TacomaNWTF.org

South Sound Longbeards


Turkey Tips - Bow, Choosing a Bow

Choosing a bow need not be a hard task.  Bows today come in all sizes, weights and price ranges.  When people ask me what price range of bow I recommend, I normally suggest buying the nicest bow they can afford.  Like most things in life, you get what you pay for.

Bows come in a variety of forms.  For traditional archers, there are recurves and longbows.  For compound users - who make up the majority of today's bowhunting contingent - there are bows in different lengths that utilize either a single or duel cams.  There are even bows with tree cams.  Regardless of what you choose, almost any bow with a proficient archer behind it can take a turkey.

For hunting turkeys, I prefer a short, lightweight bow, which is easy to carry and easy to shoot from just about any position.  The bow I use is a Parker Ultra Light 31.  It has a 31-inch axle-to-axle length, and weights a mere 2.9 pounds.  I shoot a draw weight of 63 pounds, and prefer to use Expandable broadheads.  Quality expandable heads will fly like field tips and require no tuning.  By bow shoots very fast arrow speeds, but the bottom line is it weighs very little and is easy to maneuver.

There are two schools of thought as to what draw weight are best for turkey hunting.  Some archers prefer low draw weights for turkeys, reasoning that lower draw weights cause more trauma by restricting pass throughs.  Other hunters prefer high draw weights.  Jeff Steele, an archery expert from Del City, Okla., believes that archers should shoot the same weight for turkeys that they use for deer hunting.

"It is better for hunters to shoot the weight they are already comfortable with.  Once you become accurate shooting a particular setup, I see no reason to change," Steele said.

Rutledge agreed with Steele, "If you lower the weight you will have to resight your pins again, and sometimes retune your entire bow."