Anchoring a gobbler with an arrow isn’t easy. Turkeys, pound for pound, are some of the toughest game animals out there. It takes a wallop to put a gobbler down and keep him there. Thus, I always shoot large mechanical broadheads. Understand: I don’t shoot large mechanicals to excuse unethical, low-percentage shots. But things happen when you bowhunt, and if your arrow is even an inch or two off mark, your odds of recovering the bird decrease if you’re not shooting a huge broadhead.
It takes more energy for a large mechanical broadhead to deploy, and when your arrow hits the bird, that energy unloads onto the bird. He not only gets sliced by massive blades, but also gets the shock of all time when that broadhead deploys. It sounds a bit gruesome, but if you love to bowhunt turkeys, and I do, it’s the way to ensure quick kills. Even my wife has taken two gobblers with a 35-pound bow and a 11/2-inch mechanical broadhead. Both birds expired quickly. — Darron McDougal