The Basics for Turkey Hunting with a Bow

LAST UPDATED: May 8th, 2015

So what am I saying or recommending? Shoot poundage that is comfortable to you and that you can hold at full draw for several minutes. Now, should I use mechanical or fixed blade broad heads? This is going to depend on personal preference, but there are some things that you need to consider. If you are going to be shooting out of a pop up ground blind with shoot-thru windows you are going to be much safer with fixed blade broad heads, because mechanical blades may pre deploy prior to hitting the bird from the shoot-thru mesh catching on the mechanical blades. If I’m not shooting through windows I prefer to use mechanical broadheads. I do this because some of the new mechanicals on the market offer a larger cutting diameter which will result in an easier recovery of your bird. Also, more of your arrow's energy is transferred to the bird with mechanicals than fixed blades. Turkeys don’t have the bone mass as a deer, so extreme penetration is not as important as tissue damage and accuracy.

Now that we’ve covered the basics on our bow setup let’s talk about concealment and being able to hide our movements when drawing back on that long beard. It is said that a turkey’s eye sight is five times better than that of a humans. Through my years of turkey hunting (especially after I’ve been busted) it seems like their eye sight is a thousand times better. So, should a hunter use a pop up ground blind, a blind with just netting, or just a make shift blind using the surrounding brush? Well the answer depends on the situation.

What I like about a pop-up style ground blind is its versatility. Often I’ve glassed long beards strutting out in open areas that provide little or no cover. Unlike a deer, you don’t need to set up your pop up ground blind days or even weeks ahead of time. You can pop up a ground blind and literally minutes later turkeys can walk with in feet of you and won’t pay any attention to the blind. If I can, I prefer to brush in my pop up, but it is often not needed.

A pop-up ground blind like this is perfect for staying concealed while turkey hunting with archery equipment.

Last year I popped up my ground blind fifty yards from the woodline in a plowed field. As day light approached the turkeys flew down and I had birds within yards of my blind strutting and feeding past. My blind stuck out like a pimple on a nose, but the birds didn’t seem to mind.