What do you all think?

[jrjohn6]

I'm thinking about sending the barrel of my 870 to someone and get it customized into a extreme turkey gun. I have looked at the nitro site and have seen their advertisements for ammunition and custom choke work. What do you guys think about this? Has anyone sent a barrel or gun off before and had good results? I love nothing more then turkey hunting and have decided that I'm willing to spend the money to get a gun customized to be used for nothing but chasing gobblers every chance I get! Thanks for the response in advance!!!!!

[WildmanWilson]

Its your money but I wouldn't spend all that money on a souped up turkey gun. A well places shot from most any good shotgun will do. Part of the fun is getting a bird in range. By range I mean 35 yards or so. I don't need a gun to blast one 60 yards. But once again....its your dime.

[Pinwheel8]

I would try the Rhino choke and Nitro ammo combo before sending it off. If that still did not get it good enough then I would try sending it off.

[shaman]

I'm thinking about sending the barrel of my 870 to someone and get it customized into a extreme turkey gun. I have looked at the nitro site and have seen their advertisements for ammunition and custom choke work. What do you guys think about this? Has anyone sent a barrel or gun off before and had good results? I love nothing more then turkey hunting and have decided that I'm willing to spend the money to get a gun customized to be used for nothing but chasing gobblers every chance I get! Thanks for the response in advance!!!!!

I'm not so sure a turkey gun has to be all that extreme. When I miss a shot, it was because the turkey was too close and the pattern did not open up enough. I shoot #4 Federal Premiums and a good tight choke. At 35 yards I pole-axed a gobbler this year and hit him in the neck with the wad. That's plenty tight for me. BTW: That's with only a 3" shell.

The other gob I got was strutting under 10 yards from me when he fell. We blew our chances on two other turkeys this year: one at 20 yards and the other came in to less than 8 feet of where the end of the gun barrel should have been (long story--see my weblog). Our group needed anything but $6/round loads and tight chokes. If everything else had been right, all four would have died with my son's 20 GA bolt gun.

Look around the NWTF site and the 24hourcampfire.com. There are posts made there this season by a fellow who took apart his Nitro shell and did some serious analysis and then also analyzed his Nitros against some cheaper competition. The bottom line is that Nitro accomplishes their magic patterns with a mix of shot from size #1 to size #9 that does a great job on paper, that does not necessarily translate out to more deader turkeys. In fact, his analysis indicated that lead did just as well as hevi. BTW: be careful with Nitro in Kentucky. Shot sizes larger than #4 are not legal. Nitro's 4X7 duplex contains size #1 and #2 shot.

This is not a 70 yard miracle solution. For all the hoopla over Hevi and Nitros, what are they really saying? According to the actual testimonials, guys love them, because they get turkeys out to 40 or 45 yards. I've been doing that for 10 years with my Mossy 500 and the no-name choke with plain ol' lead #4. For more info contact Reloader7RM over at 24hourcampfire or at least dig up his posts on there and the NWTF site before you make any big decisions.

[turk2di]

Its your money but I wouldn't spend all that money on a souped up turkey gun. A well places shot from most any good shotgun will do. Part of the fun is getting a bird in range. By range I mean 35 yards or so. I don't need a gun to blast one 60 yards. But once again....its your dime.

Nicely put pal;)

[vabirddog]

Its your money but I wouldn't spend all that money on a souped up turkey gun. A well places shot from most any good shotgun will do. Part of the fun is getting a bird in range. By range I mean 35 yards or so. I don't need a gun to blast one 60 yards. But once again....its your dime.

Ditto, call em close

[UKturkeyhunter]

Its your money but I wouldn't spend all that money on a souped up turkey gun. A well places shot from most any good shotgun will do. Part of the fun is getting a bird in range. By range I mean 35 yards or so. I don't need a gun to blast one 60 yards. But once again....its your dime.

That's how I like to play the game!!

[maxcam]

Shaman did you cut open a Nitro shell yourself.....I have.....In fact I cut open not only one of the triplex loads for my Berretta but also one of the 20 gauge Nitro loads that I set my daughters 1100 up with......Then after sorting out the shot I got a micrometer and compared them to the various shot that were in various Federal, Winchester and Remmington shells and I found some vary interesting info.....First of all Hevi Shot is not perfectly round......You can measure a piece of hevi shot several times and get several different diameters.....None of the shot in my loads were as discribed by someone that posted on the NWTF website.......As far as any claim that lead or metal plated lead performing as well as Hevi Shot does all I can relate is my experiences and I have never had a piece of lead go through a turkey breast and poke a whole through the breast bone, but I have sent a piece of #4 Hevi Shot through several and I generally like to lay the hammer down around 35 yards.......I will agree that dead is dead but you wont convince me that lead will out perform hevi shot.....If that were the case then duck and goose hunters wouldnt prefer bismuth and hevi shot over steel.....The laws of physics simply outweigh the claims that lead is as deadly as hevi shot......I dont care how impressive the data is.......A denser material of equal size will always carry more kenetic energy down range than a lighter material.....The principles are the same for bullets as they are arrows and it doesnt change for shot either......

I have spent alot of time researching choke tube and shell combinations for turkey hunting using different makes and models of guns.......The Nitro combo works and for those setting up a new gun it takes a lot of guess work out of the equation........You no longer have to buy a half dozen tubes and a dozen boxes of shells to find a combo that works to suit you so the cost factor of a shell and a tube is moot in my opinion.........

JrJohn my advice is this.....call Nitro and talk to them....They are going to tell you to try their loads and tube before you have it modified....

Goodluck

[RJPOUTDOORS]

Hey, like everyone said it's your money I, rather spend the time and money patterning differnt loads through the gun. This way I can see what will work for what ever distance. Remeber have fun and be safe.
Safe hunting.

[Multidigits]

The advantage of Hevi shot is pretty well doucumented, it will extend the range of a shotgunby 10 to 15 yards as compared to lead shot of the same size.

The question wasn't IF Hevi is good or not, but should you have a expensive "turkey" barrel worked out for the shotgun. I agree with the others that it's not needed. After all, turkeys aren't any harder to hit than a squirrel or any other animal that doesn't move much. It takes x-number of pellet energy to breal the neck and other bones in a turkey, and most of the shells available will provide that out to all the range that someone should be ethically shooting. As long as your barrel shoots straight (where your aiming) then allow the shot pattern to do it's work. You don't need a high price designated turkey barrel.

[schuyler olt]

Don't waste your money, unless you are setting up the gun for competition. In that case, contact Steve Conover and get his thoughts. He's a national champion several times over.

Interestingly, I read an article just the other day suggesting moving away from the really tight chokes almost all of us have gone to, in order to reduce misses at closer ranges. That's something to consider.

The 870 has almost been the gold standard of turkey guns for the last twenty years. The stock barrel is about as good as it gets. I recommend taking the money you'd spend and going on a hunt in Texas or wherever strikes your fancy!