Hey everyone Im planning to do my first ever bow hunt next spring in Ontario Canada for turkey. What setups for longbow or recurve bow should i be looking for? Arrows? Arrow heads?fletchings? Also what gear do you guys deem necessary for turkey hunting, optics?calls? Nature blinds vs store bought, are decoys needed?or just a way of improving chances Thanks a bunch ill be gathering all this stuff over the next couple of months in prep for next years spring hunt. Sent from my LG-H873 using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app
My experience shooting turkeys (with a compound) is that you need the right tip for shooting them, it is far and away the most important. Just shooting them with a broadhead setup can result in their flying away and leaving no trail if the tiny vitals are missed. A broadhead just goes through them like warm butter. You want something that will hit them hard and cut them up, such as a VPA turkey spur tip. I just found out about the VPA's and they'll be my next purchase for a turkey broadhead. I've been just simply putting an adder point behind the broadhead (I've heard a washer can work as well) so that some drag is created when it hits. I also like the "gobbler guillotine" type of heads. Simply aim for the neck and you either get a clean miss or the turkey is dead. These types are a bit of a PIA to set up and sight in. You want a longer arrow to keep those blades away from your hand and they fly best with a fairly stiff spined arrow. I sighted them in on an old shot up broadhead target. I much prefer having a decoy, it is night and day to give them something to focus on and will be easier to get drawn. Without a decoy they come in looking for the hen they heard and it is extremely tough to get drawn. The decoy causes them to fan and strut around so that when they turn away from you their fan is hiding their head and you can get drawn. If you can see their head absolutely don't try to draw! I simply put out one hen decoy. For a call I like to use a mouth diaphragm, a double or even triple that is really raspy is my favorite, but I'll also have a single that creates a more crisp yelp. Sometimes they want one over the other and just changing calls will make them commit to coming in when all they were doing is just answering the other. The most important sound to master is just simple yelps. I also like to throw in some clucks (make sure they don't sound like putts!) and will cut as well sometimes if they seem like they are hung up for some reason, but far and away yelps will do the trick. If you can't get the hang of a mouth diaphragm or have too severe of a gag reflex, then a slate call would be my next choice. Try to be on flat ground or above them when calling. For some reason they flat out hate to come to you downhill. Creeks, fences, or similar obstacles will cause them to hang up sometimes and they won't cross it, so try your best to not have something like that between you and the bird. My favorite tactic to get on them is to be out in the woods a minimum of an hour before shooting light, somewhere around a half hour before shooting light they will often times gobble in the roost like crazy and I can easily locate them without ever having to make a sound. A crow call or owl hoot will do the same, but I don't find them necessary. I hunt them in the timber and so opt to not carry any optics, but if the country is more open some binoculars would be a wise choice.
Wow thank you for your input Soms great tips there. I was at my local bass pro yesterday, and pricing out some archery equipment.Do you recommend FLU FLU arrows for a traditional bow setup i know you mentioned using a compound bow just wondering if it really matters for turkey? Also are you using a natural blind in the woods( making your own) or just finding an area to post and shoot from out of sight of the turkey? Or do you have a store bought blind? If store bought what style? I was looking at the 360° shooting window ones but then thought about how well turkeys can actually see and maybe thought it may actually expose me more to them , then giving me more shot options..any thoughts? Thanks Sent from my LG-H873 using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app
FLU FLU arrows to me are for shooting pheasant and such out of the air. They have a blunt tip to hammer a smaller bird with, but I very much think it would just bounce off a turkey and result in it running/flying away unless it was hit in the head. They are very tough birds with thick feathers. You'll be shooting a bird standing still on the ground, so a normal arrow is what I'd go with. Shooting instinctively with a recurve I'd really lean towards a "regular" arrow with a gobbler guillotine type head. 4" blades will give you an 8" swath through the air to aim at their neck. I normally just sit with my back to a tree that is at least as wide as I am, as I prefer to be very mobile and quickly set up when I get a bird answering well. With that being said my wife bought me a Primos Double Bull blind for x-mas a couple of years ago. It is a pretty robust blind and far too heavy to want to lug very far, but I hunt the same 400 acres year after year and have a pretty good idea where the birds like to be. It will be mainly used for whitetail hunting, getting set up and left up for a few weeks. I've taken it out once in the spring, went to an area where I'd been hearing birds when scouting, and set it up about a half hour before light. I'd set it up before the season, but we get quite a bit of wind in the spring and I worry that it will get damaged. It has 360° windows but I just left two front ones open that gave me a good view of my decoy. I ended up calling in a flock with about 8 or 9 hens and a decent Tom. The blind made it much easier to get drawn without being seen by the hens, sitting against a tree works best when a Tom comes in all by himself. The decoy did its job and the Tom went to it, giving me a 20 yard shot. I would want a very light blind if I was going to pack it around while trying to get a bird to light up, but it was a big advantage for getting drawn. If you are confident in where the turkeys will be, a blind combined with a decoy is about as easy as you can make it to get a Tom to go exactly where you want him and get drawn without being seen. Once you are sure the Tom can see the decoy, stop calling and let it reel him in the rest of the way for you.
Wow..very cool you have got me intrigued and excited cant wait to get going, lots of training ahead at the range first though.. I will defiantly be getting some decoys, ive yet to see anyone whos been consistenly successful not hunt with them. Im thinking of grabbing like 2 to 3 hens and 1 tom decoy would this be a good simple setup? I don't want to over due it...and since im just starting budget is consideration too I thank you for your repsonses Sent from my LG-H873 using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app
I only use a hen, but have been thinking about adding a jake to the set up. They come in for two reasons: to mate with hens or to fight with Toms. A hen and an unintimidating jake will appeal to both. I don't think more would hurt anything, but also don't think it would be any kind of a difference maker either.
I think i will try a stagnant blind hunt for my first couple of hunts but i also like the idea of doing kinda like a live stock using trees as cover like you said you do. That seems much more exciting then sitting in a tent/blind for hours lol..but im sure ill be just as happy with either way if im successful Thanks again for your time and responses i will be making a thread when im out there next spring Sent from my LG-H873 using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app
