So for Christmas my dad got me 3 inch tss turkey loads and I have never used them before and I was wandering if anyone else had

Wild Bill

I shoot the Apex #9’s out of my 20 guage, and the Apex Ninja 9.5’s out of the .410

I shoot them in my 20 gauge. Excellent patterns with a couple of chokes.

Great stuff. It patterns tighter than lead, so I use a standard full choke in 20 gauge with Apex #9 TSS which produces a 40 yard pattern which is plenty tight, but open enough at closer ranges to give you a little margin for error on the ones that sneak in close. My understanding is that penetration is equivalent to 4 sizes larger lead shot, so #9 TSS gives penetration of #5 lead.
I suggest sighting in with lead dove loads, to save money and your shoulder, before shooting any of the TSS to assess pattern.
That was a great Christmas present!

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As for comparing TSS (18g/cc) pellets vs lead (11g/cc) a TSS pellet will have about the same penetration energy as a lead pellet 5 sizes larger. So, a TSS #9 pellet will penetrate into soft matter at approx the same depth as a Lead #4 pellet. However, in real life scenarios, on real birds, the TSS will actually do better vs lead, because of hardness. TSS will break bones better, or any other hard material, because of its hardness and lack of flattening out when it comes into contact with any surface. Therefore, for the purposes of killing turkeys, shooting a 2 oz load of TSS #9 is superior to shooting a 4-1/2 oz load of lead #4s. And looking at it from the opposite direction, what that means to me and my turkey guns/ammo combos, one has a more effective gun/ammo combo with my .410 and 7/8 oz of TSS 9s, than with a 12 ga 3" 1-7/8 oz load of Federal lead #4s - measured by number of pellets on target and the penetration energy of those pellets that strike the target.

For illustration, here's a comparison of pellets of various shot material. Let's say that each pellet is going 1100 fps (muzzle velocity), at sea level and at 70 deg F. Here's the distance each type pellet will give you 1.25" of ballistics gel penetration, as well as showing the number of pellets per ounce. When you think about the penetration per pellet along with the number of pellets available to penetrate the target, these numbers will illustrate why density makes such a huge difference in a shotshell's performance on fowl.
8g/cc Steel #2 (123/oz) – 45.7 yds
11g/cc Nickel Plated lead #5 (174/oz) – 60.4 yds
12g/cc Hevi-13 #6 (208/oz) – 60.4 yds
15g/cc Fed HWT #7 (220/oz) – 81 yds
18g/cc TSS #8-1/2 (300/oz) – 84.5 yds

In addition to penetration energy and pellet count, there is a 3rd factor that doesn't show up in the math - patterning characteristics. In a nutshell, the denser and harder the shot material, the better the pellets will hold together in a pattern.

That’s great info Hawglips. I bought about 20 boxes of the old 20 gauge 3” Federal Heavyweight 7s a few years back. They are the 15g/cc not the 18g TSS. Been knocking ‘em dead ever since w the 20 gauge.
Don’t know why nobody makes these anymore. Killer shot, don’t see any reason to go to the $$$$$$$ TSS
I’ve dropped two Toms at 42 and 44 yds dead on the spot w this shell.

All the TSS stuff is pretty good and most will hammer a turkey out to 40 yards with a regular full turkey tube. If you get it really really dialed in with the right chokes 50 plus yard killer patterns are also pretty easy to achieve. Above said, if you know your terrain and you are hunting in the East (Woodland turkeys) a good lead shell (Winchester Longbeards for example) will provide a great 40 yard pattern and hurt the wallet less. Above said, when gas is over $4.00 a gallon what's does it matter that it might cost $10 to kill a turkey if you want to shoot TSS. The farm I used to hunt was 100 mile round trip. Gas for that round trip is over $25 now. Its all relative as they say.