>>>A turkey is a thin skinned bird that's easy to kill if you hit them in the head or neck. A turkeys bones are light weight because they were made for flight....doesn't take much in the way of a pellet to break a turkeys bones.<<<

jOe, I am glad that you understand this now. We tried to explain it to you 15 years ago, but I didn't think you ever understood our argument.

It doesn't make any difference how much a pellet weighs, or even how much energy it carries. The only that matters is that the pellet is able to penetrate the head and neck bones at a reasonable hunting range, and years of shooting tss #9 has proven that it most certainly will do that. The smaller the pellet is, the more you can get into the shell and that makes it possible to produce denser patterns that are sure to hit bones if you are aiming your gun at the head/neck of the turkey.

I hunted them for years with #4 lead and there is no doubt in the world that those pellets would crush the bones of a turkey. The issue with them is there aren't nearly as many pellets as in the #9 tss, and that means that if your aim is a little off and only the edge of the pattern hits the turkey, it's very possible that none of the pellets actually hits a bone, and the turkey runs or flys away with shot in him. I remember that you posted on another forum that you had a season when you shot at 13 gobblers and killed only 7 of them. Any experienced turkey hunter knows that you didn't likely "miss" the 6 that got away; they all left there with shot in them. Some probably recovered, some probably didn't. There is a lot less chance of that happening with tss, though l think many hunters take away the real advantage of tss by setting their guns up with chokes that are too tight.

So the only real legitimate concern about shooting turkeys with tss is that it's possible to put a lot more pellets into the meat. I think an experienced hunter can eliminate this by shooting the turkey when he is in the right posture, and just making sure that you aim properly. It is about 16" from the top of a mature gobbler's head to the base of his neck. Here is a picture of a tss pattern I have handy, and it was shot with a 20 gauge gun with only a modified choke at 40 yards. This was when I was experimenting with a sxs gun and it shows the typical effect with a turkey load of the right barrel shooting to the right. That is a 10" circle drawn around the core of the pattern, so anyone can do the math and see that there is no reason to put shot into the breast if you are a decent shot. As you well know, the most important thing in making a clean kill is to have the turkey standing up straight with his head and neck exposed when you pull the trigger.


[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]

I wouldn't try to claim that I have never put any tss into a turkey breast, but I can honestly say that it has happened no more often with tss than it did with lead. If one is really concerned about it, I would suggest trying #7 tss. There are a lot fewer pellets than the #9 has, but it still has more than a #4 lead load. I have shot them with tss size 7, 8, 8.5, 9, 9.5 and even shot a couple with 10s. My conclusion is that it doesn't make much difference; any of them will kill the turkey if you have the gun on him.

I wouldn't expect you to want to change after a lifetime of using #4 lead. I once killed 22 in a row with my SBE and Winchester Supremes #4. The biggest advantage of the tss for me is that I can carry a very light 20 gauge gun and it has way less recoil than the 12, and is every bit as effective. Good luck in your hunting.