Bowhunting Turkeys?

[NYDiamond-shooter]

I just picked up some new broadheads on ebay. Rocket hammerheads. 2 inch cutting diameter and they are the "over the top" blade deployment. They wont penetrate as well as my rage. From what I have heard you want the broadhead to stick in the bird and cause more initail shock to knock it down. I think these heads should do the trick. Plus they were only $8.40 shipped to my door. Brand new in package. Pretty good deal. I cant wait to use them come may. Harecreek and I have decided to go after them with our bows early instead of waiting. Try and take advantage of the good calling opportunities in the early season. We will throw a few gun hunts in there once in a while, but we are determined to knock one down with a bow. OH and If we do. We are going to video it too. High expectations I know..... But its worth a try.

[Limbhanger]

Tried it once, had a huge longbeard it tight and couldn't get drawn, no blind. Next morning I killed with a shotgun. The ol tom was one of my largest. Haven't tried it since. I have let the arrows fly in the fall a couple of times.

[Harecreek10]

We're going to be doing some intense scouting in April so hopefully our efforts pay off. I will be videoing NY Diamond and myself in our efforts to arrow one. With any luck Ill be posting some videos here in a few weeks.

[VenaticOutdoors]

NY_Diamond - yea you definitely want to try and get that broadhead to stick in. Since we are affiliated with Muzzy, we'll be using a grasshopper attachment to prevent a pass through and create optimal damage. We have a few guys solely dedicated to carrying a bow this year which is very exciting. I think you have the right strategy though, starting with the bow. If the season is anything like last year, the birds will only be hot for the first couple weeks so you need to take advantage of a time when they will easily come in to the call. If I had to make a suggestion, I would suggest using a blind and a decoy. And...if you get it on video I would love to see it.

[NYDiamond-shooter]

Venatic,
We both have blinds and many decoys between the 2 of us, so we will always be using them while bowhunting, and We will have the camera with us at all times so I hope to get some good footage!!

[VenaticOutdoors]

That's pretty exciting - good luck!

[John Lorenzo]

I have a buddy that hunts them only with a bow all over the country and his advice is to have a tom decoy with a fan tail that you can raise and lower, he said when they are coming in he pulls a string and the tail goes up and the gobbler goes nuts and never even looks his way, says it's so easy it should be illegal, he uses no blind just camo and makes a nice smooth draw, also I believe he positions the decoy so it's facing him this helps keep the incoming gobbler between him and the decoy and it generally will be looking at the decoy from the front putting it's butt towards the hunter offering a perfect up the poop shoot shot.

[mikeymjr23]

That sounds like a pretty good set-up your buddy has there John.

[hunterdeneugene]

I see Cabelas has these on sale....
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/te...233&hasJS=true

[cwilliams]

I Just might have to try the Gobbler Guillotine one of these years.

[phlstr119]

Mikey your advice on the public land thing is good, but the fact is their are idiots that stalk the birds even on private land!!! I have killed 3 turkeys...2 with the bow in the fall, 1 huge gobbler in the spring. All of them were killed on private land and I would say that for every bird I have had come in I have had 5 times the amount of hunters stalk in on me. I am not a great turkey hunter, but I sound good enough too the human ear.

I like the blind, especially for bowhunting. It is going to be almost impossible to get the bow back on a bird. Those eyes are just to sharp, without a blind your ownly hope will be as a lone bird passes behind a large tree, or bettter yet when it fans and turns away. Getting them with the bow is cool.

Several years ago I shot a 4pt, a doe and a big old hen with the same arrow in less than a week. That was very very cool

[J-k]

I started Bow hunting last year for turkeys! What a challenge it was to draw! Lost 2 birds to the draw. This year i have a better understanding that i should just take my shotgun! It is a true challenge though. My time is limited this year. I promissed a lot of people i would take them out so i will not waste time with the bow this year.

[tunadawg]

Looking forward to the video. Never took the bow myself for turkey, but I would think it would make it more exciting. Might have to give it a try sometime.

[VenaticOutdoors]

You're almost always going to need to use a blind unless you can draw the bow before the bird comes around the corner. Any movement is going to spook them. I could imagine getting away with it late in the season as well when there is a lot of cover.

I would stay away from the gobbler guillotine and use a large cutting diameter broadhead. I have heard only bad things about them. While the concept is amazing and the highlight reals are awesome, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkMabADoA1s) the arrow flight cannot be very dependable outside of ten yards. With a normal expandable you just aim where the wing meets the body and fire away with devastation.

We shoot Muzzy's because we are sponsored by them - but we add a grasshopper to the broadhead to ensure that it sticks in the bird and does not pass through for ultimate damage. It works great.

[mikeymjr23]

a grasshopper???

[mikeymjr23]

When I shot mine, I was using expandable broadheads.

[VenaticOutdoors]

Yea - it's essentially a barb that goes behind the broadhead.

http://www.shopatron.com/products/pr...28.1932.0.0.0?

[NYDiamond-shooter]

Harecreek and I were just at Docs archery in North Tonawanda yesterday. We shot the TECHNOHUNT video shoot. Its a big projection screen that projects scenes of animals on it. You use blunt tips and wait for the animal to present a good shot and shoot. The screen senses where you hit and scores you. We shot for a half an hour at just turkeys. We both did pretty well. I feel very confident that if we get a bird in bow range, and we get drawn, he is in big trouble. Harecreek is shooting the rage 2 blade broadheads and I am shooting my rocket hammerheads. May 1st cant come fast enough!!

[mikeymjr23]

Good luck to ya! I wanna see pictures!

[VenaticOutdoors]

Sounds great! I wanna see the footage!