Patterned the Turkey Slayer
 

Mossberg 835. Hevishot choke. Apex Ammo 3 1/2 inch straight number 9 TSS shot. 347 inside 10 inches at 40 yards.

Great pattern, but #9 shot seems a little small for turkeys at that range. Lot of holes but how much impact? It still has to go through bone to do damage.

That tss is supposed to be good stuff!

-Jake

For TSS #9 will do it but that is about as small as I would go. If I was to use TSS shot I would go with #7 for turkeys. Stuff is great just too pricey for me. That is a heck of a pattern ya got though!

TSS shot at 18g/cc is so much denser and harder than lead that it is a complete game changer when it comes to turkey shells. I would never shoot this far but number 9 TSS launched at 1100 fps will kill a turkey at 70 yards. The longest shot I had on a turkey last season was 45 yards. Not only did these TSS 9s pulverize him at that distance but when cleaning him later I could not see where a single pellet failed to go completely through his head and neck at that distance. Blood was pouring out of both sides of his head and neck when I walked up over him in the field. You can't judge this stuff by the standards of lead shot of similar size or even by the standards of earlier types of denser than lead shot. Many (like hevi 13) were only a little denser than lead. Pure Tss is waaaay denser than lead. It's a whole new ballgame.

Second...for no smaller than #7's for turkeys.

If we were talking hevi 13 shot I would agree. In fact with lead I'd go no lower than 6's and shoot no further than 40 yards. But 7s in TSS is massive overkill. Most people who reload it shoot no bigger than 8's and most eventually end up using 9's when they learn to trust how awesomely lethal it is. Some people looking to use a 410 shotgun drop down to 10's in tss to get a good enough pattern with those little shotguns. 10's in this stuff launched at 1100 fps are consistently lethal to 50 yards.

Thanks

I never heard about TSS till this thread. I currently use Federal's 3rd Degree, 12 gauge 3" magnums. I'll have to buy me a couple of TSS boxes. I'am assuming that you still need a hevi-shot type of choke? Do you use reloads, Browning or Federal TSS?
Say if you flushed a turkey...
Do you think #9 TSS will penetrate the main body vitals (heart, liver, lungs) of a turkey in flight at 40 yards?

I had not heard of TSS Shotgun shells until reading this thread. Sounds very interesting. I like the thought of using 3 1/2" #9's for turkey. For the past several years, I have use Winchester Turkey XR's #5 with the Carlson choke made for the XR shells. It patterns well out to 50+ yards.

It's amazing what it can do in a .410.

A local older gentleman who is a serious turkey hunter was telling me about his .410. that was the first I'd heard of the tss and from what he told me, it's a game changer.

-Jake