2 3/4 shells for turkey?

[adamtb]

Hey guys im looking for any info you guys may have of using a smaller 2 3/4" 20 gauge shell for turkeys? the reason i ask is my wife finally asked to go turkey hunting and everything was fine up untill shooting the 3" shells but she did fine on the 2 3/4" shells so im curiouse if theres any of you that ran into the same issue with kids or your wife or anyone with should issues. again any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[HogBiologist]

let her practice with 2.75 inch shells.  slide in the 3" shell to hunt with.  I promise you she will never feel it when she shoots the turkey.  My wife only shot 12 ga low brass skeet shot to practice.  She never felt the magnum turkey shot shell when she pulled the trigger on her first bird.

[wisconsinteacher]

I agree with above.  Get some light trap loads for her to shoot then in the morning load the gun for her but with the turkey ammo.  Two days after the hunt, tell her it was 3" loads and she will not believe you. 

[triune]

Always practice with the lightest shells you can get.  Then they will never notice the kick of the magnum.  My wife has shot 3" shells three times and has killed three birds.  She doesn't know what a magnum load really feels like.

One thing you can also try is a recoil pad.  I put a limbsaver slip-on recoil pad on my wife's 20 ga. and couldn't believe the difference.  I had to remove the existing pad to keep the fit for her, but it is only two screws and its off.

Good luck!

[Woodsman4God]

Yeah if you go to some of the turkey gun threads farther down alot of advice for kids and women, allaboutshooting.com has a good recoil pad that helps alot from what I hear too. Good luck

Taught my wife to shoot a few years ago and proper form helps too start her off with small like the other threads suggest and work up to that larger load. My wifes first animal killed was an Elk using a 35 whelen packs quite a punch compared to her 243 and she did great

[tomstopper]

2 yrs ago I hunted with a collar bone that I had broken 2 weeks prior. I used the limbaver recoil pad and 2 3/4 Remington nitros. I never felt a thing and still took out two birds. If she can get them to pattern well then just use them. Is see no problem with slipping a couple of 3 inchers in when hitting the woods but don't let her find out (my wife would be angry if I broke that little line of trust).....

[habitatmd]

When I was a younger turkey hunting fool, I hunted with 2 3/4" 20 gauge.  Killed plenty of turkeys with it.  Just had the factory full choke too.  You aren't going to reach out there 50 yards or anything, but 35 yards or so should be a dead turkey.   I actually stretched it out further.  Can't say I did all the research to know I could, but I did.

[VAHUNTER]

personally i would not even let her know that you had a 3" in the gun.
let her practice with the 2 3/4" then load up the 3". she will never feel the recoil.

[FullChoke]

Since you asked about 2-3/4" shells and not about how to fool your wife, here you are. Get these in #7s and she will be good to go.

http://www.federalpremium.com/products/details/shotshell.aspx?id=943

Cheers.

FullChoke

[gophert]

Agree with FullChoke, get these:

http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/2FEPHT256F7-1.html

They are deadly out to about 30 yards.

[gobblergls]

Here's a bona fide 2  3/4" 40 yard load in 20 gauge. It requires handloading and the purchcase of TSS 9s.
http://oldgobbler.com/Forum/index.php/topic,23938.0.html  At a minimum, to load you would need components, a roll crimper and digital scale.

[ohiostrutter]

I found 3 boxes of h13 2 3/4 6s this year for my daughters 20 they patterned grate and she took a nice tom with them