Crossbow hunters will tell you that there is no more challenging prey for a crossbow hunter than the feather armored, delicious wild turkey. Both spring and fall offer great opportunities for bagging a turkey with your crossbow, if you play your cards right. So, what are the secrets to successfully hunting wild turkey with a crossbow? Let’s get started…
First, make sure you’re cleared to hunt in the area! You can only hunt on private farmland with the owner’s permission. The willingness of a private landowner to allow hunting on their grounds varies and depends on personal preferences and the animal you’re hunting.
On public land, there are hunting seasons, licenses, and permits handled by the local state Department of fish and wildlife. These departments can advise you on the best locations for finding a wild turkey population and exactly which species are present.
Scouting for Turkey
In so many ventures, preparation is key to success, and wild turkey hunting is no different. It would help if you did some groundwork beforehand, to get to know the turkey’s habitat and where you’re most likely to find the birds once the season starts.
Turkeys have places to roost and sites where they forage. You need to find the roosting areas as this gives you a clue to the places where the turkeys hang out, but avoid disturbing the roosting birds. Plus, you can’t hunt a roosting bird. Turkeys habitually roost in the same areas, so the other hunters will be displeased (that’s putting it mildly) if the new guy or gal disrupts the turkeys’ comfort zone.
You can approach within 100 yards of the roosting area just before dawn or after sunset and use a turkey call to check if there are roosting birds nearby. You call, and they’ll respond if they’re in the area. Now that you know where they sleep, you can locate where they go to feed and interact.
Turkeys, like any animal, go where the food is, and their feeding grounds will rotate with the seasons. When the hunting season starts, you simply set up an ambush zone near where you expect the turkeys to forage or strut.
Don’t be tempted to put down bait or feed to attract the wild turkeys to a preferred area – you can’t shoot turkeys attracted to bait or a feeding station. Baiting turkey is not allowed in most states – always check your local regulations first!
Roosting Sites
Turkeys like roosting sites that they can easily access and offers protection from the elements as well as predators. When you’re in the woods, keep your eyes and ears open for signs of wild turkeys in the area.
Potential roosting sites may include some or all the following:
· Access to water.
· Evergreens and dense mature trees for overnight cover.
· Open Areas – The birds need space to fly up and out.
· Shelter – Protection from wind provided by landscape features.
Confirmation signs include:
· Droppings and feathers under trees.
· Hearing turkeys flying up into the trees or dropping down to the ground.
· Hearing the distinctive yelping noise when the birds are on the roost.
· Seeing birds in the morning or evening near potential roost sites.
Day Time Activities
Turkeys forage for food, strut to attract a mate, and indulge in dust baths to keep their feathers in tip-top condition. All these areas provide potential hunting stands. Spotting turkeys engaging in these activities gives you signs as to where the best hunting sites are.
Scrapes on the ground exposing dry soil can make excellent dust baths. Strutting areas generally have short vegetation so the male can display to advantage. Any area can provide foraging, but for hunting purposes, you need open ground. Turkeys are prey animals, although they will come onto open land, they like areas with cover close by as an escape route.
Observing turkeys going about their daytime activities early in the year will give you potential hunting sites for when the season starts.
Gender Matters
In spring, you can hunt male birds only. In the fall, most states allow both male and female birds as part of your acceptable bag. Common sense dictates that you don’t take out the breeding females in the spring.
Both the mature males (Toms) and juvenile makes (Jakes) have a distinguished beard – a tuft of feathers on the chest. The longer the beard, the older the male, and the more enhanced his survival skills. The male turkey or gobbler is almost twice the weight of a female or hen bird. You can expect a hefty 24lbs on a mature male bird.
View to a Kill
Your approach to bringing a turkey into the range of your crossbow depends on the hunting season. You can achieve this outcome through a mixture of turkey calls and decoy models to attract the birds into your hunting site. Be aware of the possibility that other hunters may attempt to sneak up on your decoys mistaking them for the real thing. Safety always comes first whenever you’re carrying your bow.
Spring
The spring hunting season focuses on the male, and the male turkey is intent on attracting a female. You would think that by imitating the call of a female turkey you would attract the males. Sometimes this works, but in turkey courtship, the male calls to the female, so you may have better luck using the call of a male bird and provoking some competition among the other male birds.
Fall
In fall, you have a choice of birds to hunt, so you may treat turkey hunting as an opportunistic catch (provided you have enough turkey tags available) or go out specifically to bag a Tom. Around this time of year, the hunter relies on the social nature of the turkey by seeking out flocks of feeding birds.
By scattering the flock, you can use your caller to coax the birds back into the area, one or two at a time, making it easier to line up your shot.
Turkey Calls
Turkeys have a range of different calls to attract a mate, say where they are, or alert others to danger. To reproduce the noises that live birds make, you can opt for several different turkey callers.
Mouth or Diaphragm Calls
The advantage of these horseshoe shaped callers is that they leave your hands free to hold your crossbow. Plus, it minimizes movement and avoids alerting the bird to your presence. You need to practice, but this one caller can produce all the turkey noises you need.
Friction Calls
Typically, these require two hands and consist of a sounding box and a striker. Scratching the striker across the surface of the sounding box produces realistic turkey calls. Depending on the material, they may not work in wet conditions. You must put down the caller to pick up your crossbow, and this movement may spook your target bird into flight.
Your other option is to pick up one of these, it’s an electronic turkey call that features 5 different calls without you having to blow into it or spend time and energy working it. Just hit a button and you can keep your hands on your crossbow. It’s designed to be easy to carry and it’s made for one hand use. It features digital turkey calls, and is made by a trusted company with over 20 years in the business. I’d give it plus as a definite add to any turkey hunter’s backpack.
The Right Gear Matters
The ideal crossbow for hunting turkey will have a few key characteristics. Ideally, you want a bow with a small width for more maneuverability that has a quiet shot, is camouflaged and has a draw weight between 150 and 175 pounds. Generally speaking, any crossbow with a draw weight of 150 pounds or more should be adequate for turkey hunting.
There are a few things that you can do to any crossbow that will improve your odds when it comes to hunting turkey. First, check that everything is tight: all of the fasteners, scope mount, quiver brackets, and rails. Applying a bit of this stuff to the bolts can help to reduce any rattling noise – just don’t over do it!
If your crossbow doesn’t already have string / limb stops, consider picking some up. The same goes for bow string silencers – anything to keep your shots as silent as possible will definitely up your game.
Heavier arrows have more stopping power, and therefore will make piercing through the turkey’s natural armor that much easier. While you’re at it, every time you target practice, set aside a few minutes to practice sliding your crossbows safety switch from on to off and back again as silently as possible. It’s something that many hunters overlook, but the turkeys exceptional hearing won’t be so forgiving.
While in some areas of archery the quality of the scope isn’t as important, when it comes to hunting turkey with any bow, using a quality scope is imperative. If you can, consider upgrading your scope if you’re currently using a budget model.
Many experienced archers (with hours and hours of judging target ranges under their belts) still miss shots by sighting in the wrong range. A rangefinder is one accessory that’s a must have when you’re out in the field.
There are many great rangefinders that are affordable these days, with this one being my go to recommendation for anyone looking to pick one up. Trust me, just get one before you get out there and miss that clean shot you had on that gobbler!
Clean Shots Only
Every year many turkeys are shot, but never tracked down. In the same way that their feathers provide armor against your bolts, they also do well at hiding the turkeys’ vital target area. The area that you’re targeting is somewhat small, especially at increased distances.
That combined with the fact that their feathers and hard quills act as effective armor against any arrow make it easy to lose a bird that you’ve shot. It’s critical that you practice your shots beforehand with the broadheads that you plan to use in the field – as they’re going to shoot differently than your field points.
Practice Your Shot
It may seem obvious that to shoot and kill a turkey, you need to know where to shoot it for an ethical kill. There are challenges with a feathered target that you do not get with a furred one. Before you set out to bag a wild turkey, be sure that you know where and how to shoot it.
The best way to gain proficiency with targeting the turkey is to get in some range practice with a life-sized 3D target of a magnificent gobbler. This one is my favorite. You can practice shooting your bird from every angle and a range of distances up to around 30 yards.
Practice all the shooting positions – standing, crouching, prone, and inside your blind. Be sure to practice shots uphill, downhill and from the ground – you never know when you’re going to be presented with an opportunity to shoot when you’re actually out there on the hunt. Just don’t use broadheads on your 3D targets, practicing with broadheads is a separate exercise!
Obviously, the target doesn’t respond the same way as a live bird. The wild turkey has honed survival instincts, excellent vision and is alert to predator movement in its vicinity. But practicing making your killing shot on the target primes your brain and muscles for identifying the proper shot when you’re out there in the field.
Where to Shoot a Turkey with a Crossbow: The Target Areas
The killing zone in a turkey’s body is about the size of a baseball. The orientation of the turkey and your skill level will determine your shooting options. The turkey feathers with their quills act as armor – removing the kinetic energy of the arrow and clogging up the bolt. Selecting and hitting the right area minimizes the risk of the bolt being deflecting or rendering a nonlethal strike.
Sideways
If you can shoot the area just behind where the wing joins the body, you hit the heart and lungs. If the bolt penetrates the feathers and pierces this vital area, you will kill the turkey with a clean shot. A strutting turkey puffs up its feathers, and this makes it hard to identify the target. Be patient and wait until you can see your target zone when the turkey stops strutting.
Front
The front shot is a small target, as you aim for the heart and lungs. On a turkey Tom, you aim for the point above the beard. It’s not a beginner target because a clean, lethal shot needs pinpoint accuracy. A well-placed bolt passes through the heart and lungs and severs the spine.
Rear
Again, you are aiming at a small target—this time in the middle of the back. The bolt severs the spine before piercing the heart and lung area.
Every crossbow hunter aims to make an ethical shot on any animal to cause a quick, clean death. Your level of skill and experience determines what is for you an achievable killing shot. If this is your first time hunting wild turkeys with a crossbow, the side shot is likely to be your best option unless you have pinpoint accuracy with your bow.
What Can Go Wrong?
The worst outcome is that you hit the turkey, but only succeed in injuring it. A motivated turkey can take off with your bolt sticking out of it and hide. If necessary, shoot it twice to make sure you deliver a killing blow.
A few of these will help you track down the injured bird after sunset because they can make it obvious where the bird is hiding. But it is best to make a clean kill by always lining your shot up with care and attention.
Stay Safe
In the field, it makes sense to position yourself against a solid tree when calling the turkeys. The tree shields your body from other hunters who may be using sound to locate wild turkeys as well. The tree should be big enough to cover your entire body. Plus, it can be a comfortable leaning post.
Avoid red, white, and blue in your visible clothing as this may give the impression to another hunter that a turkey is lurking, instead of a fellow hunter. When you bag your bird, take care to bag your bird to hide the feathers, so another hunter does not spot it and mistakenly shoot at it.
Although camouflage hides you from the turkey, add some hunter orange to alert other hunters to your presence in the field. Most importantly, if you are not 100% certain you are firing at a turkey with a clean killing shot, refrain from shooting.
The number of accidents during the turkey hunting season is thankfully low across the States. The goal of everyone involved in hunting is to aim for zero accidents by using safe hunting practices.
Keep It Legal
If you want to hunt wild turkeys in most if not all states, you’ll need a turkey hunting license, as a small game license won’t cover it. Each state has its own rules and a limit on the number of birds you can bag per season.
States with more generous turkey populations increase the allowance for each season. The National Wild Turkey Hunting Federation (NWTF) website collates information for all the States on season dates, turkey populations, and bag limits. It can be a useful resource for those hunting in multiple states. Still, you will want to check with your state to be absolutely sure about all of the rules and regulations.
Finally
Wild Turkeys are challenging targets for the crossbow hunter. They demand patience, perseverance, and superb crossbow skills. If you practice your shots for pinpoint accuracy and equip yourself with the right gear for the job, then there’s every possibility that the delicious thanksgiving turkey that graces your table is the result of your own skill and marksmanship.