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Spring Gobbler hunting with a bow.

Anobody said:
I’ve killed them with and with out a blind. I’ve set decoys at 10 all the way to 20. It’s gonna a sound like a pitch. But a high end quality decoy was always the difference for me. Decoys like Dave smith draw and hold birds better than anything I’ve ever used and that time and distraction matters when drawing a compound or recurve. Hen faces away Jake facing toward me
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Dude I can’t afford 3-4 of those, I’ve got a saddle hunting gear addiction! Although maybe if I just got 2 to start with…
 
I typically use a half strut jake, a laying hen about four feet from it and a standing hen for early season. Late season I use a single standing or feeding hen.

I’ve also used a full strut gobbler with a completely white painted head for stubborn field strutters. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I’m more prone to use it if I know that the field strutter is an old monarch bird.
 
Decoy will help but it can be done without. Scattered trees will help when it comes time to draw, that’s the biggest thing to consider in an archery setup.

Fixed blade heads work but a large mechanical definitely has advantages on turkeys. Their vitals are a very small target.

I prefer a blind now days but I’ve probably killed more without.

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I use a full strut thunder creeper and an avian x Jake decoy with a breeding and feeding hen. I try to put the tom and feeding hen on the outer edges to get birds to see them and use the Jake and breeder hen to hopefully tick off the toms and get them to come in. I use large expandables as well. I've been using the 2" swhackers the last few years
 
When it comes to decoy setups like I said before knowing the “business” end of the Jake and hen will help position the Tom where u need him to be. Spacing out n decoys is another thing that messes up hunters. Give space for the bird to work in between to display and such. If u have multiple decoys.
 
I’ve had gobblers in bow range many of times while bow hunting without a blind but never able to get to full draw. That said, there’s been many of times that I killed a gobbler with a gun that I feel I would have been able to shoot with a bow if I had been bow hunting. I think it’s just me not giving bow enough effort. The lone gobbler I’ve shot with a bow was also self filmed from a blind. I had my Jake just behind a bedded hen at about 10 yards on that hunt


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I use blinds sometimes and sometimes I don't. I use my bow and Hickory Creek Mini crossbow with Mangnus Bullheads. My decoys are set about 10 to 15 yards away. I use both hen and Jake decoys. I do like just using a Jake by itself about 2 weeks into the season here in PA.
 
I've bow killed a good number of birds. Body shots can be iffy and I really liked using magnus bulheads. My last two were back in 2017 where I killed both of my birds that year with Bullheads and a 64" recurve! I knew at the time I'd probably never do that again in my life.. LOL

Using a solid made blind definitely gets you in the game. I always hunted birds with a bow differently than the run and gun mentality that lots of guys like to do. I scouted birds where they wanted to be not necessarily roosted birds. These were typically strut zones and areas where the toms break up from the hens late morning. It's a long patient game, but when setup correctly its deadly. I killed 90 percent of my birds between 10 and 2pm in states where it was legal to hunt that late.

Might get my 56" longbow out this year with my Double bull and hit it again!
 
Anobody said:
When it comes to decoy setups like I said before knowing the “business” end of the Jake and hen will help position the Tom where u need him to be. Spacing out n decoys is another thing that messes up hunters. Give space for the bird to work in between to display and such. If u have multiple decoys.
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From a blind or a really good hiding spot I'll put the hen decoy in the most visible spot, sometimes 20 yards away. The gobbler deke will be placed 5 to 7 yards out facing a 90 degree orientation. If the bird comes all the way in he's broadside at very close range. That's good for a recurve shooter!
 
I would love to do this and if I were still in that old club I bet I could. We had some AG fields they would frequent and thinking back, that would have been the best bet.

I hunt public only now and there are very few open areas, no AG, and a few scattered food plots which get hammered mercilessly. I would be nervous just taking a decoy out of my truck without getting shot, lol. Carrying one in the woods would be a death wish around here.

My best bet, looking at the replies so far, would be to set up on some known strut zones and just sit it out.
 
Decoy usage is situational, and optional.

High accuracy and knowing the aiming points is not.

Large cutting diameters help but are not a necessity. They just up your odds.

Know where your arrow goes at three yards as well as you know where it goes at 20 and 30.
 
Another guy here who drilled one with an arrow with a "turkey" broadhead and spent hours tracking 2 drops of blood and never found it. Then shot one with a shotgun. That worked good
 
elevatorman said:
Another guy here who drilled one with an arrow with a "turkey" broadhead and spent hours tracking 2 drops of blood and never found it. Then shot one with a shotgun. That worked good
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Turkeys the only creature on this board where we just say “well, you tried. No reason to get better with a bow, get a gun.”” Glad you got your bird and all though.
 
I have hunted turkeys for 25 yrs, and I’ve been an archery only whitetail hunter for about the same amount of time. Yet, I’ve never had the desire to shoot a turkey with a bow. It’s hard enough to shoot them with a shotgun, much less an arrow.


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I think bowhunting turkeys is a regional thing. I know a lot of turkey hunters...almost all hunters here turkey hunt, and I don't know a single one who bow hunts them and the few conversations I have had with people who hunt turkeys here about hunting with anything other than a shotgun has been "take a crossbow".

There may be some private land vs public land component too. My buddy who got me into turkey hunting always says "you can't hide a turkey". On public (and private too to a large degree), if one gobbles you are going to have every dude within earshot converging on your location with a shotgun in hand. That just makes it really difficult to get one with a shotgun, much less a bow. On BIG private, where the bird can be out of earshot of the neighbors, I would be considerably easier. A lot of folks don't acknowledge property lines when it comes to turkeys. I know guys who will cross property lines in a heartbeat if they hear a gobble. They own land and would be ready to kill anyone doing that to them. They see the inconsistency in that, but it is like an addiction.
 
NMSbowhunter said:
I think bowhunting turkeys is a regional thing. I know a lot of turkey hunters...almost all hunters here turkey hunt, and I don't know a single one who bow hunts them and the few conversations I have had with people who hunt turkeys here about hunting with anything other than a shotgun has been "take a crossbow".

There may be some private land vs public land component too. My buddy who got me into turkey hunting always says "you can't hide a turkey". On public (and private too to a large degree), if one gobbles you are going to have every dude within earshot converging on your location with a shotgun in hand. That just makes it really difficult to get one with a shotgun, much less a bow. On BIG private, where the bird can be out of earshot of the neighbors, I would be considerably easier. A lot of folks don't acknowledge property lines when it comes to turkeys. I know guys who will cross property lines in a heartbeat if they hear a gobble. They own land and would be ready to kill anyone doing that to them. They see the inconsistency in that, but it is like an addiction.
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I agree that bowhunting them is somewhat a regional thing but also a way to keep birds on your property for the whole season. Our private landscape is mostly made up of 50-100 acre woodlots interspersed with crop and fallow fields. Public is mostly old growth forests so the turkeys tend to work through public tracts but mostly strut on more open private ag. We are also seeing somewhat declining numbers but I’m hoping that’s over I’ve had turkeys in cams all season. Anyway, we don’t run and fun on these small woodlots to keep the turkeys as natural acting and behaving as possible.
 
woodsdog2 said:
I agree that bowhunting them is somewhat a regional thing but also a way to keep birds on your property for the whole season. Our private landscape is mostly made up of 50-100 acre woodlots interspersed with crop and fallow fields. Public is mostly old growth forests so the turkeys tend to work through public tracts but mostly strut on more open private ag. We are also seeing somewhat declining numbers but I’m hoping that’s over I’ve had turkeys in cams all season. Anyway, we don’t run and fun on these small woodlots to keep the turkeys as natural acting and behaving as possible.
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Yeah, that makes sense not pressuring a small tract and running them out. On that old club I was in we had a half section of AG that was two big blocks. They planted cotton since it was the only thing that stood any chance against the hogs. My buddy and I were the only ones who went over there out of about 20 guys who turkey hunted. That place was covered up with turkeys. We managed to keep it a secret. It was sort of like that. We hunted it sporadically and let them calm down.

Where I hunt now is just big woods for the most part. I have been encouraged by seeing a lot of hens this year while deer hunting. I had a flock of maybe 20 birds within fifteen yards the other evening while bowhunting off the ground. They were in a thick patch of 3 foot river cane and I could probably have shot one if they were in season and a gobbler. It gave me some hope of being able to pull it off with a bow.
 
I've never hunted a turkey with a shotgun. Only ever used a bow. I started turkey hunting because I had a bow and a ground blind and nothing to hunt in the spring. The bonus is the archery tag is valid for every season so I get like a month and a half to tag one.
 
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