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TURKEY AMMO

PEEJAY

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Nov 24, 2019
Messages
2,073
Location
MD
THIS SUCKS...I still have 6 rounds of my preferred ammo long beard xr #6 3in. but if anybody has been looking for turkey ammo in MD (or online) its been pretty tough. I got a new barrel and choke on my gun and really need to pattern it. Do you guys think the companies like winchester and federal, etc. are just not making alot and their focus is more on other ammo right now??? i know i should have stocked up when the shelves were filled but i didnt... hoping and praying that we get some more focus on turkey ammo from manufacturers in the next few weeks. i bought my wife TSS because that was literally the only decent turkey ammo i could find (never thought id ever spend 10 bucks a shell on ammo but what ya gonna do).

whos ready to kill some birdssss????? im frickin pumped. Got a crappy deer lease last fall thats crawlin with gobblers! Land owner gave me the green light to have at em.

#LONGBIRD
 
I got lucky and found some Apex Ninja TSS .410 online. Almost $100 for 20 rounds. I got it for a Stevens .410 I picked up recently. What sucks is I can't even use a .410 for turkey here in Indiana, for now. It's been proposed but haven't heard anything as far as allowing them this coming season. If not I'll use my crossbow or I can slap a choke on my Mossy 500, if I can find shells. Apex has ammo on their site occasionally and a small company called Foxtrot Ammo posts ammo on Friday nights usually. It's all TSS I believe. So it ain't cheap.
 
I bought a new 20ga turkey gun this year and was in the same boat. Had to shell out (pun intended) $10 per for the TSS cause that’s all I could find. Hitting the NE Georgia woods this weekend, first stop on my mini turkey tour.
 
Since I built my turkey gun two years ago, it's all dialed in and I have ammo Longbeard XR in stock....just got wait another three weeks for season to come in. I moved some trail cams around this week to find some birds. Went out yesterday morning and listened for just a little bit before work but didn't hear any gobbles.
 
I got lucky and found some Apex Ninja TSS .410 online. Almost $100 for 20 rounds. I got it for a Stevens .410 I picked up recently. What sucks is I can't even use a .410 for turkey here in Indiana, for now. It's been proposed but haven't heard anything as far as allowing them this coming season. If not I'll use my crossbow or I can slap a choke on my Mossy 500, if I can find shells. Apex has ammo on their site occasionally and a small company called Foxtrot Ammo posts ammo on Friday nights usually. It's all TSS I believe. So it ain't cheap.
What's the reasoning behind the no .410? That's all my buddy uses turkey hunting and had been plenty successful over the years.
 
I happened to be picking up shiners at a local sporting goods store when they were unpacking the turkey ammo boxes about a month ago. I picked up 20 rounds for myself, my son and my cousin. I am glad I did as now there is nothing to be had and our season is still 6 weeks away.
 
What's the reasoning behind the no .410? That's all my buddy uses turkey hunting and had been plenty successful over the years.
They actually made an amendment an approved it yesterday. So I should be GTG. I think the argument was previously that .410 didn't effectively kill at longer ranges with lead shot. Now with TSS people kill out to 40-50 yards.
 
I have been checking daily 5-6× a week on line for my beloved 12ga 3.5" Winchester Long Beard XR shells since before Jan-1 and Finally stumbled across two sources that had them in stock about 15-18 days ago ordered a bunch and both were out of stock once my order was placed.
Had found a few places with 12ga 3" #5 & #6 Long Beard XR in stock but I much prefer the 3.5" ones
I already had enough on hand for 4-5 seasons but I like to have a larger reserve of the few types of ammo I do not or can not reload for and sabot shotgun slugs and turkey shells are the only two types of ammo I do not reload.
One of the two was Cabelas and I successfully placed my order for 6 10 round boxes instantly
decided to buy more and they were out of stock by then.
Have checked both places every day and both are still out of stock.
Lots and lots of TSS shells available OTC by me at Cabelas but have yet to see a single box of 12ga Winchester Long Beard XR 3" or 3.5"
20 gauge yes but no 12ga
12ga 3" TSS are $9+ a round and 3.5" are $10+ a round OTC by me but if my choice was buy TSS or not hunting I'd be giving up the Grants' for certain.
 
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Just an update
Was in my local Cabelas and once again they only had Federal TSS and 12ga 3.5" #7 and #9 shot were $65 a box of 5 or $13 a shell
Had to give two boxs of my 12ga 3.5" Winchester Long Beard XR's to my friend for him and his sons upcoming WI turkey hunt as between them they were down to thier last 7 shells
Gave them a bit of grief saying I could sell easily resell the shells for 2.5x more than I paid for them but I'd give them a deal at $50 for a box of 10
I don't recall how many but IIRC WI allows residents to take a lot of spring turkeys not sure about non-residents
 
I got lucky and found some Apex Ninja TSS .410 online. Almost $100 for 20 rounds. I got it for a Stevens .410 I picked up recently. What sucks is I can't even use a .410 for turkey here in Indiana, for now. It's been proposed but haven't heard anything as far as allowing them this coming season. If not I'll use my crossbow or I can slap a choke on my Mossy 500, if I can find shells. Apex has ammo on their site occasionally and a small company called Foxtrot Ammo posts ammo on Friday nights usually. It's all TSS I believe. So it ain't cheap.
Where’d you get your .410? Been looking for one for my daughter.
 
Where’d you get your .410? Been looking for one for my daughter.

I bought a mossberg 410 pump for my kids and it had a pretty good kick.

As they got a little older I bought them one of these 20 ga SA and I think it has less kick as it is gas operated and has a really good recoil pad. It also comes with multiple shims to increase length of pull. My kids shot turkeys pheasants ducks and geese with this gun.

 
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TSS is great and I use it but most any upland game load with appropriate sized shot will kill a turkey. I shot many merriams in Montana growing up with a 12 gauge and a standard upland load. My daughter shot her bird with a 2 3/4” upland load last season because it was the most manageable for her as far as recoil. Her bird was about 35 yards. She tried a single shot .410, a pump 20 gauge and my Winchester super x2 12 gauge. The semi-auto 12 gauge with a standard upland game load was the most manageable recoil for her. I’ve looked for turkey shot shells this year with no luck I’m certain I have enough but if it came down to having no turkey ammo I wouldn’t be afraid of using other shot shells I already have


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Where’d you get your .410? Been looking for one for my daughter.

Got mine through Rogers Sporting Goods. Apex also gets some on their site periodically.

Edit: Misread. I got my Stevens .410 at Academy. Got lucky and they had one in stock. They had the Rossi as well.
 
My turkey amo is a full length Victory arrow with four 5 inch feathers and a 125 grain Mangnus Bullhead. Works great and a lot cheaper than a shotgun shells. I do like what I read about the Stevens 410 but not so much about the cost of the TSS shells.
 
0E46BBCC-6DA8-4389-8422-5D26572BF8DF.jpegHere’s a side-by-side comparison of my two turkey loads (Browning BXD #4s vs. Federal TSS #9s) shot at 50 yards out of my Remington 870 12 gauge with a full choke. Even though I jerked the trigger on the TSS shot (shot low), there were still two times as many pellets in the 8” ring (44 vs. 20) and 101 more (!!!) total pellets on the paper (163 vs. 62). I imagine the results wouldn’t be quite as stark the closer you get, but man, I’ve seen the light on TSS as compared to lead. I know many wouldn’t, but I’ll gladly pay $10 more per turkey shell to get this substantially better performance. Hope this helps!
 
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