Thompson Pro Hunter Turkey

[357MAGNOLE]

Moving this question to over here. Not a lot of traffic in the 20 gauge sub forum.  But my question applies to any of the Thompson pro hunters.

What can you all tell me about it?

I am considering a lighter weight 20 gauge and for whatever reason these appeal to me greatly from a looks perspective.

Do you need to handload TSS to get success out of them? Can you get good repeatable accuracy.  In other words, do your shots move around in them? I have shot the Longbeard XR's out of a couple different platforms and it took 3 shotguns, 6 different chokes to find one that shot consistently to where I aimed with a red dot.

Problem is, my 12 Gauge setup is near or over 8lbs.  Its a Stoeger M3000 with the pistol grip stock, with a TRS-25 red dot and indian creek .665 I am getting about 220 in the 10"

I am happy with that setup, but its a little on the heavy side and the trigger sucks.  Also my understanding is that with the Pro Hunter you can do a barrel swap and have multiple firearms in one. So I can go back and forth from a turkey gun to a big bore hunting rifle.

[Happy]

 I have a pro hunter in .270. Or should I say my wife's does. I could be wrong but I think you also need a different forearm when switching from rifle to shotgun. They are great guns. I know a guy that uses one in 12 gauge for turkeys and he loves it. He uses a scope on his and says it holds its zero when he switches barrels. And no you don't need to handload to make it an extremely effective killer. Hevi shot 6 and 7 work well and if you can get the federal heviweight in 7 shot to pattern it's deadly. I'very called in birds for several people using 20 gauges and they killed just as well as a 12 guage. A #6 pellet from a 20 hits just as hard as one from a 12. Just not as many pellets in a 20 gauge load. If you keep it reasonable your fine. Hope that helps and good luck.

[357MAGNOLE]

That does help and I appreciate it. I would not turn down the idea of loading TSS.  I have never loaded shotgun before. But I do my own loading for pistol calibers, should be same concept different equipment.

Anyone care to comment on what they use to reload 20 gauge shells?

[dirt road ninja]

I would not turn down the idea of loading TSS

Anyone care to comment on what they use to reload 20 gauge shells?

Not much at all.  The only tools needed are A roll crimper, scale, drill press, hobby knife and a block of wood. It's not hard at all.

[dirt road ninja]

My son and I have killed a few birds with our 20 using Hevi 13 #7's.

[357MAGNOLE]

 How is it in terms of carrying it through the woods and handling? How is the trigger?

[chatterbox]

A good friend of mine has the Pro Hunter 20 ga with a SumToy choke. He's shooting Federal Heviweight 3-1.5-7's. He gets an average of 160 in the 10" at 40. He's killed 3 birds with that setup, one a little to far to discuss on here.
If choked correctly, with the right shell, it's a slayer. He loves his.