Chokes, to port or not to port - that is the question
My personal experience with turkey chokes is limited... involving stock extended offerings from Winchester, Remington, as well as Hastings and Truglo. The ammo combinations are large however, with a mixed bag of results. All the chokes I've tried have worked well, but none of the models were ported. Worth mentioning is that my best found results came from Hastings, their .655 screwed into a Mossberg 12 gauge with a 28" barrel. Not my shotgun, but particularly one I would like to have. We fired that next to an 870, a 1300 and a 1187. The latter all had turkey barrels, combined with a large number of shot sizes & manufactures. They all were fair to good. I can only wonder if a ported choke tube would have improved the patterns. Some of the stock chokes matched or even edged out Truglo's tube, but nothing came close that 28" Mossberg / Hastings combo. If the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow was a turkey, that gun / choke combo would have been responsible for it. So, I ask those who know, how do you find your ported tubes vs. non ported offerings? I'm looking at two right now, one from Trulock and the other from Kicks, the Gobblin' Thunder. Any hands on / knowledgeable posts are appreciated.