Right here’s a lesson in shot placement for turkey.
My good good friend Ian watched in disbelief as I despatched an arrow over the again of an extendedbeard he’d labored arduous to name in. The hen had been standing about 10 metres away, so what ought to have been a slam dunk turned an embarrassing second.
We had gone by means of the identical paces the morning earlier than, and now I simply felt like hiding. That’s how it may possibly go for a first-time turkey hunter. That weekfinish within the turkey woods about 25 years in the past is simply extra water below the bridge.
Turkeys will mess together with your head, particularly if you’re a new hunter. It’s arduous to clarify what having a mature tom responding to calls and coming in shut can do to you. It’s a surreal expertise, a sight to behold. Watching these magnificent birds up shut is a a lot completely different expertise than seeing them within the subject 300 yards away by means of the open window of your truck. Turkeys have a heightened consciousness of their environment and might simply escape within the blink of an eye fixed.
Toms can maintain you captive with their presence. I’m positive that’s why I ended up taking pictures on the entire hen and never decideing the one spot I wanted. To place it bluntly, I used to be star-struck and misplaced focus. It took a number of extra hunts earlier than I lastly bought management of my nerves, and landed a profitable shot.
Early turkey was tough
My early takes didn’t come simply. Turkeys are powerful birds, and even when hit solidly, they will run or fly for a ways, even with an arrow in them. I bear in mind, years in the past, making a very good shot on a tom in full strut at about 15 yards and watching him fly strongly over two 10-acre fields earlier than shedding sight of him close to a distant tree line.
I discovered him piled up on the fringe of the sector below a fallen tree. Once I cleaned him, I might see one of his lungs was shot out by my broadhead, however by some means, he was in a position to strive a grand escape. It didn’t take lengthy for me to note this was becoming a standard incidence.
On the time, I couldn’t consider a hen I’d shot with an arrow that I didn’t should chase. I started questioning my shot placement, and a lightbulb went off: shotgun hunters all the time shoot a turkey within the head and neck, not within the physique, so why was I attempting for a physique shot with an arrow?
The vitals or the top?
A turkey’s continually altering form and transferment can simply depart you questioning your shot placement ―the place your arrow must land to discover vitals and make a clear kill. There’s an previous saying, “Hit ‘em excessive and watch them die. Hit ‘em low and watch them go,” however that isn’t all the time the case.
What I’d ignored for years is that the vitals on a turkey are nearly the identical dimension as its head and neck, besides that they’re continually obstructed from view by feathers, particularly when Mr. Tom struts. A turkey’s head and neck are brazenly disperformed, giving a hunter a superb visible bullseye. Then there’s the benefit {that a} headshot ensures you both an ideal kill or a whole miss, and we owe that to the animals we hunt. No longer do I chase turkeys into the woods, hoping to seek out them useless or having to run them down in my decoys. If you shoot a turkey within the head, it drops to the bottom like a stone.
Problem is getting shut
Searching with a bow and arrow is a technique of how shut, not how far. Few hunters will enterprise out after their first hen with a recurve bow, however that’s simply me. I’ve all the time liked the problem of the hunt and getting shut. I used to be a seasoned hunter and had already taken many alternative recreation birds, comparable to grouse, geese, and geese, on the wing with my bow earlier than I began turkey looking, so it didn’t appear like it might be a lot of a handicap for me.
Taking a headshot on a turkey as a substitute of a physique shot turned the key to my success. Now, I can simply pick and deal with my goal. There’s no extra being distracted by seeing the entire hen. I don’t should make an informed guess about the place my arrow should go. I’m assured that I do not should chase wounded birds everywhere in the fields and woods I hunt.
Initially revealed within the Spring 2024 problem of Ontario OUT of DOORS.
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