Here’s a lesson in shot placement for turkey.
My good friend Ian watched in disbelief as I sent an arrow over the back of a longbeard he’d worked hard to call in. The bird had been standing about 10 metres away, so what should have been a slam dunk became an embarrassing moment.
We had gone through the same paces the morning before, and now I just felt like hiding. That’s how it can go for a first-time turkey hunter. That weekend in the turkey woods about 25 years ago is just more water under the bridge.
Turkeys will mess with your head, especially if you are a new hunter. It’s hard to explain what having a mature tom responding to calls and coming in close can do to you. It’s a surreal experience, a sight to behold. Watching these magnificent birds up close is a much different experience than seeing them in the field 300 yards away through the open window of your truck. Turkeys have a heightened awareness of their surroundings and can easily escape in the blink of an eye.
Toms can hold you captive with their presence. I’m sure that’s why I ended up shooting at the whole bird and not picking the one spot I needed. To put it bluntly, I was star-struck and lost focus. It took several more hunts before I finally got control of my nerves, and landed a successful shot.
Early turkey was rough
My early takes didn’t come easily. Turkeys are tough birds, and even when hit solidly, they can run or fly for some distance, even with an arrow in them. I remember, years ago, making a good shot on a tom in full strut at about 15 yards and watching him fly strongly over two 10-acre fields before losing sight of him near a distant tree line.
I found him piled up at the edge of the field under a fallen tree. When I cleaned him, I could see one of his lungs was shot out by my broadhead, but somehow, he was able to try a grand escape. It didn’t take long for me to notice this was becoming a common occurrence.
At the time, I couldn’t think of a bird I’d shot with an arrow that I didn’t have to chase. I began questioning my shot placement, and a lightbulb went off: shotgun hunters always shoot a turkey in the head and neck, not in the body, so why was I trying for a body shot with an arrow?
The vitals or the head?
A turkey’s constantly changing shape and movement can easily leave you questioning your shot placement ―where your arrow needs to land to find vitals and make a clean kill. There’s an old saying, “Hit ‘em high and watch them die. Hit ‘em low and watch them go,” but that isn’t always the case.
What I’d overlooked for years is that the vitals on a turkey are virtually the same size as its head and neck, except that they are constantly obstructed from view by feathers, especially when Mr. Tom struts. A turkey’s head and neck are openly displayed, giving a hunter an excellent visual bullseye. Then there is the advantage that a headshot guarantees you either a perfect kill or a complete miss, and we owe that to the animals we hunt. No longer do I chase turkeys into the woods, hoping to find them dead or having to run them down in my decoys. When you shoot a turkey in the head, it drops to the ground like a stone.
Challenge is getting close
Hunting with a bow and arrow is a method of how close, not how far. Few hunters will venture out after their first bird with a recurve bow, but that’s just me. I’ve always loved the challenge of the hunt and getting close. I was a seasoned hunter and had already taken many different game birds, such as grouse, ducks, and geese, on the wing with my bow before I started turkey hunting, so it didn’t seem like it would be much of a handicap for me.
Taking a headshot on a turkey instead of a body shot became the secret to my success. Now, I can easily pick out and focus on my target. There’s no more being distracted by seeing the whole bird. I don’t have to make an educated guess about where my arrow must go. I’m confident that I do not have to chase wounded birds all over the fields and woods I hunt.
Originally published in the Spring 2024 issue of Ontario OUT of DOORS.
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