I love to hunt turkeys. It’s a passion I got hooked on several years ago. There’s something about the idea of hunting a critter you can have a conversation with that’s very appealing to me.
Over the years my turkey hunting style has changed. Early on, I’d chase gobbles or randomly set up my decoys and try to call a bird in to shotgun range. Back then I was working with a videographer so it was fairly easy to do the “run and gun” method.
These days I videotape my own hunts, which means I’m not nearly as mobile. As a result, I usually set up an Ameristep Dominator blind and try to call the birds in, or I’ll put the blind along a travel route to ambush the birds…a lot like deer hunting.
I’ve also changed my weapon. After killing a few nice birds with a shotgun, I switched over to bowhunting. I’m a bowhunter at heart and I like the challenge of trying to take a bird with archery tackle. A compound was my choice for many years but last spring I picked up a recurve and managed to take a beautiful longbeard after two weeks of hunting hard.
This season I felt compelled to get a different perspective on turkey hunting, so I decided on a crossbow. My choice is the Darton Lightning. With that Lightning I can shoot accurately well beyond forty yards, but I was hoping to get a shot much closer.
After several unsuccessful hunts I set up my blind yesterday afternoon in the middle of a small apple orchard where I had seen toms strutting earlier. I figured if that’s where the birds wanted to be…that’s where I needed to be too.
In less than an hour a small flock of hens and longbeards were working toward my decoys. It looked like they were committed to coming in, so I didn’t call. It’s my experience you can call too much sometimes and scare the birds off.
This flock had big tom in full strut just beyond bow range but two other longbeards closed the gap. As they neared my decoys one bird saw something he didn’t like and both toms started to walk away.
At about 25 yards I put the crosshair of my scope on the lead bird and pulled the trigger. The Carbon Express Surge arrow and F-15 expandable head did the job. The turkey went just twenty five yards and piled up.
Crossbow Longbeard
He’s a nice bird, but not a monster. I’d say he’s probably three years old with a nine inch beard. Funny thing is that beard was pretty thin. You could see where he’d broken part of it off earlier.
Nine Inch Beard
The tom weighed 19 and a half pounds. He had some pretty good spurs on him too…about an inch long.
One Inch Spurs
This was my first time turkey hunting with a crossbow and I didn’t know what to expect. In looking back I can say it was a great experience. Some people say crossbows are like guns, but I definitely felt like I was bow hunting. I had just one shot with a broadhead at a close distance. In my mind, that’s bowhunting.
I plan to hunt with a crossbow again. I have the opportunity to use one on bear late this summer in Ontario and whitetails in Ohio after that. This time I might try to get my hands on one of the new Darton Serpent bows though.
You can hear more about my Michigan turkey hunt this weekend on the Outdoor Magazine radio show. It will also be featured on an upcoming Outdoor Magazine television program.
I hope you get a chance to check it out.