Gobble! Gobble gobble gobble! Huddled around the tiny camcorder screen and cheering like a bunch of boys every time a gobble rang out, we waited breathlessly for the shot. The tom strutted, drummed, and pirouetted across the little screen, finally stopping to raise his head.
A group of us were hunting turkeys atop Idaho’s Kamas Prairie, where birds are plentiful and callable. All killed toms, and most killed two, filling both their Idaho turkey tags. It’s amazing; the enthusiasm and passion a silly gobbling bird can inspire in a bunch of hunters. We hashed and rehashed every story, every called-in bird, and every shot. And, universally, we remarked at how deadly the Browning 12-gauge TTS turkey loads were.
GOBBLER GETTING LOADS
Now, a dead turkey is a dead turkey, and no kind of shotshell can make a turkey even deader. What they can do, though, is kill them faster, and from a greater distance.
I’m no real turkey-hunting expert, having spent most of my hunting days in pursuit of bigger game. I’ve only harvested a handful of birds myself and guided other hunters to another 20 or so birds, so I don’t have a ton of kill shot experience to reference against. But I’ll say this much: the four turkeys I watched hit with the new TSS loads dropped like they’d been hit by a smoke-rolling steam locomotive. Many of them never even flopped, lying completely still before the sound of the shot stopped echoing off the nearby hills.
DEADLY DETAILS
The TSS turkey ammo is loaded with tungsten shot, which is nearly 60-percent heavier than lead. That translates to more energy and impact at long turkey-range. It’s available in 410, 20, and 12 gauge iterations, and loaded with number seven shot, or number nine shot, or a blend of seven and nine shot. Details below.
On our hunt we used the 12-guage 3” 7&9, and 3.5” 7&9 loads, delivered via Browning Cynergy and Maxus shotguns. We killed turkeys from under 20 yards out to 60 yards, experiencing clean one-shot kills on every bird.
| Ounces Of Shot | Velocity (FPS) | Shot Size | |
| 12GA. 3” 7 | 1 ¾ oz. | 1200 | 7 |
| 12GA. 3” 7&9 | 1 ¾ oz. | 1200 | 7&9 |
| 12GA. 3.5” 7 | 2 ¼ oz. | 1200 | 7 |
| 12GA. 3.5” 7&9 | 2 ¼ oz. | 1200 | 7&9 |
| 20GA. 3” 7 | 1 ½ oz. | 1200 | 7 |
| 20GA. 3” 7&9 | 1 ½ oz. | 1200 | 7&9 |
| 410GA. 3” 9 | 13/16 oz. | 1100 | 9 |