Has anyone tried Apex's 2 3/4" #9s in 20ga? If so, how did they pattern at 40 yards? Thinking of trying a box for the lighter recoil for my son/wife. The Ninja 8.5s produce a great pattern out of my gun but they're 3" with a little more kick than my family would like.
This is just a guess. But I would shoot a 3" 1 1/4 of lead and then a 2 3/4" 1 oz. lead load to see if there was a difference in recoil. Probably not exact but would give you are idea.
I have hand loaded either 1 1/4 or 1 5/16 oz of tss #9 in a 2 3/4 and it was plenty at 40 and honestly it would work at 50.
Late to the response but I would try a box of apex duck hunting TSS loads (not the steel tungsten blend but pure tungsten) they have 3/4 oz of shot in 20ga which would give you around 270 pellets per round at 1500 fps. More than enough pellets to get you to 40 yards on a turkey.
Not sure what Apex load your looking at,
but 1 ounce of #9's in 2.75" 20 gauge out of a turkey choke at 1150fps has 10" numbers past 40yds
recoil is noticeably less than a 1 5/8 ounce load at 1150fps