If you have been doing this spring gobbler thing for a couple of decades or more you very likely bagged a passel of longbeards way before anybody’s research and development team put the words tungsten, super and shot together.
For those of us who can’t get enough of anything to do with spring gobbler hunting, the battle for ammunition dollars is a most interesting thing to observe. When I started hunting thunder chickens, I carried an Ithaca Model 37. You didn’t get a choice of chokes with that venerable scattergun. You got the full choke at the end of a 30-inch barrel and you liked it.
In the mid-1990s, when Beretta introduced the Model 390 semi-automatic, I snapped one up. “Wow, three-inch shells,” I thought. I’ll be able to sit against a tree near Flintstone and kill a gobbler in a field at Finzel. That bubble was popped quickly when I realized that even with the additional down-range whack I still had to choose wisely before pulling the trigger.
I wasn’t using a rangefinder then, as I do now. In fact, I use the rangefinder more during spring gobbler season than I do when bowhunting for deer. In both instances, I do a lot of pre-ranging to determine distances of prominent rocks or trees so that when the game actually appears I’m not fumbling around.
In any event, if you know the maximum distance that your shotgun can adequately perform, you have the necessary knowledge.
And that’s where we start getting into this TSS business.
I don’t consider turkey hunting to be a long-range proposition, but some folks do. That’s fine, as long as ethical shots are the result.
I’m bummed that Hevi 13 is no longer manufactured. For me, using my shotgun and a particular choke, Hevy 13 loaded with two ounces of No. 6 shot offered the ultimate combination of distance and pattern.
Knowing that my favorite load would no longer be available, I began experimenting, but TSS shot is not cheap and I wince a little each time I unload one at a paper target to find out what it will do at a certain distance.
Here’s the deal. Call a gobbler into 30 yards or closer and your grandfather’s 60-year-old pump gun shooting 2.75-inch shells will have you taking grip-and-grin photos. Actually, most old shotguns shooting the shorter shells will reach out even farther.
Winchester, with the introduction of the Longbeard XR shell has really ended the race for the top if money is a factor. That load, priced far below the TSS shells, is the end-all in my opinion. But, depending upon what choke you choose, your pattern can be so tight that at close ranges it is the size of a grapefruit and missing becomes possible if you are not confident at shooting up close and personal.
Even with the Hevi 13s, there were a handful of times I let a gobbler get farther away before I pulled the trigger.
Some quick online research showed me that you can buy TSS shells that will cost you as much as $21 per round. That’s still a lot cheaper than going skiing for a weekend or taking the family to Camden Yards or PNC Park.
Full disclosure: I have patterned Federal TSS, 3-inch, No. 7, in my 20 gauge, but not my 12 gauge. In fact, I got a gobbler a year ago with that load. I have two shells remaining but, once those are gone, I doubt I’ll buy others. Anyway, when you total the shells for both gauges, I have enough turkey loads to hunt the big birds until I am 119 years old.