turkey load

[cridertj]

My son is going on his first turkey hunt and i thought it would be neat to let him load his own shells to and was wondering if any one had any good loads for a 20 ga. i have some waa wads and #4 shot with some long shot, universal, clays powder if any of these will work.

[rickyp]

I think the best thing you could do is search the reloading manuals until you find a load that is compatable with what you have

[cridertj]

i have looked at it but was not sure if it would be a good for turkey

[Graybeard]

My advice would be to buy him some 3" ounce and a quarter loads with #6 shot unless you are set up to load 3" 20 gauge shells. The most you can cram into a 2-3/4" hull is about 1-1/8 oz and there are not a lot of recipes for that in the loading manuals and they mostly use powders you might not have on hand.

While I sure reload most of my shotshell ammo for turkey hunting I don't.

[Wyo. Coyote Hunter]

  I agree with Graybeard, for turkey, I would buy the best factory shells available. I have loaded lots of shotgun ammo, and only tried my reloads on gobblers once. By the time you developed something equal to the fact. turkey load as far as killing power, you could probably buy enough fact. ammo to last a life time of gobbler hunting. I think the reseach and testing that has gone into turkey ammo is not easily duplicated by the handloader, and maybe it cannot be duplicated by us.

[LHitchcox]

It would cost more to buy the quality components to load for turkey than to buy them. Plated shot and buffering would be needed.

[dakotashooter2]

FWIW I tried some 3" turkey loads in my O/U and HOLY BAJESUS I wouldn't wish those things on ANY kid. Not unless they are shooting a semi auto to absorb some of the recoil. I've shot 2 turkeys with the 20 ga using 1 oz, heavy field loads, In #4s, X full choke and they died just fine. Of course both were spitting distance. Patterning the load is the key.