5 Rounds of 20ga Ammo by Federal 3rd Degree - 3" 1 7/16 oz. #5/6/7 Shot

This Federal ammo might be one of the more interesting innovations in 20 gauge turkey loads since the 3.5” shell. This is an interesting take on making turkey hunting easier to ensure a kill. Turkey, despite being very hard to hunt for other reasons, also can cover enough ground and move their head enough before you can get a round off, that you need to eliminate patterning and shot variables from the hunting equation. This is a 3” 20 gauge shell.

The interesting part to this load aside from the insane recoil, is the mixed shot load, with specialty shot in sizes #5, #6. And #7 and the different specialty shot is designed to work for short range, intermediate range and long range turkey hunting. The promise from Federal is that you can take turkey at up to 50 yards in their 3” shell. That’s an incredible statement to the trust they have in the design. But the elemental basics of the round bear out the simple truth to the matter. With a full choke you are going to get incredible variability in this load, but even with a cylinder bore you can get great results. Given the difficulty of turkey hunting, patterning can be exceptionally important.

The important part here is that the different shot sizes and configurations can pattern you well throughout the curve of 10 yards to 50 yard with 35-40 being the long range sweet spot and 10-50 being reasonable throughout the distance curve. This is compared to a 25-30 yard sweet spot for most turkey loads. This is a great turkey load for those who are serious about bagging birds.