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Joined: Apr 2011
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hanco Offline OP
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Has anyone gotten a turkey with a bow? It took me 20 years to get one.

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Yes while deer hunting I shot and killed a big Tom, 10 minutes later a doe came by and was sniffing my turkey and I shot her too.
It happened later in the evening and never took pics.
I just haven't got to the point where I perposely take my bow over my shotgun in the spring hunts though.


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I've shot a bunch with the bow. Both in a blind and out in the open. Much much more challenging. I still shoot lots with a gun and bow every year to keep it interesting.

Lee

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I've shot 10 or so with my bow. It's a different game for sure.


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I've never tried with a vertical, but killed a pile of them with an xbow. I hunted them the same as I would with a shotgun, just let them get closer. It's fun and something different.

IC B2

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I've taken three with a recurve and longbow

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I have about 25 with a bow.
All spring birds.
Get a good pop up blind and chair
Set a half strut jake at 8-10 yards (not further) from blind also a hen or two
You can put the blind anywhere, no need to worry about them shying from it, put it on a bare field and they will not be bothered.
Set up in their path from morning fly down.
Call modestly
Wear black clothes above the waist, including gloves and face mask.
It is a blast.
I have found the DSD jake decoy to be outstanding.

Last edited by dale06; 03/01/17.

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Because of a back condition, my bow hunting is solely by xbow now. I went after turkeys for the first time with my new xbow last spring. Had a great time. Had no success with set ups, but did great by stalking right into their groups. Discovered just how difficult it is to crawl into turkeys with a cumbersome xbow. Difficult, but not impossible and a great time. Numerous clear easy shots at giant toms with no hits. Couldn't figure out why I was shooting so badly until after my last confrontation with 4 nice toms, taking three shots at less than 20 yards with no hits. On the short walk back to the truck, I cut my hand while running along one of the limbs. Discovered the source of the accuracy problem as a cracked and splintered limb. Lucky it didn't let loose during the hunts. Later sent it back to the manufacturer for a full rebuild. Excellent service and the xbow is shooting like it should. I'm ready for this spring.

Had to shoot all my birds with shotgun last year. Still lots of fun, but not what I really wanted. This year will be full time xbow!


"Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right."
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If it's tourist season, why can't we shoot them?
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dale06 is spot-on. If you follow his advice, no need to use shoot-through netting in the windows. Don't open a bunch of windows in the blind. I leave the ones looking over the decoys down and keep the rest up with a small slit to look through. You should be able to see a bird coming and close/open a window if necessary. The key is to keep the blind as dark as possible.

I did shoot one bird back in high school without the blind. We really didn't have blinds back then. I hid behind a round bale and let them approach a decoy. I drew, stepped-out, and shot the first tom I could put my sight on.

I like the Dakota Decoy X-Treme Jake.

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hanco Offline OP
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I have a bow box made from plywood, small rectangular place to shoot out of. It's very dark, all cracks caulked. It sets by one of the feeders. Killed nice aoudad out of it last year. It's where I got the turkeys.

IC B3

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I've lost track of how many I've shot with a bow. It's the only way I hunt them. I do pretty much as Dale described above, although I have shot two with my bow without the ground blind, which is indeed quite challenging.


Laws aren't preventative measures. In other words, more laws won't prevent gun crime from happening.
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I have killed 13 with a bow, and never use a blind. It's not hard to do with decoys in my opinion. Some will bust you but that's part of the fun and challenge . I live in a very turkey rich area, so limiting out every year is pretty easy (4 toms). If turkeys aren't plentiful where you are you may opt for blind to increase odds I guess. Shoot a big mechanical 2 blade. I have also placed a washer behind a fixed blade and killed them. You want the arrow to stay in if possible cause there isn't much of a blood trail

Anymore I just use a 20g for the most part and try to shoot birds as close as possible and enjoy that just as much. Tried the reaper style also and it is fun too.


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