Best Broadhead for Spring Gobblers

The right broadhead may be more critical for turkeys than deer.  Despite its seemingly large size, the kill zone of a strutting gobbler is amazingly small.  The feathers on a strutting tom make up more than half of its body size and the heart/lung area is the size of a baseball.  The following image should be on every hunter’s phone for quick reverence.

The Most Critical Element

Accuracy and consistency are the two most critical elements of a turkey broadhead.  It doesn’t matter how larger or aggressive the cut will be, if you can’t put the broadhead exactly where aimed, the head is worse than useless. You may wound a gobbler and not retrieve it.  A lethal wild turkey hit breaks the wing bone and destroys the vitals in a single blow.  A turkey broadhead must fly exactly like a target point so that you can practice with your hunting gear and then screw on a broadhead for a final test before hunting.

Hybrids are a Great Choice

Which is better, a fixed cut-on-contact broadhead that cuts every time or a large mechanical blade that opens to devastating proportions without the possibility of wind planing?  The answer is, “Yes.”  Hybrid broadheads offer a 1 inch+ cut on contact AND contain an auxiliary blade that opens and greatly increases the would channel.  Jay Liechty took his five children on a West Virginia deer hunt last fall and each youngster killed a deer using the Grim Reaper Micro Hybrid.  The fellow who organized the hunts exclaimed that the wound channels were “devastating.”

Why Grim Reaper

Broadheads are expensive and you hate to consume one by practicing with it.  The folks at Grim Reaper solve this problem by including a practice head in every four-pack.  In this way, you can practice on a foam target and know exactly where the arrow will strike.  As you can see in the following picture, the auxiliary expandable blades cause a monstrous cut that greatly expands your margin of error.

Do the Paper Test

If you opt for a traditional mechanical head, conduct a paper test before you go afield.  Attach a piece of copy paper to the front of a foam target, back off to 15 yards or whatever range you choose for turkey hunting, and take a practice shot with your favorite broadhead.  The cut below is with a Rage Hypodermic two blade head and notice that it opens to a full cut on the way into the animal.  Rage broadheads have been known for large blood trails and this is the reason why.  Some mechanicals have a small entrance hole and a large exit slash.  For optimal lethality, you want both.

What About Loppers?

Some turkey broadheads are designed to literally decapitate a gobbler or at least sever its spine.  Both are very lethal, but a blade designed to cut off a turkey’s head may be illegal.  Be sure to check your state’s regulations.  Additionally, you need to make sure that these very large heads fly well from your bow.  Finally, using them requires great discipline.  If you body shoot a gobbler with a lopper head, the wing butt will most likely deflect the broadhead and not penetrate the vitals.  Make an alarm putt with a diaphragm caller so that the turkey extends its neck fully and aim at the waddle, the red section of the neck.