Turkey Hunting with Compound Bow – Top 5 Best Tips

Turkey Hunting with Compound Bow – Top 5 Best Tips

Spring turkeys season has a few district sounds, gobbles and shot gun blasts! It doesn’t always have to be this way though. If you like the sound of a calm spring morning and don’t want to disturb it, consider getting some extra time in the woods with your archery tackle.

A compound bow is an excellent weapon for turkey hunting, as long as you follow a few good tips:

1. Know where to Aim

Hitting a turkey with a bow is slightly different than shooting it with a shotgun. With a shotgun, it’s typical to shoot in the head and neck area. With a compound bow it’s not that simple. The traditional way to shoot a turkey with a bow and arrow is to shoot through the wings at the bottom of the breast.

That way you’ll hit the lungs, hopefully the heart, but most importantly pin the wings together so the bird won’t fly away.

The other, newer, way to shoot turkeys with a bow is to aim to cut their head off. That way you either decapitate them and kill them instantly, or you miss completely and the bird walks away unscathed. You use this method in conjunction with “guillotine” broad heads that cut as much as a 6” diameter to give you the best shot possible.

2. Have the Right Broadhead& Arrow Combination

Hunting turkeys isn’t like hunting deer or bigger game. It takes much less penetration of the arrow to make a clean kill on a turkey with the best compound bow. It’s far more important to have a faster arrow that’ll fly flatter than it is to have a heavy arrow.

It’s important to not use expandable broad heads while turkey hunting because the turkeys body is thin enough you can pass completely through it without fully opening.

A lightweight arrow and broad head will fly faster, and still hit hard enough for a turkey body shot. If you plan on taking a bird with a head shot. Use a guillotine style Broadhead, it’s more humane and an ethical requirement.

3. Get Close

If you’re going to hunt turkeys with a compound bow till behoove you to get close. As close as you can. Turkeys are not only smaller targets than deer, they move around much more, and in much more predictable ways.

Typically, deer will move is straight lines where turkeys will bob, weave and duck as they move and feed. That combined with the fact that the vitals on a turkey are smaller and harder to make out accurately can lead to a serious problem.

Make sure you get as close as you can otherwise you’ll wound a bird and never recover it.

4. Practice, Practice, Practice

This should go without saying. You’re going to need to have pinpoint accuracy on a target that won’t sit still. Practice not only shooting targets the size of an index card, but also practice holding your bow at full draw for up to a minute, then releasing the arrow. That way if you need to, you can draw early and still have the accuracy to get the job done.

5. Use different Tactics

You may need to buy a new, larger ground blind for this season so you can shoot your bow unobstructed. You may need to resort to roosting a bird in order to get close to them. Decoy? Try ‘em!

Hunting turkeys with a bow is an unconventional challenge, you may need unconventional tactics to get the job done. Don’t be closed minded and be flexible on your hunts and you’ll do better in the turkey woods.

If you want to use your bow in the turkey woods this year, go for it! When you look at the mount on your wall. You can’t kill them from the couch, get out there and fling some arrows!

Author bio:

Brandon Cox loves everything hunting and regularly posts on his blog stayhunting where he shares his experiences in hunting giving you the latest hunting information. You can find more from Brandon on Twitter.