What Size Shot for Turkey? The Answer by Gauge and Load

This is the load page for the guns and loads section, so every shot-size question lands here. The short version is above. The table below is the long version, and every number in it is quoted from the page named beside it — a load maker, a choke maker, a university extension service, the National Wild Turkey Federation or a state wildlife agency, all read 2026-09-22. We do not sell ammunition here and we have not fired any of these loads.

The table: shot size by gauge and load

Two things that table is not. It is not a legal list — your state decides which shot sizes you may carry, and the rules differ sharply. And it is not a substitute for patterning: Carlson's own choke chart carries the line “This chart is to be used as a starting point; there are exceptions for every shotgun and load.”

Why TSS uses smaller shot

A beginner reading that table reasonably asks why anyone would shoot No. 9 shot — dove shot — at an animal the size of a turkey. The answer is density.

Apex Ammunition publishes tungsten super shot as “a 18.1 g/cc density tungsten alloy,” with lead at 11.34 g/cc and steel at 7.86 g/cc, and draws the conclusion on the same page: “when the density is increased, the shot size can be reduced without losing knockdown performance.” Federal publishes its 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.”

The NWTF puts the comparison in the terms a hunter cares about: “a No. 9 HEAVYWEIGHT TSS pellet carries at least as much penetration energy as a No. 5 lead pellet at all ranges.” So a TSS No. 9 is not a small pellet doing a small job. It is a small pellet doing a No. 5 lead pellet's job, and you get far more of them in the shell. The full head-to-head is on our TSS vs lead comparison.

One caution on labels: tungsten does not automatically mean TSS. Winchester's Long Beard Tungsten is published at 17 g/cc, and Boss files its Boss TOM loads under copper-plated tungsten. Read the density figure on the maker's page, not the word on the box.

How to choose your shot size

Work through it in this order, and the decision makes itself.

1. Check what your state allows. Some states cap the large end, some cap the small end. This is the only step that can make an otherwise good choice illegal.
2. Decide lead or tungsten. That decision sets the whole size range: No. 4 to 6 for lead, No. 7 to 9 for TSS.
3. Match the gauge. A 12 gauge has the widest choice; a 20 gauge is narrower; a .410 is a TSS proposition. If you have not settled the gun yet, start at 20 gauge vs 12 gauge.
4. Buy a choke the maker rates for that load. A TSS-rated tube for TSS; a lead-rated tube for lead. Constriction and thread fit are covered in what choke for turkey hunting.
5. Buy two or three candidate loads and shoot them at paper. Missouri's guidance is blunt: “Pattern your gun with several sizes and select the load and shot size that pattern best.”

12 gauge

The 12 gauge has the widest menu, and that is its real advantage. On the lead side, Federal calls the classic 3-inch 1 3/4-ounce load of No. 6 shot “a proven gobbler killer,” and Missouri and New York both name No. 4, 5 and 6 as the sizes that work. Smaller pellets in that range mean more of them; bigger pellets mean fewer but heavier. The NWTF gives a useful way to think about it: to be effective, No. 4 “should connect with eight pellets, and No. 6 should consistently send home a full dozen.”

Premium plated lead sits in the middle of the market. Winchester lists Long Beard XR in 12 gauge in No. 4, 5 and 6, and claims “twice the number of pellets in a 10-inch circle out to 60 yards compared to traditional lead turkey loads.”

On the TSS side, 12-gauge shooters use No. 7, 8 and 9. Writing for the NWTF, JJ Reich — who works for Federal Ammunition, so weigh it accordingly — compares the same 2-ounce payload two ways: No. 5 lead averages 340 pellets, No. 9 TSS averages 717.

20 gauge

The 20-gauge menu is narrower. Winchester lists Long Beard XR in 20 gauge in No. 5 and No. 6 only, against three sizes in 12 gauge. For tungsten, Federal lists HEAVYWEIGHT TSS in 20 gauge, and Trulock's published choke chart pairs 20-gauge TSS in No. 9 with a 0.560 in tube — which tells you what size 20-gauge TSS shooters are actually using.

Because the payload is smaller, shot size does more work in a 20. Boss lists its TOM loads at 2 1/16 oz in 20 gauge against 2 1/2 oz in 12 gauge, so you are starting with fewer pellets. Going smaller and denser is how you get the count back.

.410

The .410 is a TSS gun or it is not a turkey gun. Trulock states it flatly: “28ga and .410 – Don't use lead. TSS is the answer.” The NWTF's report on .410 turkey guns gives the numbers: a 13/16-ounce load of No. 9 TSS holds about 295 pellets, and the guns in their account “averaged 125 to 150 pellets in a 10-inch circle at 40 yards.”

The NWTF also notes a practical catch: “most current .410 bore shotguns come with fixed full-choked barrels,” so a screw-in turkey tube may not even be an option on the gun you have. The whole case, with its limits, is on our .410 for turkey hunting guide.

Tungsten blends and HEVI-Shot: the middle ground

Lead and TSS are the two ends of the shelf. Between them sit the tungsten blends and HEVI-Shot-type loads, and they matter here because they change which shot sizes and which chokes are in play.

Winchester's Long Beard Tungsten is published at 17 g/cc — dense, but not the 18 g/cc Federal publishes for HEAVYWEIGHT TSS. Boss files its Boss TOM turkey shells under “Copper-Plated Tungsten” and lists them in 12 ga at 2 1/2 oz, 20 ga at 2 1/16 oz, 28 ga at 1 1/4 oz and a 3-inch .410. Those are real turkey loads, and they are not TSS.

On the choke side, the blends usually travel with the lead-rated tubes. Carlson's writes that “Lead, Copper, Nickel, Bismuth, and Hevi-Shot can be used in any Carlson's Extended Turkey choke.” Primos rates the Tight Wad for “lead, cooper-plated lead, and HEVI-SHOT” [sic]. Indian Creek goes further than anyone on shot size and publishes a range: its Black Diamond Strike “will accommodate all lead and hybrid heavy loads with shot sizes from #2 through #10” on its 12-gauge product page — though Indian Creek's own overview page says #4 through #10, so treat the wide end as the maker's looser wording rather than a recommendation.

The practical upshot for a beginner: if the box says tungsten, check the density figure and the shot size, then check that your choke's maker names that load type. A blend is not automatically TSS, and a tube rated for HEVI-Shot is not automatically rated for TSS.

The number that settles it: 100 pellets

Counting holes takes a morning and a roll of paper — Mississippi State suggests brown wrapping paper cut into 3-by-3-foot pieces, shot from a seated rest. The step-by-step routine is on how to pattern a turkey gun. What to do with the result, including the honest answer to how far is too far, is on how far you can shoot a turkey.

Matching the choke to the shot size

Shot size and choke are one decision, not two. Two makers publish charts that connect them, and they are the clearest evidence available on this subject.

Carlson's, for its Extended Turkey tubes on the Winchester/Browning Invector/Mossberg 500 thread in 12 gauge, publishes: 0.670 in (item 19893) for No. 4 shot, 0.660 in (19892) for No. 5 and No. 6, and 0.640 in (19894) for card and block shooters. Carlson's calls that a starting point, not a rule.

Trulock, whose chokes we do not pick but whose published guidance is the most detailed we read, matches tubes to TSS: 12-gauge TSS in No. 7 or No. 8 up to 2 oz with a 0.660 in tube, No. 9 and smaller with a 0.650 in tube, 20-gauge TSS No. 9 with a 0.560 in tube, and all .410 loads with a 0.385 in tube.

Four mistakes worth avoiding

• Buying the biggest shot you can find. New York's DEC states it plainly: “smaller shot, no. 4, 5, and 6, work better than larger shot, due to denser shot patterns.” Buckshot is neither legal nor sensible for turkeys, and no turkey choke is rated for it.
• Putting TSS through a lead-rated tube. Carlson's sells separate lines for a reason, and Indian Creek tells TSS shooters to “check the shell manufacturers' website (i.e. Nitro, Apex, Federal) for their recommendations with our choke tubes.”
• Shooting steel through a turkey choke. Carlson's: never larger than #4 steel through any turkey choke. Primos says the Tight Wad is “not designed to shoot steel shot” at all, and Patternmaster says its tube is “NOT safe for use with steel shot.”
• Changing anything after you pattern. The NWTF's patterning advice covers this: every time you change choke, shell brand, shot size or sighting system, “the pattern will most certainly change.” Pattern the exact combination you will hunt.

Legal shot sizes vary by state

Everything above is read off published pages and scored with the bands at how we pick. If a number is not on this page, it is because we could not find a maker or an agency who published it.