Sorry this is so late, meant to reply sooner but has been a busy week/weekend. I have an 887 Tactical that is my combo home defense/turkey gun. The 18.5 barrel is probably a bit on the short side, but Im not really losing that much velocity in comparison to the 22-24 turkey barrels. Yours sounds like it would have either a 26 or 28 on it, which might be a little tricky at times getting in and out of the woods/thicker brush, but once you are set up and hunting it will provide a little more velocity to your shots. As far as I have read, aside from velocity, there isnt a huge difference in patterns when it comes to barrel length, so I went the short barrel route for ease of transporting in and out + home use.
I get pretty good patterns out to 35-40 yards using a Primos Jellyhead choke which is .665 combined with Winchester Supreme 3.5 #5 lead. I tried several brands (as my wallet allowed) and found this to work the best so far. I still get the urge to try other chokes, but really feel confident with my set up at ranges Im likely to see anyway (the bird I shot in 2011 was @ 15 yards when I shot him, so pretty much anything would have worked).
Im not sure how you feel about sights/optics, but one nice thing about the tactical version of the 887 is that it has a rail on it already for add-on sights. I have a Nikon Turkey Pro BTR scope on mine which is awesome (not sure if they still make it though). Being a waterfowler, youre probably used to the sights that are on it and anything more isnt really necessary, but just wanted to share my set-up.
Hopefully this helps as a starting point, the real answer is you just have to experiment with loads and chokes
which is expensive but fun.
Good luck, and happy hunting!
