Turkey loads?

There is a load book offered by Ballistic Products called the Turkey Ranger Data, runs about $3 from them. You might give them a shout and see if they offer a load in that manual that will suit your needs. Another option, but expensive is to contact Nitro and try some of their offerings and then attempt to recreate. They are using BP components, out of the one load that I tried, I did not find a wad, just the parts of the teflon sleeve. I haven't wanted to tear open one of these shells as they run $3 ea. We shot 4 shells, 2 were the Nitro 2.25 oz 3" 4,5,7.5. Found wads from a Remington factory shell and a Nitro Nickle 5's, but none from the other 2. If they used a card or spacer along with the teflon sleeves they would be increasing the volume of the hull by the amount taken up by the shotcup and cushion on the wad.I'm not suggesting anyone try this on their own, but further checking into the Nitro process could get you the extra pellets that you want.

Excellent run on on this subject! Now.......With the repopulation of the wild turkey in the States, an entire new market has evolved! Everyone....gun makers, ammo makers, choke tube makers, etc. are all jumping on this markets to cut out a share. This has caused a great deal of pure old Bull to be floating around! The worst of all is the syndicated writers pushing sale on the Freebies and whatever the largest advetisers are selling. Somewhere in all this hype are the facts. Some of you might not like what I say, but having been around it for a long time, I'm sick of seeing this bull pushed on shooters.First of all.....Today's writers would have you believe it takes a connon to kill a turkey. Over the 50 years I have hunted turkey, I find it a wonderment that we killed some many with a 12 ga. 12 2 3/4" loaded with 1 1/4oz. of #5's. If a shooter holds his shots under 35 yards, all he needs is a standard 3 3/4-1 1/4-#5 load. The problem in the past was having enough choke constriction. Now the problem is overchoke. When one goes to more than .030" constriction, a new set of rules come into play. My favorite turkey gun (used also for test) is a 12 ga. 3"- 30"VR - BPS pump - with .740" barrel and a .040" constriction in the turkey tube......but this is a specialized long range gun and hundreds of loads/patterns were tested before I finished.I would be interested in the constriction in gun in question. I have found that when the constriction reached .035" plus.....the wall thickness of your wad must be reduced.Forget those "Turkey Head" targets, move out to 40 yards, and test your average number of pellets in a 10" circle. If the shot is closer in...great, but you really can't tell much about the pattern in close.When I first talked to Jay about this Reloading Catagory....I mentioned I want to see a broad subject base. We will be dicussing many interesting things we have been testing (reloading)....long range specialized loads, slugs for both smooth and rifled barrels, single and multi-balls loads, the relationship of wad wall thickness to barrel constriction, the use of Ms Moly sprayed on your wads, various shot. and many more. All are things the serious relaoder can play with! Let's all jump in on these! Best Regards, James

This is an excellent thread and shows that there are some "iffy" areas. One is, It is not important how much shot is in the shell, but rather how many shot the shell puts in a 10" circle at 40 to 50 yards. Second, one must understand that the smaller pellets run out of energy much faster than larger ones. It is a fad today to talk about head shots close in, but......that's counting on a perfect situation. Most of us tend to misjudge distance. #6's run out of 3 lbs of energy between 20 yards (3.49) and 40 yards (2.23) at 1200 fps (faster than most magnum loads). If.....all shots taken were inside of 30 yards, everything would be fine.Years ago, I too believed in multple hits with small shot. I soon realized that a mis-judgement is distance caused a "dusted" bird, only to die later. Penetration is of prime important, in both the turkey and geese. Please study your energy tables vs velocity....test your loads penetration on stacked pieces of cardboard. Best Regards, James

TO ALL

With respect to turkey loads. I have a number of 12 ga 3 inch guns, 12 ga 31/2 and 10 ga guns and every one will kill bird effectively at 60 yards with all being CLEAN kills, rolls them right over. THe key is the choke tube and the load.

The choke tube for 12 ga. typically a 0.655
for 12 31/2. typicall a 0.660
for 10 ga, typically a 0.680
But this is all different depending on your gun. A kicks or a Rhino tube are better and are more $$, but are worth it. Most of the time you can read their recommended tubes for you gun.

My Remington, Browning and Beretta, and hastings are all good guns, BUt MOSSBERG SUCKS as far as comparing pattern density at 50 yards. THe gun is just not good and the barrels simply are not polished as well.

Second, to realy shoot a cannon, absolutely the best shells I have found, I cannot reload my self or find in a store. For turkey hunting, I always go to web page "NITROAMMO". For all other hunting, I load my self, but I cannot find loading data for Nitro Rays's loads.

I currently shoot a 12 ga 3 1/2 inch berreta, I put the 660 tube on to barrel and the normal full choke on the bottom for the 25 yard or less birds.

The load is 2 5/8 oz nickel plated lead shot, #6 shot. Farthest shot now is 67 yards and rolled it right over.

My 10 ga likes his 3.0 oz loads. YES 3.0 oz
Both these loads are over 1200 ft/sec and do kick.

In my 3 inch 12 ga I shoot 2 1/4 nichel 6 shot.

My 12 ga places about 40 pellets solid in the turkey head at 50 yards.

However, he also sells heavy shot loads for more money, but I have not tried. I am totoly saticfied with what I have.

However in my 10 gauge, he sells a "economy heavy shot" which is copper plated 4's and 6's and then he uses #7's in heavy shot as the buffer. If you look at the cross sectional density of 7's in heavy shot, they hit like 6's in lead, but penetrate better because they are smaller.

Anyway, when I go from nickel 5's in my 10 ***** to the enconomy shot load, I increase my pellet count in the turkey head from 30 pellets to over 70 pellets at 50 yards. Incredible.

AND THEY KILL VERY WELL>

I too like to get birds in at less than 30 yards, but some times the older one comes along and just seems to know where the 50 yard line is. It's nice to know you can reach out there if you have to ...............

I guess you miss the point. Nitro is indeed not cheep, but you cannot buy these shells at any store to compare

They load NOT 1 5/8 or even 2 ounce lead, they load and sell:

2 1/4 ounce for 3 inch 12 ga
2 5/8 ounce for 3.5 inch 12 ga
and 3 ounce for 10 gauge.

There is no other substitute out there.
I'm referring to turkey hunting, not hunting geese. So even if they are double the price, I only use one or two shells a year for turkey, so who cares if they are even 4 dollars a shell. If that breaks you, you have bigger issues.
:lol: