Buzz, better has always been the enemy of good enough. If practicality were the sole consideration, I doubt we'd be using doubles, subgauge or otherwise ,and we'd buying our turkeys at Publix rather than hunt them in the woods. If I wanted the most firepower available in the turkey woods, I'd probably still be carrying my 12+ lb. Ithaca Mag 10 or my Ithaca NID Magnum 10 at 11 lbs. Is a .410 better than a 12 gauge on turkeys? No, but with certain limits, inside 40 yards and picking the shot at a stationary bird, it is good enough with the right load. There was a legendary Southern turkey hunter, the late Kenny Morgan who admitted killng over 500 turkeys. Towards the end of his life, he used a .410 SxS. He used lead loads with a twist: he placed a cork between the front and rear trigger. When he pulled the front trigger both barrels fired. I have a distinction I bet even our forum's God's Gift to Turkey hunting, Porchman, can't claim. With the exception of 28 ga. and 16 gauge I have an All Gauge Slam turkey hunting. I have successfully missed with 10 ga., 12, 20 and .410. If someone wants to hunt with an 8 ga. where legal, more power to them. Other than in this thread, there isn't much controversy among turkey hunters on the use of TSS vs. lead--maybe with rock salt. There are those who criticize Winchesters Longbeard's advertising of "killing power to 60 yards" which cuts against the grain of longtime turkey hunters, most anyway, who draw the line in the sand inside 40 yards.
Right now the big controversy in turkey hunting is the use of strutter decoys, some motorized, and "reaping". "Reaping" or "fanning" is where a hunter crawls towards a gobbler holding a real gobbler's fan in front of his face and shooting the bird which often will run towards the fan. I don't hunt with decoys or reap. Some folks with mobility issues need decoys and I am glad for them to do so. Those who "reap", I dunno....could be some kind of death wish. Frank, aka Porchman, kills a lot of birds in the fall where poults, hen or jakes, are legal in TN. That doesn't mean he enjoys the sport more than anyone here, and it doesn't give him any high moral ground to dictate what others shoot within the law or hunting ethics.
Steve, there have always been two kind of folks, those who say they can and those who say they can't. They are both right. Gil