey at more than 40 yards is not recommended, regardless of which gauge shotgun is used.” Nobody is arguing a Full choke gets you past 40. The argument is whether it gets you reliably to 35, and no maker publishes a number that says it does.

The opposite mistake: too tight for the shot you get

A turkey choke is not free of downside, and the NWTF says so in one sentence: “With today's ultra-tight chokes, shooting a turkey closer than 20 steps can be tough.” The same article describes a pattern the size of a quarter at 11 steps and a gobbler that walked away untouched. Its recommendation is a window rather than a maximum: “Ideally, try to shoot turkeys at 20 to 40 yards, where you're sure to have a good, thick pattern.”

So pattern your turkey tube at 20 and 30 yards as well as 40. A tube that prints a fist-sized pattern at 15 yards is a tube you have to aim like a rifle. That is the real trade the .045 in buys you, and it is worth knowing before a bird is at ten steps rather than after.

What each one costs

The price gap is the reason this question gets asked at all. On Carlson's own store, read 2026-09-28: the flush Full tube is $27.50. Kick's charges $72 for the black Gobblin' Thunder and $82 for camo. Carlson's TSS Turkey tube is $66.95. A dedicated turkey choke is two to three times the money.

It is still the cheapest meaningful upgrade a turkey gun gets, and it is cheaper than one box of tungsten shells. If the budget only stretches to one of the two, and you are buying tungsten anyway, buy the turkey tube that the shell maker's choke partner names for those shells — our TSS choke picks cover that lane.

How to decide in your own barrel, in one afternoon

1. Buy the shells first. The tube follows the shell, not the other way round. See best turkey loads for a 12 gauge.
2. Shoot the Full choke you already own at 40 yards, three to five targets, and count the holes in a 10 in circle around the centre of the pattern.
3. Compare that count to 100. If you are close, the Full tube plus a shorter self-imposed range is a real option. If you are nowhere near, that is your answer.
4. Buy one turkey tube, not three. Match it to your shells: lead points at Kick's Gobblin' Thunder or Carlson's Extended Turkey, tungsten at Carlson's TSS Turkey.
5. Re-pattern at 20, 30 and 40 yards. A new tube usually moves your point of impact, and you want to know where the close pattern sits.

If the gun itself is not bought yet, start at choosing your first turkey gun instead. The choke is the last decision in that sequence, not the first.