Does anyone have any experience with the effect of steel waterfowl loads on turkeys? It seems to me that if they are capable of bringing down Canada Geese they should do a fine job on a turkey.

I shot my turkey at 50 feet this year almost anything shot would have worked.

I would have no trouble using the newer higher vel steel.

One would just have to know the effective range of the load he is using.

Thanks P-Dog, I'm thinking Black Cloud Long Range with the mix of round and saucer shaped cutter pellets. They're supposed to be deadly up to 50 yds on waterfowl. Since the turkey's head is the target it should work well if it patterns. But that is true of any load isn't it?

I have never used steel but it would work fine. I would check to be positive it is legal, some places it might not be.

I don't see a problem with steel if you know what you are doing-

Here are some caveats that I found:

The way most shoot turkey is to hit the head/neck with multiple pellets. The CNS and major blood vessels are close to the surface, and this minimizes meat loss.

Steel pellets loose velocity quickly. When shooting waterfowl, you need to up the velocity and use a bigger pellet size to shoot at the same distance that you would with lead. With duck they say you need about 5 ft-lbs to achieve adequate penetration. Because the turkey's vital structures are closer to the surface, I would think you can get away with a little less, but not much, the usual #6 load is down to 2.3 Ft-Lbs at 40 yards for lead.

Steel does tend to pattern somewhat better than lead of the same size.

Many states have a maximum pellet size law.

So, if you normally hunt turkey with #6 lead using a 1 1/2 oz load, and take them within 30 yards, going to a 1 1/4 oz steel load of #4 at over 1400 fps should give about the same performance. You will not get as good performance once the range gets out there. The pellets are way less lethal, and you have a lot fewer of them. To compare with geese, back when I could use lead I would load either #2 or BB if I was pass shooting geese. Now if I shoot steel I use BBB or T for pass shooting if I can't get Bismuth or Hevishot

For turkey, if you have to use nontox, the 13g/mm3 tungsten nontoxics were designed for turkey hunting. You can drop gobblers at 60+ yards with #7 shot. While I see some #4 steel still being used for waterfowl, most is larger, so using long range waterfowl loads is not quite what you want to do. You are trying to hit the head, not the whole bird, so you need the pellet count of the smaller shot- or keep the shot close so the pattern is dense enough that the big shot will connect- and a turkey on the ground is a much tougher target than a flying giant canada goose. The muscle layers are thicker, and the bones are heavier and it is usually a bird that is in the low 20# range rather than in the mid teen pound range so body shooting even with big goose shot is likely not to have the outcome you want.

I think it can be done with steel, but the hunter needs to be very conscientious about keeping range short and knowing how his gun patterned with that shell.

Is someone kidding in here?

It's not like you're shooting them by the dozens.

BUY some Hevi-shot or equivalent and go hunting.

quote:

Originally posted by Gatogordo:
Is someone kidding in here?

It's not like you're shooting them by the dozens.

BUY some Hevi-shot or equivalent and go hunting.

That is normally good advice, but the local stores in my area have run out of Hevi-Shot and the like. There are plenty of steel loads though.

It's sold online everyday.

Yeah, but with two days left in Turkey season that is not an option.

Bobster -- Hope you got your turkey this spring.

Shooting geese and turkeys are two totaly different propositions since shooting geese on the wing presents a much bigger target than shooting standing turkeys where you are targeting the head/neck area.

There's no reason steel won't work if you use the right shot size and choke for the distance you're shooting them.

If I was going to shoot steel loads at turkeys, I would go with a minimum of a 12ga 3" 1 1/4 load of #4 steel, and hold my shots to a max of 40 yards.

Here's a link to a turkey load article that has some steel load pattern findings in it.

http://www.wildlifedepartment....ing/turkey_loads.htm

Good luck.

On the other hand when steel first came out I found my Benelli would give an Extra,Extra -Full pattern with MOD choke and BB shot..I wondered how that would work on geese ? Very well ! Go for the head and there is few shot in the body and rarely wounded tail feathers !

I bought my son a turkey choke tube for his Rem. 870 and it specifically said to not use it with steel shot. I saw that listed for some other brands of turkey tubes also. I think it is because with more constriction in the tube the steel shot can cause the tube to get stuck in the barrel. Years ago I had Briley put tubes in another shotgun and they said they would not warranty anything tighter than improved modified for steel shot.

If you are referring to my post --my tight pattern was with a MOD choke !
First steel shot has a thicker cup to protect the barrel.Next the steel shot doesn't deform as lead shot does.Therefore the thin choke tube is under great stress . Therefore don't use steel shot in a turkey tube. Chokes you use should say specifically OK for steel shot.
BTW another problem that can arise is rusting of the shot .The problem of rust especially large shot would hold the shot together adding to the strees through the choke causing barrel blow ups.. Federal had it's larger shot copper plated to fix the problem.Rust could form even if the shells had never been dropped into the water. I don't know what's been done at the present time.

The larger is the shot, the worse density of holes. And steel shot is larger than the lead of the same mass. I tried to shoot by steel shot from a gun with a strong chokes and did not like. That is, it is necessary to try not only to go-getter, but also to check the density of holes on the target.

To clarify some of the discussion on tight chokes and steel shot (and the other hard non-toxics), the chokes used in the above Turkey Load article for the harder non-toxics was the Remington Hevi-Shot Super Full choke tube (.053-inch constriction) approved for all the harder non toxics like steel shot, Hevi-Shot, Remington's Heavy Density, Federal's Heavy Weight and Winchester's Hi-Density shot.

"All 12-gauge 3-inch loads were shot through a Remington 870 Special Purpose shotgun with a 26-inch barrel (I.D. / .728 inch). The lead loads were shot through a Remington Turkey Super Full Extended Choke (.063-inch constriction) and the steel shot and tungsten-composite shot loads (Hevi-Shot, Hi-Density Shot and Heavyweight Shot) were shot through a Remington Hevi-Shot Super Full Extended Choke (.053-inch constriction)."

Yes, these harder non-toxics can expand some chokes tubes and make it difficult to remove the tube so always go with the manufacturers recommendation on their use. That said, the larger the pellets, the heavier the payload, the higher the velocity, the tighter the choke, etc., the more likely this may happen.

Good luck.

And whatever you use pattern the shot !! You never know !