Easy Does It: 5 Expert Tips for Bowhunting Turkeys

Successful bowhunting is all about discipline

There was a time when I thought I’d never kill a turkey with a bow. They hung up out of range, or caught me tugging into full-draw when they got close. When I did get a shot, they all too often escaped, even when hit well.

Those were different times. Modern bowhunters have a deeper bag of tricks and much more knowledge at their disposal. Bowhunting turkeys is easier than ever — if you follow these crucial steps.

1. Break New Ground

Simply having a better place to hunt is the most important piece of bowhunting success. Many turkey hunters brag of how well-educated their turkeys are. Have at them. When bowhunting, I want naïve, lightly hunted gobblers. Gaining exclusive access to prime private land is one avenue to find such birds, but it’s obviously easier said than done in most regions. Getting farther away from major towns makes it easier to knock on a door and gain access to high-quality ground, but it still takes time and effort. This is why serious turkey fanatics travel to states like Nebraska or the Dakotas, where there are loads of birds, fewer hunters and more landowners willing to grant hunting permission for the asking.

Personally, I prefer hiking into remote areas most hunters avoid, and especially backpacking into true wilderness. Admittedly this is more feasible in the West where I live than back East, but it should always be considered. Few hunters, even turkey hunters, are crazy enough to trek 10 miles into uncharted territory to kill a bird.

Again, the more remote the area, the better your chance of finding welcoming landowners. For instance, while plying far western and north-central portions of Nebraska — far from major cities — we had little trouble gaining access to several excellent properties.

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2. Get a Blind

Drawing a bow on a gobbler was once bowhunting’s most challenging maneuver. Pop-up ground blinds have now made it almost too easy. It seems incongruous that a bird with such sharp eyesight and hair-trigger survival instincts would saunter up to a cloth cube, but they do, even when blinds are set in wide-open crop fields. Simply put, if you want to kill a turkey with a bow, a good blind is about the most important piece of gear to have, next to your bow.

There is a learning curve for shooting out of blinds, though. Closing the deal involves either shooting from your knees or while seated, depending on the design of the blind and where it’s set up. Practice your preferred approach thoroughly. As you’re practicing, pay careful attention to your bow while inside the blind, too. Troubles often develop while threading arrows through shooting ports, especially on angled shots, or the top limb of longer bows contacting the blind roof and sending arrows off the mark.

Packing a heavy pop-up blind into remote areas is obviously out of the question. But you still don’t have to sit in the wide open.

Buy now: Viper 4P Ground Blind in Realtree EDGE

3. Use Big Cutters

Leave the compact, cut-on-contact broadheads you use for elk at home and instead install super-aggressive mechanicals that turn marginal hits into killing shots. Even a giant Midwestern gobbler has a vital area no larger than a regulation baseball (located just below the wing butt). A mechanical with a 1.5-inch cutting diameter (1.75 to 2 inches is even better better) imparts shock to knock gobblers silly, and it’s more likely to clip a lung, the liver, or a vital artery for a faster kill. Mechanical broadheads increase recovery rates exponentially on turkeys.

Expert Advice on Broadheads for Turkey Hunting

Learn more: Where Do I Aim on a Turkey?

4. Make Simple Sounds

You don’t have to produce contest-worthy calls to score regularly on turkeys. In fact, this is a classic case of less being more. I’ve watched too many overconfident, or simply overly exuberant, hunters ward off willing birds by calling too loud and too often.

Call just enough to keep a tom coming your way; no less, no more. The point is, calling approaches don’t differ just because you’re wielding a bow.

Learn more: When to Turkey Call and When You Shouldn't

And: The Only Call You Need for Turkey Hunting

5. Know Your Limits

Successful bowhunting is all about discipline, and at no time is this truer than during the critical seconds before the shot. Before you release an arrow you must honestly ask yourself: Can I realistically make this shot? It can be tempting to adopt the poke-and-hope approach when a big longbeard hangs up at 40 yards, especially after several tough days of hunting. But remember that baseball-sized vital area.

If you can center a baseball at 40 yards every time, good for you. Shoot. But if 15 yards is more realistic, then wait. Letting that bird walk means he’ll be there next time — and as we learned in Step 1, having a good place to hunt is the most important piece of the puzzle.

Learn more: Paint Your Old or Inexpensive Turkey Decoys to Add Realism

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