Bowhunting Turkeys: What you Need to Know

If you’re new to bowhunting turkeys, there are some things you need to know before heading to the field. In this blog we’ve put together a list of great content that will help you navigate your first season bowhunting long beards.

Let's start with the turkey bowhunting gear you need:

The first thing you need to know is the size and location of a turkey's vitals so that when you make your shot you know it’ll be lethal. This blog from Mathews covers where the vitals are on a gobbler at different angles. This blog is great for beginners, but also great to go over each year before the season begins. This is geared towards those who choose to shoot fixed or mechanical broadheads.

Turkey Shot Placement | Articles | Mathews Archery (mathewsinc.com)

Another option for turkey broadheads is a broadhead made for head shots. Here at Archery Country, we have Solid Turkey D-Cap broadheads and Swat Chopper broadheads. When choosing these broadheads, it is important to know that these are for close range shots and that matching this broadhead with the right arrow is very important for getting these broadheads to fly well.

Turkeys have excellent eyesight, so wearing black in your ground blind and having a good bow holder that limits the amount of movement you have to make is essential. Our favorite bow holder is the Mathews Engage Limb Legs because you can shoot with it on and it keeps your bows cam up and out of the dirt.

For other brands of bows, we really like the bow holder accessory made for the Xenek ground blinds that screws into the top of the blind and allows the bow to hang from it.

Having a variety of different turkey calls is also important. You just never know which call will entice that long beard that is held up at 60 yards so you want to make sure you’ve got options.

Learning how to use a mouth call while bowhunting can be very beneficial since you need both hands to shoot your bow. Here’s a video from Woodhaven Calls on how to use a mouth call. Mouth calls can take some time to learn so make sure to practice before the season.

Realistic turkey decoys make a huge difference...especially if hunting educated birds. Here at Archery Country, we sell Avian-X LCD(Lifelike Collapsible Decoy) series because of their realistic paint and details as well as the convenience of being able to collapse the decoy for transportation.

A great way to learn about turkey hunting is to hear about others' experiences. At Archery Country, we have recorded a few different episodes on turkey hunting so if you want to hear more bowhunting turkey knowledge listen to any one of these podcasts.

Ep 35: Bowhunting Turkeys: Gear, Stories and Strategy (podbean.com)

Spring gobblers are on the mind and in this podcast our Waite Park crew is talking all about bowhunting turkeys. In this episode we get into what gear we use, we share a few stories, and talk turkey hunting strategy. We discuss the different options for broadheads and our experiences with each. Specifically, we talk about the pros and cons of body shot broadheads versus head lopping broadhead. If bowhunting turkeys is on your mind listen to this!

Ep 16: Turkey Hunting 101 With Matt Dykes (podbean.com)

We sit down for over an hour with one of the best archery turkey hunters in the business, Matt Dykes, and cover absolutely every aspect of turkey hunting. We cover clothing, blinds, calls, turkey decoys, decoy setups, and broadheads. If you're looking for tips on maximizing your time and shot opportunities in the turkey blind make sure to listen!

Matt's Accomplishments:

• Has harvested hundreds of turkeys with his bow
• Grand Slam with a bow

Ep 1: Turkey Hunting Recap 2020 Spring Turkey Season (podbean.com)

Episode #1 We go over our 2020 turkey season and discuss different setups, rigs, decoys and calling.

We hope this helped prepare you for your first season bowhunting turkey. Bowhunting turkeys is a great way to spend time outdoors and a great way to continue shooting archery all year round.