20 ga TSS size ?

Anybody shot 7.5's out of a 20 ga? If so, how did they pattern? What was your gun/choke combo? Thanks.

Gonna lose too much pattern density buddy. Just use HWT 7's if you wanna go that route and save yourself the trouble of loading them. Big 9's all the way for a 20 gauge.......now if you duplexed them with 9's it might be pretty snazzy though.

I need you to school me on the duplex.

Dang brad you got a good pattern why you keep worrying about more?

If I could get the same percentage with a larger shot, that would be awesome. Just seeing if anybody had tried 7.5's. I know some have went to the 8's or a duplex.


I've already got an average pattern to fall back on.

I shot the big 8s and did 190s I believe. It's been several years, I just decided to stick with 9s in the 20 and save my bigger shot for the 12.

With HW 7s I was hitting high 160s with 1.5 oz handload. Never shot the factory loads.

I'm going to shoot 8.5's out of mine this year.

I shot a few though my 1300 and the percentage were the same as 9s. I was shooting str8 7s.

When y'all say "big" 8's or 9's, what does that mean? I just tell Hall that I want 9's or 7.5's, for instance. Should I tell him "big" 9's or 7.5's?

Big 8's are 8.5's, big 9's would be 8.5's I would think

I would just stick with 9s. 9's allow you to maximize the effective range and pattern density out of smaller gauges. Once you start getting into 8s and 7.5s, you are going to run out of pattern density before the advantage of larger pellets even kicks in. Plus 9's are carrying lethal energy out to a little over 70 yards anyway

I'm guessing on the count but I'm pretty close I think.....

Big 8's 260/oz
Little 8's 295/oz

Big 9's 363/oz
Little 9's 400/oz

Little 9's shine in 410's and 28's. Big 9's and little 8's are fine for everything else. I have some big 8's a bought from Hal a couple years ago that I mix with 9's in what few 12 gauge loads I shoot.
I think even the little 8's have the kinetic energy to kill turkeys at like 88 yards or something silly when launched at 1200 fps. I just don't see the need to go bigger than that.

I guess I have the big 9's, cause they are 360/oz. When you duplex, which ones do you load first?

Last time I loaded some duplex I put the larger shot at the bottom of the wad.

They say Put the big stuff on top....... But there is no way to keep it there when you vibrate the buffer in. It's gonna get mixed up

I like that idea too! It will push the little stuff out faster

I weigh and mix the buffer in when I load the shot. No vibrating. You could keep the sizes separate doing it this way.

I shoot the 8.5's out of a 3" recipe I was given. I'm very pleased with the results of this shot size and pattern. I'm not changing a thing with my current set up.

Toasty and hal on GN both told me smaller shot on bottom for a duplex. They say the larger shot travels faster and if loaded on bottom will "blow" the pattern. I usually mix shot and buffer before loading with good results.

Yea my 8s at the time were 260s count.

I haven't shot any of the higher count 8s and mainly just shot the 380 9s.

I personally like how the bigger shot performs on birds, but in the 20 the numbers really make a difference in making my decision.

As long as you keep your shots within 60 yards and make good shot choices it will do the job.

This ^^^

>>>As long as you keep your shots within 60 yards and make good shot choices it will do the job.<<<

You can use any size TSS and the above statement is true. Who would ever wanta shoot a turkey beyond 60 yards anyway?

Don't answer that, Hal.

I found that's a good number to shoot for.

Lol get it, shoot for.

I have killed further and I also have wounded birds further. It's a number I'm confident in.

The names have been changed to protect the innocent, but I once stepped off 2 kills with #9s where a guy "thought" they were at 60 yds before he shot, and it turned out he lost a lot of confidence in his ability to estimate yardages.

Well, how many steps did you take?!?

I took steps that I figured would be longer than a yard on average, and counted 89 of them. On the way back, I counted 91 of them, not trying to be long....

Holy smokes, Batman!

Just to play Devils advocate, I watched a gobbler take a 1 7/8 load of 9's dead in the chest at 40 yds, stagger and start running. Then he took another took another load in the wing. Bird was finally killed as it ran by me at 20 Yds. At the cleaning his breast was literally black with blood.

I like the 8's better but that's just me. I know a lot of people who have killed cleanly at 50-60 plus with 9's.

Bottom line TSS is wicked under real distances

I think the 1 7/8oz load is too slow to be as effective as it should be.

It also helps to hit them in the head.

X

Looking at this objectively, here's what that 20 ga 1-7/8 oz load of 9s looks like at 40 yds.





Now, unless that bird was ostrich size, hitting him dead in the chest would also result in many pellets hitting his head and neck, as well as his legs.

Ain't no way physically possible that any turkey would survive the core of that pattern of those pellets at 40 yds, even if the pellets were going much, much slower than that load goes.

Man I don't know Hal they do some crazy things. I know you've killed a bunch more of them than I have but I killed a turkey in Missouri one year that was absolutely riddled with a load of copper plated 6's dead in the breast. I mean it looked like it had been done the day before. That was a little before the days that everybody took a bunch of pictures of stuff with their cell phone but I sure wish I had some pics of him.
I have no idea how that turkey was even living, much less strutting and gobbling

I just know that when you break that neck they don't keep running.