Need help

[Scrape Maker]

My son will be going on his first turkey hunt this season.He will be shooting his 20 single shot.What is the best shot for this gun.He is 8 but i'm not wooried about recoil.He been shooting a 243 for 3 years and killed a dear this year with my 270.Oh it a modified barrel on the 20.is that going to be ok?

[magnatecsteve]

Modified SHOULD be OK at close range, you will have to pattern it to make sure. It's hard to say what load will work best, every gun shoots different. I would start with maybe #6 to get more pellets in the pattern.

[jbeck]

I would like to see 4 shot being used if the pattern is dense enough. The biggest thing with the 20 ga. is to let the bird get close enough. He'll do fine Scrape. I shot a bird 3 years ago at 4 steps, and I don't think I needed the 12 ga. I was useing. LOL

[Gobblegobblebang]

I would make sure that the gun is shooting as well as it can. You may be able to have the barrel modified to screw in chocks so your son can use it for many different applications. If you are unsure about patterning the gun go to the NWTF web site for your state and see if there are any Still Target and Patterning Shoots coming up. If you do not see anything call the regional director for you area. Some times they do not keep the site updated.
Good luck and have fun
Lee,
P.S. STRUT10 has a good article in this same forum about patterning