Why You Should Give Turkey Hunting with a Crossbow a Shot

Ahhhhh, Spring Turkey is upon us!

While many of us are diehard bowhunters, I’d venture a guess that most elect for the “Trusty 12ga and some #6’s” when it comes time to chase longbeards.

I’ll even admit that there is something pretty satisfying in hearing the BOOM, and ending the sometimes frustrating dance with one of North America’s wiliest critters.

While I have hunted turkeys with a vertical bow quite a bit, and vertical bows work great in blinds, they really don’t lend themselves to “running and gunning” birds, due to the movement involved with drawing.

And I LOVEEEEE running and gunning birds (candidly, I’m not much of a blind guy. Some folks like ’em, and they have great applications like for kids), but for me, there’s just something about the tactics required and changing scenery that make this my preferred way for chasin’ turkeys.

But I digress…..(back to weapons)

Now a crossbow…..well a crossbow works PERFECT for running & gunning turkeys, and more often than not I find myself opting for the crossbow vs. the shotgun—and here’s why:

1. For me, it’s the added challenge (and I reckon, that equates to fun). Killin’ turkeys with a shotgun ain’t easy (especially them daggone Eastern’s), but hey, some of us are gluttons for punishment, right? A crossbow adds challenge, as it cuts my effective range from 60 yards (with TSS) to 30 with an arrow. While I can certainly shoot my crossbow accurately at further distances, the small vitals of the turkey don’t allow for much margin of error, so I try to keep shots within 30.
   
   
2. Crossbows are compact and lethal! With a crossbow, I can sit tucked in against a tree as I try to convince that bird that there is something hot and sexy over here worth coming to. While my turkey gun is about 43″ long, my crossbow is only 26.5″, making it MUCH shorter, and with the narrower crossbows being somewhere between 6-9″ wide, width is not a concern. As I mentioned, broadhead tipped arrows are LETHAL when placed in the right spot. When running and gunning, I always shoot large mechanical broadheads because turkeys have small vitals and a habit of hiding REALLY good if you hit one marginally. Make sure you take a look at bowhunting pictures of turkey vitals of birds both in Full Strut, and out of strut, because your point of aim will differ greatly based on full strut/non-strut (and I can humbly say that I learned this many years ago the hard way, with my only reward being a fistful of feathers).
   
   
3. Finally, it’s a great excuse! What can I say, one year I missed twice (once due to deflection and the other time because the bird came up over a hill, with the big orange fireball in the sky RIGHT behind him). To say I was “Blinded by the light” is an understatement. While I thought I had the crosshairs on him at 18 yards, his graceless hop and sprint away let me know my arrow flew otherwise. (I will have you know that, I WAS able to recock my Flatline and get an arrow while the bird watched the decoy 20 yards away. While I wasn’t able to get another shot, I was pretty impressed by the silent operation of the ACUslide).

 
Give it a try, you just might have a blast and heck……if you leave the shotgun in the truck, she’s not too far away in the event frustration demands the boomstick!