Ok this is a serious question and this may be because I'm naive, or new to this whole turkey hunting and shotgun world but when I was looking into chokes they were talking about specific constrictions like a .665 and stuff of that nature what does that mean exactly?

It controls the (BB) shot pattern density down range.

Open (IC) - modified and full are the most basic "constrictions".

Open (IC) is the widest pattern & full the tighest.

From there,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, it's just a matter of money.



Here is who I use;

http://www.trulockchokes.com/

First what shotgun do you have? Then as Sheridan said the constriction is the numbers if you are a numbers guy- wikipedia has a nice firearms choke page that explains it better.

There are a lot of great chokes to tighten the pattern and extend the effective range of killing a turkey. The best approach is get a bunch of choles and different shells and find out what works best for your gun. Now that isn't always cost effective. Find one and then pattern with a few difefrent shells- winchester, rems or federal- some like heavy shot too. Shot at 20 and 40 at least and the one that puts the most bb's in the kill zone is there choke and shells you'd like. Shells and chokes react different in each gun. What is perfect for mine may be aweful for yours.

They gave you some great answers. Go to http://allaboutshooting.com/ for a lot of info on chokes and just about anything to do with shotguns.

This is where I got my choke- Great resource!

So I have a 11-87 Sportsman Remington.

Generally an extra-full or any specific turkey choke should be fine. If you're like me and don't have a bunch of money to blow testing all the 9 dillion possible combinations of loads/chokes, then your best bet would probably be to go the "extra full" route and buy a couple different shells to test.

I like to think about it like this... man has been hunting with some form of shotgun for hundreds of years and the interchangable screw-in choke tubes weren't introduced until 1959.

Surely people were out hunting turkey with these guns before the interchangable choke tubes came into play, same with all the fancy loads that are out there.

Use the shell that patterns best out to 40 yards, and start on the cheaper end of the spectrum before buying a bunch of high-end stuff for testing. If a $19.99 Carlson choke tube and a $20 box of shells patterns well out to the "magical 40 yard point," then I would say you're ahead of the game.

To your question .665 is the inside diameter of the choke. The more you constrict the tighter your pattern will be. Typically your tightest chokes are around .660 for 12ga. A tighter choke doesn't always mean a better pattern though. The choke/gun/shell combo will make a lot of difference in pattern density.

Don't over-think it though. Get a .665 Jellyhead and some good shells.

A Carlson's is a low cost choke that works like a chamo in my benelli. I also shoot the cheap remington #5 nitro in 3". I spent $40 on choke/shells and it's lethal out to 36 yards so far. It patterend well to 40 yards and I didn't go in debt on the setup. Guess I got lucky.

besides the actual constriction, you might also find that the size shot you use matters a lot, mostly larger shot shoots tighter in a looser choke, this matters mostly for waterfowl but also may affect your turkey pattern. also it is known that the mass, amount of pellets going down the barrel have an effect. that's why 3" shells in a 20 ga. is a poor performer, one answer, check it out or don't complain when you come home making excuses to you queen. the other answer of course is to learn how to hunt and shoot them up close, choke be damned

cheers