I went out and shot my turkey gun this past weekend. I am shooting a Remington 870 Magnum w/3" Federal #5 shot Turkey load and I am using my full choke. When I shot the turkey head at 20 yards it just demolished it but at 40 the shot was all over and a few in the tukey head. My question is if I buy #4 shot will the pattern size be tighter, or will I need a new choke???
Thanks!!

Generally, in most patterning situations, the smaller the shot size - the tighter the pattern. If you purchase 4's to tighten your pattern, you will not succeed in doing so. Always keep in mind when you reduce the pellet size, you also generally reduce the effective killing range. My rule of thumb is, if your gun will pattern 4's well enough to get a total of at least 12 pellets in the head and neck kill zone at 40 yards, then you have a turkey killing gun. You will likely see an increase in pellet count inside the kill zone with a tighter choke and using 6's, but the question is, do you want more pellets or more killing power. 5's are a good happy medium between good pellet count and good killing power. Sounds like you gun shoots 5's very well at 20yds. I had the same type of problem with my 870 last year. I improved the pellet count in the kill zone at 40yds by simply choosing to shoot high velocity 5's instead of standard magnum. The problem I was having was that I was trying to push to many pellets through the smaller choke. High velocity shells have slightly less pellets per shell than standard magnum shells, but have more powder for faster and harder hitting charges. This makes for a tighter more uniform pattern.

Let us know how it goes.

I like Winchester #6's out of my 3" 870. They work better than Federals and Kents. They've killed all the turkeys I've shot them with. I only get a decent pattern out to about 30 yards though. I use the Remington Super-full choke. I don't think it's a specialized turkey choke though, just a really full one. But who can afford to buy 10 different chokes and try them? Hard enough to try 10 different loads. Would like to try the Hevi-shot from Remington though.

Thank you for your information. I think I am going to try the super-full choke or maybe get one of Remington's chokes that shoot the Hevi-shot. But I can't afford to try 10 different things so hopefully a tighter choke will do.

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I agree DG,

In my experence many times as the shot size gets larger, a bit more OPEN choke will out pattern a tighter choke. I'd try a bit more open choke too.

I've seen this happen many times with shotguns i've owned, but the problem is you NEVER know untill you try it for your self with your OWN shotgun and ammo!!

Drilling Man

I agree with all of the above

Just checked and it's a Remington Turkey Super Full choke. I'm going to try some Hevi-shot in the next couple weeks and see if it patterns the same or not. If so, I'll stick with the Winchester Turkey #6's.