Very similar story to my old Winchester Ranger that I bought used for $135 nearly 32 years ago. It's really long and heavy but I was the proudest 13 year old in the turkey woods when I got it. Took many many birds with it as a stock gun but began to upgrade as I got more obsessed with turks. Long story short, my original patterns back in the day looked much like those you posted. My patterns today from the exact same gun would leave you shaking your head in disbelief! I'm a proud fan of the redneck rattle can camo that I did on it. Put and Indian Creek choke, fiber optic sights, chopped the stock off a couple inches and added a recoil pad on it. By far the biggest improvement was switching from lead to Hevi-shot. Combined with a quality choke, there is just no comparison to lead. I just recently experimented with the TSS as well and while they do pattern extremely well, not a significant improvement over my hevi shot other than the obvious density when looking at #9 shot. You can wrap up a lot of time and money in chokes and rounds finding what works best for you but that's half the fun to me. I have a couple turkey hunting addicts here at work who I was able to switch off and compare rounds and chokes with, which helps with experimenting. I've taken my entire slam with that old gun and hopefully many more to come. I was in S. Dakota a few years back when a friend snarled and laughed at the old girl while he toted his latest/greatest Remington turkey slayer that he had about a grand in....... until we compared my pattern performance to his lol!! Good luck with your gun.