I live in southern Ontario Canada. This morning I was bow hunting turkey. I was in my blind for about five minutes when a big tom came strutting in. I drew on him and shot. The bird jumped into the air and landed about five feet from where I hit him. To my surprise he started strutting again. I thought to myself. THEIR IS NO WAY IN HELL I MISSED THAT BIRD. I nocked another arrow and drilled him. he did a 180 degree turn and ran into the thick woods. I got out of my tent and found the first arrow I shot, and it was covered in blood. Turns out I hit him after all. My question is... Does anyone know how far a wounded bird will run? Do they generally run straight and hide? If so. How far do the typically run. The second arrow was low in his body as far as I could tell. Their was quite a lot of blood where I shot him the first time, so I tried to follow it, but it faded quick... im guessing that his feathers were soaking it up??? I looked for him for a good 2.5-3hrs with no luck. Any tips on trying to find a wounded turkey would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Steve.
They usually are tucked into some brush or something within the first hundred yards of where you hit em. But they are pretty good at hiding. Was the blood a nice strong red? A marginal hit could mean a lost bird. But I have never had a bloody arrow and not found the bird.
yes the blood was very red, if I had to guess, id say their was about 30-40 drops on the ground for the couple of seconds he stood their. the plastic fletches were completely covered.
He's dead pick the area apart he's probably under something. It's like they seek shelter to die. I've found em up under cedar trees brush etc. but usually not too far from the hit. 50-100yds. Again on a good hit which it sounds like you have.
Yep, I agree. Feathers do soak up blood but that sounds like a dead bird to me. They hide like a dang rabbit when hit for sure. Did you use a mechanical broadhead? I prefer them because the kill zone is so small on a turkey. Good luck finding your bird.
Never did find him... I feel horrible. I looked myself for a total of about 6 hours, then my brother and I looked for another 2 hours with no luck. The part of the bush that I setup in is mostly hardwood and relatively thin, its beside a bean field that I look out at. Behind me the bush gets really thick, and that's where he ran. I'm going out tomorrow in the morning. This time I will be using a guillotine as I setup my decoys about 15 yards from my blind. If one happens to pay my decoys a visit...well. Forgot to mention, I used a 1 inch slick trick.
gobble to the left of me, gobble to the right... None of them would give me a shot. One of them stood about 20 yards away in a spot that was impossible to get a shot. He must of sat their and gobbled for a solid hour. I'm just glad to know theirs still birds at my spot.
