A few months ago I won a 28" 11-87 Remington 12 gauge at a Q1 buckpole banquette. I recently put a Remington extra full turkey choke on it and patterned it with Remington 3" #5 copper coated turkey loads. It wasn't horrible but it gave me a pretty wide spray even at 25 yards. In a 3.5-4 inch circle there were only about 18-20 pellets.The pattern at 40 yards was much worse. I just wondered if anybody has found a good choke tube and shell that can improve my pattern. Any help will be much appreciated. At the moment iv been going out with confidence in a few follow up shots and I would much rather feel more confident about the first shot. Thank you for any help.
Go with a Rem super full choke, it is a .665 choke, or any good .665 choke. The Rem extra full turkey choke is not tight enough for the 11-87. The #5 shot you are shooting is good enough. If I were you and if you like a tight pattern I would try Winchesters Longbeard XR turkey loads #5 shot, I don't think you will have to look any further. Good Luck
If you are interested in shooting lead I would look into Kicks chokes. .655 for 6's and .660 for 5's. It is difficult to find a better choke than Kicks for lead including the new Winchester LB shells. If you are interested in shooting HTL I would look into Hevi 13/.662 or Indian Creek .665. These chokes will also shoot lead fairly well.
QuoteI won a 28" 11-87 Remington 12 gauge at a Q1 buckpole banquette. I recently put a Remington extra full turkey choke on it and patterned it with Remington 3" #5 copper coated turkey loads. It wasn't horrible but it gave me a pretty wide spray even at 25 yards.
First of all, welcome to OG. We're glad you're here and look forward to hearing more from you.
That is an excellent gun with a barrel that can throw great patterns, properly choked and with the right shells. I have that very same gun, same barrel and until recently had 2 of them. I let a good friend have 1 and he shoots it now on a regular basis.
I primarily shoot 3" Hevi-13 shells with 2 oz. of #6 shot in most of my guns for turkeys. I like that load since it's very consistent and it's what I shoot in still target competition, so I'm very familiar with it. It's what I'd recommend.
If however you want to shoot another load, I'd still recommend that you shoot #6 shot. It flows more smoothly through the bore and choke and will do all that's necessary to kill a turkey at any reasonable range up to and including 40 yards.
I've tried a number of turkey chokes, recommend particular chokes to my readers and continually work with and evaluate different chokes, guns and shotshells. For your gun, I don't know of anything that will give you more consistently dense patterns than the SSX. It's what I have in my 11-87 and what I'd recommend to you.
There are other good chokes of course and many folks have good results with them. Part of this sport of turkey hunting can be experimenting with different products until you find what is right for you, so have fun and enjoy that part of it as well.
Again, glad you're here and look forward to hearing more from you.
Thanks,
Clark
Jellyhead .665 or .660 with some hevi 6s or 7s and you're in business.
First, Remington's turkey shells are generally a waste of money. Try some Winchester Double Xs or Federal Turkey Thugs.
Next I would recommend ditching the factory tube. For the most part I would recommend the Hevi-shot brand tube or a .665 Indian Creek.
Thanks for all your help everybody. I can't wait to get a bird!