Bowhunting toms

According to bowhunting.com, archery hunting for turkeys is certainly more challenging. Ethics considered, bow range is far shorter than that of a 12-gauge stoked with magnum turkey loads. With archery gear, you have to get them in close to a range where you can hit their navel-orange-sized kill zone 10 out of 10 times.

The other part that makes bowhunting more difficult is that you have to reach full draw undetected. And, unless you’re shooting large “helicopter” broadheads designed for headshots, most hits with arrows don’t instantly immobilize the gobbler as a shotgun with a headshot does.

Even though it seems like a stretch to identify six ways that bowhunting for turkeys could possibly be better than shotgunning them, I challenge you to read on and find the value in my six points.

Archery hunting gives you the excuse to put your decoys extremely close, and that means that when a tom comes in to administer a beatdown to your jake decoy, you get an experience that is extremely rare when hunting with a shotgun. If you haven’t experienced this side of turkey hunting, it’ll get in your blood when you do.

Arrowing a couple of spring gobblers with great hits really boosts my confidence in the way I handle myself during live hunting situations, and I rely heavily on that positive reinforcement as I transition from turkey hunting to fall-hunt preparation.

If you hunt on public land or a property that family or friends will be hunting after you, then minimizing disturbance is critical to ensuring that other hunters have great hunting experiences once you claim your bird. To that end, a shotgun blast can scatter a flock and completely change their routine in some cases. 

If you have only one spring turkey tag, swatting a tom with a lead or TSS swarm fresh off the roost on opening morning means your season ends the minute it began. If you love to be in the turkey woods as much as possible, then this approach, despite the success, can leave you longing for more.

Even after 20 years of hunting and shooting dozens of toms, shooting a gobbling tom at 40 yards with a shotgun still stokes your my adrenaline. But, not a single tom that has fallen to a turkey load was more satisfying than the ones that get nailed at 10 yards or less with my bow. 

When you bow-kill a bird, you know for a fact that you didn’t put any BBs in his breast.