Muzzleloading shotguns have their drawbacks. In addition to being a single-shot, they are slow to reload.

That's not to say muzzleloader shotguns are without their drawbacks. They are, after all, muzzleloaders. That means it's a single-shot and slow to reload. The other big nuisance with most muzzleloading shotguns is dealing with the choke. The choke, of course, is the section of the bore near the front where the diameter grows smaller. This constricts the shot charge before it exits the shotgun and controls the size of the pattern. Turkey-hunting shotguns use a lot of choke constriction to keep the pattern as small as possible for as long as possible. This is no different than with a cartridge shotgun, except cartridge shotguns do not load from the muzzle, and therein lies the problem.

The shot cup and/or wad must be pushed in from the front when loading a muzzleloader. That means they will have to pass through the choke and still seal the larger-diameter bore. It's very difficult to do this well. There are some wads with elastic memory that can be used, but most hunters use plastic shot cups, and they do not react well to loading through a tight choke constriction.

One answer is to use a muzzleloader with a removable choke and to screw out the choke tube before loading, then replace it after loading is complete. I don't like this for a couple of reasons. One, it's a lot of work, and it slows the loading process considerably. Two, I don't like having my hands doing that much work (screwing in the choke tube) in the front of a loaded shotgun barrel. Of course, the gun is never primed until after the choke is replaced and I have set up on a bird, but it still makes me nervous.

Knight has a more workable solution with its jug choke. A jug choke is an old design that's actually larger than the bore diameter for a few inches before returning to bore diameter. The concept is that the shot column enters the jug or larger portion of the barrel and the diameter of the shot column expands to fill the larger choke size. The barrel then tapers back to nominal bore diameter, which constricts the expanded shot charge and induces a choke effect. It was very effective in muzzleloaders of old, and it's very effective today. It also allows easy loading from the muzzle with plastic shot cups and tight-fitting over-the-shot wads. Patterns from the TK2000 shotgun can rival any modern turkey shotgun, as at least two Mississippi toms could attest to if they had not already been deep fried.