Bowhunting Turkey Advice
 

I'm going after birds this spring with a bow. I obviously plan to use a ground blind and decoys to get the bird close without being noticed. But I was wondering if anyone had some other tips to share, or insight. Also what broadhead do you prefer? I'm looking at going with the Magnus Bullhead. I understand I'll have to use different arrows for it. But from everything I've seen, head shots are 100% most effective, and the Bullhead has great review.
Thanks guys!

Why don't you go to Youtube and search for some bow hunting turkey videos? Some are quite helpful and you will learn a lot. I'm not ready to try turkey hunting with my bow quite yet even though it sounds like fun.

Here is a good video for shot placement I saw it on another forum.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9z7wb-iv5U

Also if going with the bullheads you may need longer arrows to avoid hitting your rest and this could affect the spine.

And if you do get them make sure you test them by shooting into something soft like a pillow so you don't damage the head.

Funny thing I plan on stopping in Missouri and Iowa this spring to try and wack one also good luck.

Timbr,
That's a great video. Thanks!
By the way, what's so funny about coming to Iowa to shoot a turkey? :devil:







Good luck!!

I hope its not funny because the laugh will likely be on me.

I meant it was funny as in weird because I plan on hunting in Missouri and Iowa and both other posters one in Missouri and the other in Iowa.:hit:

bullhead
 

i have had horrible luck with the bullhead but have not given up. things that i have found: screw them on really tight or use glue as they may unscrew in flight and break when they hit. use a 4 fletch and 5" feathers, longer shaft, probably stiffer also, they fly nice but only if you have enough feather to spin them. i have also hit 3 birds in the neck, all under 15 yards and all three bounced off, one cause the head came unscrewed. i shoot either a 47 # recurve or a 50# compound and that seems too light to make a bullhead work, don't know what lb. those in the video's shoot but bet it is much heavier, yet the hits mostly stops their arrows also. magnus is a terrible company to try and talk too, they just don't give a damn, mostly won't even respond

cheers

I find this very interesting. When I first bought the bullhead it was the first year they came out and I shot them into a regular target.I busted the heads so I contacted Magnus about it. This was before they realized you needed to shoot into a soft target and when they were saying you could use the 100g for body shots. I contacted Magnus and they were awesome to deal with. They even sent me all new heads and a spare set of blades.

I knew what'cha meant. I was just picking at you.

Awesome video with good information!

You guys from Iowa are funny :sheep:

Just checked the mail and my Iowa tag has arrived :party0007:

bullhead
 

i have broken 4 bullheads all shooting at turkey or a pillow. all were returned to magnus and were replaced. two letters and three emails were sent to the company and the guy in charge their engineering. forgot his name, not one of the 5 attempts to contact him were successful. i believe that they have changed the design from the early one's. basically they just kissed my off, they could have told me the heads were unscrewing in flight and their thread system was so weak that it couldn't stand a hit. they did change that part however but still could have communicated with me. i have a bunch of their bullheads but would never buy anything else from them cause of that.

cheers

Try Montec,I plan to try them on turkeys with my crossbow.They worked great on deer.

I as well am going to try a bow for my first turkey this spring as well. I am going to use my deer rig and change my 1-3/8ths cut GrimReaper to 2" cut GR's and not change anything else. Have NO DOUBT that I will get pass through!!!! Staying with 64lb draw. Pop up blind and K&H Pretty Boy and Girl dekes. Will see what happens.

From what I've read you don't want a pass through on a body shot. It's better to use a dull broadhead so the arrow will stay in the bird and do more damage. Gonna try my luck with it this year with a bow as well.

broadhead
 

dont' believe the dull broadhead and no pass through stuff. it's pure hogwash, stupid besides. with the 64 # bow and an average size broadhead you might get a pass through on some birds but don't count on it. look at some of the turkey video's, most of those guys don't seem to be getting pass throughs. i am shooting an arrow, 2016 going right at 200 fps and i surely don't, maybe 300 fps might, don't know, can't pull it back. that was with a recurve, my compound goes about 225 and that doesn't either

cheer

I will MUCH rather have either that 1-3/8ths or 2" cut blowing through, RAZOR sharp and hopefully sticking in the dirt on the other side. If not, at least that razor sharp broadhead will be doing its job of cutting all the major vessels needed to do its job cleanly and humanely as possible. And at just nearly 300fps, I doubt it will stay in them.

Anyone have experience with the Rage turkey broadheads?

Great video. Thanks for posting.

pass through
 

to 2nd chance, you might just need it if you think you are going to get a pass through. actually what would be nice is to have a bunch of you guy's out there that shoot turkey with the bow is to comment, one the weight you use and if you are shooting through the body of an adult turkey. watched some more video the other day, don't know what lbs. they are pulling but rarely are they getting pass throughs. don't know the heads either. been my experience that at about 50 lb. with what you would call a normal 3 blade head, i don't even come close and i have hit 10 now all at under 15 yds. speak up will ya time is getting close.

cheers

What poundage are you shooting and what broadhead might answer some of you dilemma.
I am shooting a Mathews Drenalin at 64#, 29-1/2" draw, QAD Ultra rest with a Gold Tip Velocity XT, weighing 356grns with 100grn GrimReaper head. Chronies at 297 fps with an energy rating at nearly 70 lbs. Clean pass throughs on deer out to 50 +yds. Have never shot a turkey yet, but with what I have experienced on deer, hogs, mulies, bear and elk. I don't feel a turkey will be of much a problem
Alot of people take their deer hunting rigs and turn them down to 50 or so lbs to be able to draw it easier so as not to be fighting a heavier draw in a blind and then may have to hold it for some lengthy time. And this may explain why you are not seeing the pass throughs like you feel you should be seeing. With being able to pass my GR's through a new steel drum for S&G's at 18yds for a test of its endurance, I still don't believe that a 15-20lb turkey will pose me much problems.

After missing out on a tag this spring (firearm), I think I'm going to pick up a 45# Samick Sage and start practicing up. It would be nice to be guaranteed a tag every year and I used to shoot a recurve pretty well, but understand that it would be a whole new ball game hunting with one.

45 lb bow
 

i have harvested a number of turkey with either a 45 lb howatt or my 50 lb darton compound. my advise is to use a smaller rather than larger broadhead and even with a smaller 3 blade, don't count on a lot of penetration and don't use a retractable, just my advise, maybe somebody else can pick up on this. i also am shooting at about 14 yd. or so

cheers





























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[QUOTE=14 ga;4039658]i have harvested a number of turkey with either a 45 lb howatt or my 50 lb darton compound. my advise is to use a smaller rather than larger broadhead and even with a smaller 3 blade, don't count on a lot of penetration and don't use a retractable, just my advise, maybe somebody else can pick up on this. i also am shooting at about 14 yd. or so

cheers





You speak of a howatt bow, what is that, a recurve or a compound? And yes, I am sure some people have picked up on what your saying. But, I do not know of anyone useing retractable broadheads these days, but I am sure that many use expandables to hunt turkeys with.
You just have be aware that you are using equipment that keeps you limited to very short distances and thats all your compentent levels are to, then thats what you are limited to. Not everyone has such short range and equipment limitations.

broadheads
 

[QUOTE=SecondChance;4039929]the howatt is a recurve, one of the better one's and has been on the market for only about 60 years. expandables to me are the same and for light bows they just don't work on turkey and as far as range goes using a sight certainly helps as over shooting instinctive but even so the kill zone on a turkey is about the size of an orange and that is not a lot to shoot for, want to wound the bird, shoot anything but they in fact kill hard

cheers

If you are going to use the Magnus bullheads use 4-5" feathers with a helical on them. They will shoot damn close or just the same as field points. I've shot mine into a pillow to tune and never had an issue with them un threading or breaking. This will be my first shot at turkeys with a bow as well, good luck!

[QUOTE=14 ga;4040007]I see. I am not very familar with recurves. The only one I really know anything about is my dads Black Widow Take Down. Shoots pretty nice. And you do have a very good point on sights over instinctive. I do shoot pins out to 50yds. I have found that my 30yd pin is dead nuts on at 10-15yds. Then I have to drop my 20 into the game. I fully understand and agree with the size of the kill zone and was not aware that it was as large as an orange. When I shot IBO and became very familar with its location, I was under the impression that it was even smaller. Thats the reason I went with the larger cut BH to take out all possible chances to miss this area. Aim small, miss small. I can keep 3 of 3 of my GR's on a 2 inch dot out to 30yds 95% of the time. After that I can put 6 of them in a 4-5in dot out to 50yds all day long.

sights
 

big diff. between what you can do with or without sights. anyway there is an ol' saw that says turkey can't fly with a broken leg. don't ya believe it. the thing here is that you should aim just forward of the upper part of the leg, therefore breaking it and also hitting the vital area. turkey can still get airborne with a broken leg, don't think otherwise

cheers

pass through
 

if you haven't done it ya don't know and hope ya get to find out. let us know how it works. something else seems to be happening with turkey.

cheers

In regards to the bull heads, they have just cought my eye about 4 days ago. I wanted to pick them up in 100 grain but realized the cut diameter was only 2 3/4 so was leaning towards the 125 grain at 3 3/4. I wanted to try to keep the weight of both these arrows and my deer hunting set up the same as to not be off too much with my pins. But I dont know the weight difference of the arrows Magnus offers compared to my current arrows. My other big concern now is with the large diameter of the Bull Heads I am worried they might hit my sight upon leaving my string. Anyone know anything about this or have experienced this?

I had to get longer arrows for the bullheads so I wouldn't hit my site which changed my spine so I had to get a different arrow. I fletch my own arrows with 5" hellical shields so I get good accuracy with them. I have been doubly lucky because I also shoot 125 grain rocky Mtn. snypers out of this rig and it has the same impact as the bullheads. So I figure if they are in tight and I can get a head shot I will go with the bullhead but if they are not I can put in the snyper and go for the body. Best of both worlds I hope.:biggrin:

I am bound and determined to use the Xbow I have now. Have taken too many with the ole shotgun!
That video was great!

And is why I am moving it to the Refernce section! Well done!

Dave......JW

Someone may of already mentioned this. Practice from different yardages, also shoot from a sitting/kneeling position. If the bird happens to be super close, you may need to shoot a longer yardage pin. Due to your arrow not having time to rise yet. At close ranges, you may need to shoot your 30 or 40 yard pin. Also pay attention to your stabilizer while drawing in a blind. Lots of birds get spooked when drawing in a blind and the stabilizer hits the front of the blind. Maybe even take it off. Check out the Tom o hawk broadheads also. Those guillotine heads usually tend to flare past 20-25 lbs, unless you turn your bow down.

I've been doing my homework and I'm just going to shoot my mechanical Rage blades. I feel more comfortable I think with taking a body shot and at least doing damage that way, rather than missing the head all together. Maybe one day I'll get cocky and try that shot but for now I'm gonna go for a body shot. Lots of good advice though coming from you guys.

I got 3 Magnus 2 3/4" cut Magnus Bullheads in and will practice with them. I like the DVD that comes with them as that guy uses an egg as a target. If you can hit the egg - you
can take the head off! If I miss a few - that is okay as I know I can hit the body.

So I will come back and report my practices.....I am new to this Xbow and have been out of bow hunting over 35 yrs. So this is a great challenge.....a shot gun has become too easy.

DAve...JW

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HaAIMdSBm4s&feature=plpp.

This is an interesting perspective on where to aim when bowhunting turkeys.

Good luck, here is a good article I found for hunting turkeys with a bow but without a blind!
http://www.headhunterstv.com/bowhunt...n-the-shadows/

See if you can find a guilitine head , and good luck , I'm waiting for birds and would of had mine if I had a shotgun yesterday . I had a single tom , ignored my calls and stayed just far enough to live . Hope it changes later this mornin . Good Luck buddy