How to Pattern a Turkey Gun: Choke & Load Testing for Lethal Accuracy

Pattern your turkey gun at 20, 30, and 40 yards using an actual turkey head/neck target before you ever step into the woods. You’re counting pellet strikes in the vital zone, not admiring a pretty spread on paper. If you’re still shooting the same choke and load you bought off the shelf five seasons ago without testing it, you’re gambling on a bird’s life and your tag.

I’ve killed birds from Missouri river bottoms to Rio Grande country in South Texas. The one thing that separates a clean one-shot kill from a wounded bird crashing into the timber is patterning. Not scouting. Not calling. Patterning.

Why Patterning Isn’t Optional for Turkey Hunting

Turkey hunting is a head-and-neck game. You’re not aiming at a deer’s vitals or a duck’s body mass. You’re threading a dense pattern of pellets into a target roughly the size of a fist, often at 30-40 yards with the bird’s head bobbing. Every choke and load combo patterns differently out of every barrel. I’ve run the same TSS load through three different Benelli SBE3s and gotten pattern densities that varied by 15-20 pellets at 40 yards.

That’s not a small difference. That’s the difference between a clean kill and a crippled bird nobody finds.

What You Need Before You Start

Skip the paper plates and cardboard boxes. You need an actual turkey head/neck silhouette target with a defined vital zone. I use the Birchwood Casey Eze-Scorer Turkey Target because it’s got the scoring rings built right into the anatomy, so you’re not guessing where the brain and spine sit.

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Beyond the target, here’s your kit list:

• A solid rest, sandbags or a shooting bench. You’re testing the gun and load, not your offhand shooting skill.
• Staple gun or target stand to fix the target at exact distances
• A tape measure or rangefinder to confirm distance. Don’t eyeball it.
• At least 3-5 shells per load/choke combo you’re testing
• A notebook or phone to log pellet counts. You will forget which target came from which combo.

Set Up Your Distances Correctly

Most turkey shots happen inside 40 yards, but I pattern at 20, 30, and 40 to build a real profile of how my gun performs across the range I’ll actually shoot. A choke that crushes it at 30 yards can blow the pattern wide open at 40. I’ve seen fringe density drop off a cliff past 35 yards with the wrong combo.

Don’t skip the 20-yard test. Turkeys committed to a call and coming into full strut sometimes close to 15-18 yards, and an over-choked gun with a hot TSS load can actually pattern too tight at close range, blowing a small hole through the vitals instead of a dense, forgiving spread. I’ve seen birds shot clean through at fifteen yards with almost no pellet spread. That’s not always a good thing if your point of aim is off by an inch.

The Setup

Staple your target to a backer board at the exact distance, shoot from a bench or solid rest, and fire one shot per target. Don’t shoot multiple rounds at the same paper. You need to count and isolate each pattern individually.

Counting Pellets: What the Numbers Actually Mean

After the shot, draw a 10-inch circle centered on the densest part of your pattern (most turkey target templates have this built in already). Count every pellet hole inside that circle. This is your working number.

Here’s the benchmark I use, built off years of testing my own guns: you want a minimum of 100 pellets in a 10-inch circle at your maximum intended range for standard lead loads, and closer to 150+ for TSS due to its smaller shot size carrying more pellets per payload. Anything under 80 pellets at 40 yards and I won’t take that shot. Too much risk of gaps in the vital zone.

Log these numbers for every combo. I keep a simple table: choke, load, distance, pellet count, notes on pattern density (centered, left-biased, doughnut-holed, etc.).

Choke & Load Combinations: What Actually Works

I’ve burned through more turkey loads than I care to admit chasing the “perfect” combo, and here’s what consistently performs across the guns I’ve tested: Benelli, Mossberg 500, and Remington 870 platforms specifically.

Best All-Around: TSS Loads with a Dedicated Turkey Choke

Tungsten Super Shot has changed turkey hunting more than anything since the shift to 3.5-inch magnums. TSS has a density of roughly 18 g/cc compared to lead’s 11 g/cc, which means smaller pellets carry the same knockdown power as larger lead shot, and you get way more pellets per shell.

My go-to is the Federal Premium Heavyweight TSS, 12 gauge, 3-inch, #7 shot paired with the Carlson’s Cremator Turkey Choke in .650 constriction. In my own testing out of a Benelli SBE3 with a 26-inch barrel, this combo put 187 pellets in a 10-inch circle at 40 yards. That’s not a fluke. I ran it five times with consistent results within a 10-15 pellet spread.

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Budget Option That Still Delivers

Not everyone wants to spend $5+ per shell on TSS. If you’re patterning on a budget, Hevi-Shot Magnum Blend, 12 gauge, #5/6/7 blend out of a mid-range aftermarket choke like the Trulock Precision Hunter Choke gives you a legitimately lethal pattern out to 35 yards. I ran this combo at 35 yards and counted 112 pellets in the vital zone. Plenty for a clean kill, just don’t push it past 35-38 yards with this setup.

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Factory Chokes: Don’t Trust Them Blind

The factory “turkey” choke that ships with your gun is a starting point, not a final answer. I’ve patterned factory chokes from three different manufacturers that threw patterns 6-8 inches off center at 30 yards. If your factory choke is patterning tight and centered, great, keep it. If it’s stringing shot low or blowing out early, spend the $40-60 on an aftermarket choke. It’s the cheapest performance upgrade in turkey hunting, full stop.

Reading Your Pattern for Problems

Once you’ve got pellet counts, look at where the pattern actually lands relative to your point of aim. A few things to watch for:

• Pattern shifted left or right: Could be your barrel, your optic zero, or your stock’s cast. Re-zero before assuming the choke’s bad.
• Doughnut-holing (empty center, dense ring): Common with overly tight chokes paired with certain loads. Back off constriction or try a different shot size.
• Sparse pattern with big gaps: Either your choke’s too open for the range, or you need a denser payload like TSS.

If you’re running an optic on your turkey gun, and at this point you should be, pattern with it mounted and zeroed exactly how you’ll hunt. I run a