Bowhunting Broadheads For Turkeys

© By Othmar Vohringer

Very few game animals are as challenging to kill with a bow and arrow as the wily wild turkey. The turkeys phenomenal eyesight and constant weariness of their surrounding makes them extremely challenging for a bowhunter. Once shot with an arrow a turkey can take off flying never to be found again, unlike deer, they leave no blood-trail to follow.

Killing a turkey and keep it on the ground depends on two important ingredients. These are; using a broadhead designed to do the job and shot placement. Having said that, I might add that I take it for granted that you can shoot a bow and have sufficiently practiced hitting the bulls-eye ten out of ten times at your maximum distance.

With more bowhunters trying their hand on turkey hunting, broadhead manufacturers came up with a vast array of special broadheads designed to kill turkeys instantly. Over the years I have found that mechanical broadheads, due to the bigger cutting diameter, worked better for me than other designs. To that end here are a few of my favorite turkey broadheads.

Arrowdynamic Solutions Guillotine Fixed-Blade Broadhead: This is then only boradhead from my selection that I have never tried out. However the reviews I read and firsthand accounts I have heard seem to agree that this is the ultimate turkey hunting broadhead. This is a fixed blade broadhead with a cutting diameter of a staggering 2.1/2 inch for the 100 grain broadhead and 4 inch for the 125 grain head. As the name suggests this broadhead is designed to lope the toms head cleanly off. Hence it is aimed directly at the turkeys head, not the body. Caution though if you want to make full body mount of the your gobbler this is not the broadhead you want to use.

NAP Spitfire Gobbler Getter: New Archery Products broadheads have long been my personal choice for all kinds of bowhunting applications. The Spitfire Gobbler Getter comes in 100 and 125 grains and a 1-3/4 inch cutting diameter. The Gobbler Getter features a shock inducing blunt point that knocks the wind out of any gobbler. The large super sharp cutting blades will cause maximum hemorrhage to ensure instant death.

NAP Bloodrunner 3: Is a uniquely designed broadhead that delivers field point accuracy out of the box with a cutting diameter of 1.1/2 inch this broadhead is potent turkey killing medicine. The Bloodrunner is a hybrid mechanical broadhead design that provides a low 1 inch profile in flight and expands upon impact on the target to the full cutting diameter that stays open all the way through the vitals.



Using a quality broadhead is only one equation of making a killing shot on a gobbler. The other is shot placement. Turkeys have a small kill zone and in addition a strutting tom can be quite deceiving when it comes to picking a spot for a lethal shot. Thanks to the courtesy of Hoyt Archery and Gone Wild Outdoors we can show you an excellent video on the subject of shot placement. In the video you also will see some of the broadheads in action that I reviewed above.

Discuss in the comment section below what turkey hunting broadheads work well for you. If you have a story to tell about your turkey bowhunting adventure contact us.