Learn the best broadheads for turkey hunting and an explanation on why they are the best so you can choose the best broadheads for yourself. There is a lot of information on the internet on which broadheads are the best but they don’t explain WHY. But this post will explain the why so you can confidently choose the best broadhead for bowhunting turkeys for yourself.
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Table of Contents
Best Broadhead Types For Turkey Hunting
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Broadheads To Prevent Passthrough
- Specifically Designed Turkey Hunting Broadheads
- Use Regular Broadheads With A Stopper To Prevent Passthrough
- Large Broadheads Are Better Than Small Broadheads
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Decapitation Broadheads For Ethical Headshots
How To Choose The Best Broadheads For Turkey Hunting
Preventing Arrow Passthrough When Bowhunting Turkeys
Turkeys aren’t big animals. A 35 lbs bow can easily zip through a turkey. When an arrow zips through a turkey quickly the turkey rarely knows what happened even after a good shot. Turkeys will often take off flying or running and they can be tricky to recover.
To prevent this, a specifically designed broadhead or an arrow stopper is recommended to prevent passthrough. This will stop the arrow in the turkey, making it impossible to fly and much harder to run off. This makes recovery a whole lot easier.
Considerations For Choosing Turkey Broadheads
A potential downside to all turkey broadheads is that they’ll be difficult to shoot because they are large. You’ll want to practice with turkey broadheads a lot until you feel comfortable shooting them accurately consistently.
In my opinion, expandables are a great choice for turkey broadheads because if you’re shooting a large diameter broadhead you’ll want to keep it as low profile as possible to keep it accurate. In general, the larger the broadhead exposed to the air in flight, the harder it is to shoot unless you have really great form.
Decapitation Broadheads For Turkeys
Decapitation Turkey Broadheads For Beginners
As a beginner, I would not recommend shooting decapitation broadheads. These broadheads are very difficult to shoot even for experienced shooters because of their large surface area. Additionally, a turkey neck is a small and constantly moving target, making it a tough shot. You’ll need excellent form to shoot these, and it’s very hard to keep this form under pressure.
Additionally, the large blades can make it tough to shoot through the windows of blinds. It’s easy to hit the bottom lip window unless making a conscious decision to set up higher with this in mind.
Decapitation Broadheads For Ethical Headshots
Although very difficult to shoot they are very ethical. It you hit the turkey anywhere but the head, theres a good possibility the turkey will get away unwounded. If you hit the turkey in the head or neck it will be down quickly. This makes it an ethical choice.
Decapitation Broadheads & Bow Poundage
You’ll want to make sure your bow poundage is high enough so that it will be able to cut a turkeys head effecgively, and make sure the blades are razor sharp before you use them.Â
Broadheads To Prevent Arrow Passthrough
Specifically Designed Turkey Hunting Broadheads
These broadheads are usually large and have arrow stoppers built into them making them great choices for turkey hunting.
These are a great option, they are specifically designed to prevent passthrough. Preventing passthrough is key when choosing turkey broadheads because this makes recovery much more effective.
Use An Arrow Stopper With Normal Broadheads
Another broadhead option for turkey hunting is using regular broadheads with a stopper. I prefer to use a medium-sized broadhead, like a 2-blade 1.25″ inch or a 3-blade around 1″ with a stopper. The smaller cutting diameter with an added arrow stopper will be effective at putting a gobbler down.
You will need to sight in your bow with the arrow stoppers because they will affect arrow flight.
Large Expandable Broadheads
It is understandable to not want an arrow stopper or a turkey broadhead because they affect arrow flight, especially in the moment in a hunting situation when good form can often go out the window.
If you’re not able to use a broadhead with some kind of stopper, the bigger the better. A 3-blade or large expandable broadhead that is 2″ or larger is ideal in this situation. This will slow the arrow down which causes more knockdown power, has better potential for hitting vitals, and breaking a wing to prevent turkeys from flying away.
The Best Broadheads For Turkey Hunting
Best Specifically Designed Turkey Hunting Broadheads
Rage Xtreme Turkey Broadhead 2.3″ x .75″ Cut
The Rage Xtreme broadhead is a top choice because it has a large cutting diameter, but it is expandable so it will fly through the air pretty well for how large it is. Additionally, you can see the arrow stopper built into the tip of the broadhead which creates massive damage and helps prevent the arrow from going all the way through the gobbler. I took my biggest tom to date with this broadhead.
Solid Broadheads Turkey D-Cap
Below is a photo of a decapitation broadhead. They have large blades that cut a turkey’s head and neck, making them very lethal. There is also less chance of wounding a turkey because you often kill them or you miss them. That said, they are tricky to shoot because of the large blades. You’ll likely need to practice a lot to get these dialed in and to feel confident shooting them at a small target.
Arrow Stoppers For Expandables and Fixed Blade Broadheads
Vista Small Game Adder Point (per 6)
Although this says it is for a small game point but it works well for turkeys. I have shot a turkey with this stopper and it works very well at stopping the arrow, he didn’t go 10 yards after the shot. If you’re shooting an expandable make sure the blades don’t interfere with this stopper upon opening. Make sure to sight in your bow with this stopper on, it will affect arrow flight.
Large Diameter Expandable Broadheads
Grim Reaper Razorcut SS Whitetail Spec 2″ Cut
This 3-blade Grim Reaper is a great choice for turkey hunters because the extra blade will add to the surface area of the cut which will slow the arrow as it passes through the turkey increasing knockdown power, shocking power, and damage. It’s also an expandable broadhead so you will have better accuracy shooting this broadhead than the other broadheads with collars or large decap blades.
Conclusion
Hopefully, you found this post about choosing the best broadheads for bowhunting turkeys helpful. If you’re looking for more turkey hunting information check out my Turkey Hunting Articles.
