You're Using the Wrong Choke with Your TSS Turkey Loads

TSS can indeed be lethal past 40, 50, and even 60 yards if choked properly. But what if you intend to shoot turkeys inside 30 yards? Do you need a long-range, tightly constricted turkey choke, or is it better to shoot one of the stock chokes that came with your shotgun? TSS shotshell manufacturers love to show off how many No. 9 pellets their product can pattern inside a 10-inch circle at 40 yards. For some, the result of hundreds of tiny holes in the pattern paper is just as satisfying as a successful turkey hunt.

However, recent TSS pattern work revealed that an open choke may be more suitable—offering a wider pattern—to pair with your favorite load this spring.

The Purpose of TSS

Because it is more lethal than lead, bismuth, steel, and other tungsten composites like Hevi-Shot, TSS has been branded by many as a wonder pellet capable of killing anything it impacts. But that’s not why TSS exists. TSS aims to create pellet-dense patterns that ensure clean turkey kills. If you listen to shotshell experts, they will tell you that an ethical shot on a turkey should not extend past 35 to 40 yards.

Some laud TSS for its ability to anchor a gobbler at 50 yards and beyond. And red-dot sights have helped hunters become more accurate with their turkey guns. But those optics have also given hunters a false sense of TSS ballistics. Shotguns are not rifles. They shoot many projectiles (pellets) all at once; rifles shoot one projectile. Shotguns can never be as accurate.

For example, a few seasons ago, I hunted turkeys with some friends in the Black Hills. The second morning, a tom flew down from its roost across a canyon to a high point 300 yards in front of our setup. As he strutted towards the hen decoy, I got behind the gun, keeping the red dot on him the entire time. When I thought he was inside 40 yards, I pulled the trigger. The tom flopped but quickly recovered and ran across the open field. It took a second shot to dispatch the bird, and thankfully, I recovered it. After the hunt, I walked off the yardage, counting more than 50 steps.

I patterned that gun to make sure it put over 100 pellets inside a 10-inch circle out to 50 yards. But at the moment of truth, I either pulled the first shot, the pattern didn’t perform as expected, or the TSS didn’t impact the bird with enough energy because I misjudged the yardage.

Patterning TSS at Close Ranges

I have been testing TSS turkey loads for several years and have always been curious about how they pattern when paired with an open choke compared to modified and improved cylinder chokes. To find out, I shot a 12-gauge 3-inch 1⅝-ounce shotshell (583 pellets) with a muzzle velocity of 1,200 fps through the same shotgun with five different chokes (two aftermarket Carlson turkey chokes and stock full, modified, and improved cylinder) at 20, 30, and 40 yards.

Once the patterning was complete, I found the center of each pattern and drew a 10- and 15-inch circle. I counted the number of pellets within the 10-inch circle and the number of pellets in the space between the outer ring of the 10-inch circle and inside the 15-inch circle.

In the table below, the first number under each yardage represents the pellet count inside the 10-inch circle. The second number is the pellet count from the five inches between the 10- and 15-inch circles.

At 30 yards, the full choke put almost every pellet in the payload inside a 15-inch circle. The aftermarket chokes are the clear winners at 40 yards, but the full choke produced a pattern that kills a turkey as well. Finding the center of the pattern for the modified and improved cylinder choke was impossible at 40 yards, but I did count 580 pellets from both chokes on each piece of the 35 by 35-inch butcher paper I used for pattern work.

Dissecting the Open-Choke Results

I knew that TSS patterned tightly regardless of choke, but had no idea what an advantage it is to use a modified or improved cylinder choke on turkeys inside 20 yards. If you hunt gobblers in tight cover, having a pattern that opens up is highly beneficial. It can be difficult to get a precise shot on a bird maneuvering around thickets of thorn bushes, trying to find that hot hen you’re mimicking with a call. So having more forgiveness when a shot window opens is advantageous.

The same is true of shooting a stock full choke at 30 yards. Except for a few pellets, the entire payload was delivered inside a 15-inch circle, and 36% of that payload struck the space between the 10- and 15-inch circles. Modified and improved cylinder chokes would also be lethal at this distance. This is excellent news for hunters because they will not need to be as precise with their shots to have success.

However, with a more open pattern comes more responsibility. Some toms come in multiples, and there can be jakes and hens walking close to your intended target. An open pattern makes all those birds more susceptible to catching stray pellets. So be mindful of the birds that are in close proximity to the tom before taking the shot.

Once the yardage extended to 40, the aftermarket turkey chokes performed best, but the factory full still had the pattern density to harvest a bird. The one oddity I saw was at 30 yards with the .675 choke. There was a 200-pellet drop-off from 20 yards. I shot five times from that distance and never saw a better pattern than 291 pellets inside the 10-inch circle.

That is still more than enough to kill a turkey, but is also proof that shotshell performance is never uniform.