Looking to notch your spring turkey tag with a crossbow? Add these notes to your playbook.
A pack of jakes read the script, offering me numerous shot opportunities in the decoys. The tom, however, held tight in the pine forest bordering the field I was hunting. He gobbled constantly, and I waited him out even after the jakes had moved on, but he absolutely wouldn’t poke his beak into the field. Eventually, the gobbling fizzled along with my hopes.
I packed up my gear, including my crossbow, and retreated to my truck. With permission to hunt across the road, I quickly scanned the field with my binoculars. Through the heat waves, I could see a strutter dancing for a hen in between two fairly small islands of timber surrounded by ag fields.
With knowledge of the property layout, thanks to HuntStand Pro, I drove down the road and parked my truck where one of the tree islands blocked my approach. I dashed across the field until I hit the trees, then entered into the densest and most shaded part of the timber and carefully tip-toed my way toward the field edge. When I was about 40 yards shy, I spotted the bird out in the field in broad daylight. Keeping a low profile and using the shade, I stuck my decoys in the ground, laid against a tree trunk and began calling.
The hen came into the timber and right into my lap, while the gobbler entered the timber but hung back in the brush. Once the hen lost interest and moved toward the gobbler, I scratched the leaves to add realism to my calling. The hen came in close a second time, and the gobbler finally broke the 40-yard barrier. There were one or two twigs I worried would deflect my crossbow bolt, so I waited for a better shot, hoping he’d see my jake decoy and become jealous. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.
Eventually, the hen dragged him away. While a shotgun would’ve proven lethal, it was quite amusing to interact with the hen and watch how the gobbler shadowed her from a distance. Fully confident in the crossbow I was carrying to deliver a perfect hit from 40 yards, only a couple of twigs prohibited a successful hunt.
Turkey hunting with a crossbow is extremely fun and effective. If you decide to give it a go, here are some pointers.
1. Set the Decoys Close
I’ve heard people foolishly say of a crossbow, “It’s just like a gun.” In reality, the only two similarities are that you shoulder them and use a scope. Beyond that, the capabilities of a crossbow don’t nearly touch what firearms can do. And even though today’s best crossbows can shoot wildly accurate, they aren’t invincible. In other words, the closer the better.
I’d suggest putting the decoys at 10-15 yards, which makes for an easy shot, just as long as you wait until the bird stops moving. Don’t place the decoys at 20-30 yards. While I don’t believe that 30 yards is an unethical distance, I simply see no reason to needlessly lengthen a shot. Plus, if you put the decoys at 15 yards and a gobbler hangs up 15 yards beyond them, you’ll still have a doable 30-yard shot so long as no obstructions are in the way.
2. Get Aggressive and Move to Get On Birds
While hunting from ground blinds is advantageous in many instances, especially when hunting in fields that turkeys frequent throughout the day, you can run and gun with a crossbow much like you can with a shotgun. The ability to locate a bird, quickly cut the distance and then sit down and call can be deadly effective. A ground blind will only slow you down.
Unlike a shotgun, which can pound through the brush, you’ll obviously need a clear, unobstructed shot with a crossbow, which means you’ll need to plan your setups carefully. Shotgunners often ditch the decoys and make tight setups in which the gobbler has to enter within shotgun range in order to see where the calling is coming from. It will be tough to take a bird with a crossbow in a setup like this due to potential saplings and branches.
Always find a path with few to no obstructions and put your decoys there. This is easy in open hardwoods or pine plantations with minimal undergrowth and great visibility. It isn’t so easy in timber with lots of saplings. You’re trying to get the tom to reach a specific location where you’ll have a clear shot, so plan your setup and set your decoys in a little clearing, on a trail or logging road or some other unobstructed lane so that he’ll come to where you can get a clear shot.
3. Know the Kill Zone
Shotgunners can easily hammer a gobbler that exposes his head — even through the brush — at 40 yards and well beyond with today’s latest turkey loads. But, a crossbow is limited to one projectile, not an entire swarm of projectiles. And while you can certainly go for a headshot, it will be difficult to hit unless the gobbler is strutting and standing stock-still with his head broadside and your crossbow is on a rock-solid rest. Thus, your main target is the body in most cases.
A turkey’s heart/lung kill zone is about the size of a baseball. Some folks aim for the tops of the drumsticks to immobilize the bird and cause it to bleed out quickly, but this requires aiming fairly low. Someone once said, “Hit ‘em low, watch ‘em go. Hit ‘em high, watch ‘em die.” While taking out the drumsticks is incredibly effective and deadly, accidentally hitting low and in front of the drumsticks puts you in a non-vital zone, and hitting behind the drumsticks will get only feathers or maybe the butt and some intestines. With broadhead-tipped arrows and bolts, I largely prefer aiming for the heart/lung kill zone because it’s easier to identify and yields fast results.
As far as placement relative to angles, here’s the lowdown. On a facing bird, hit dead center between the base of the neck and the beard and he’s yours. On a broadside bird, I aim for the upper third just behind the wing butt. This is the location of the heart and lungs. On a strutting bird facing straight away, I aim where the tail feather quills converge. If the bird is upright (not strutting) and facing away, I aim for the middle of the back. On a quartering-toward angle, I aim between the wing butt and the base of the neck. Quartering away is a deadly angle, but it’s also an easy shot to mess up, the common mistake being a hit that’s too far forward and slices only through the breast. Make sure to aim far enough back that your arrow goes through the center of the bird.
4. Limit Your Shot Distance
Earlier I mentioned that it’s senseless to lengthen the shot distance if you don’t have to. But, what about those times when a strutter hangs up 50, 60 or 70 yards away in a wide-open field? Decisions, decisions. In my experience with testing crossbows, most new high-end models are fully capable of placing a deadly hit at those ranges in the hands of a skilled marksman. However, we can’t ignore the diminutive size of a turkey’s vitals and the many places you can hit a turkey that won’t yield a one-shot kill. So, how do you decide what’s right?
I am not promoting long shots on turkeys, which you know by now. That being said, some folks are extremely in tune with their equipment. They practice a lot. They shoot from a ground blind. They use a rock-solid rest. They execute every shot with precision. And someone like that can probably hit a tennis ball every single time at the distances I mentioned above.
That being said, if someone like this were to take a 60-yard shot on a gobbler standing still in the wide-open, would I call it unethical? No. I believe it’s a matter of knowing your personal capabilities inside and out. If there’s even a freckle of doubt that you can make the shot, you have no business pulling the trigger. You know your crossbow and your capabilities with it, and it’s your responsibility to set ethical limitations and stick to them. The goal is no wounded turkeys.
5. Ditch the Decoys and Ambush Them
I’ve hunted more than a handful of turkeys over the last 22 years that shied away from my decoys. It’s incredibly frustrating, and success often hinges on your ability to outsmart rather than attract such toms. If you can nail down a tom’s pattern, forget the blind and decoys and hide using natural cover within easy range of where the tom is likely to walk based on your observations.
This is a piece of cake with a shotgun, very doable with a crossbow, and extremely difficult with a compound or recurve bow. With a crossbow, you don’t have the movement of drawing back as you do with a regular bow, but you’re still limited to one projectile rather than a dense shot pattern provided by a shotgun. Still, sitting silently in ambush is highly effective when gobblers aren’t responding to your calls and decoys. A hunter I shared camp with in South Dakota last spring took a turkey with his crossbow using this strategy. It flew down and walked by, and he delivered a great hit. Take your crossbow and try it.
Conclusion
Crossbow hunting for turkeys is a happy medium between shotguns and draw-and-shoot vertical bows. I love to hunt with guns, but the stealth of taking out an animal with a much quieter alternative is something you have to experience to appreciate. It feels more intimate and more rewarding. And for new hunters, the lack of recoil and report is much welcomed.
If you want to try your hand at crossbow hunting for turkeys, heed the tips outlined herein, and you’ll be in for some fun hunting.