• This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you get.



    Sign up here: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/account/upgrades

Turkey hunting with round ball

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
With a bow and arrow, we aim for the wing butt on a side shot. I’ve heard a good round ball shot is right through the beard on a gobbler, when facing toward you. It spoils less meat, because the ball exits the back. If you’re really good, and the turkey is close, aim for the eye.
 
Arizona is also a "shotgun only" state for hunting turkey.

My .36 caliber flintlock rifle could do a great job of dispatching a turkey but the state says, no. :(
 
Here in Pa it's shotguns only in the spring but fall turkey can be taken with a rifle. I've gone fall turkey only once but didn't like it because I had to share to woods with small game hunters and archery deer hunters. I do know of a guy who took one with a .36 caliber. Turkey dropped in its tracks.

I wish they'd allow rifles in the spring but I see their logic as it's a safety issue with the spring foliage.
 
I've taken several Toms with a roundball. You can go down to "The Hunting Journal" page and read about my last one "40 caliber gobbler". I shoot them in the wing butt or right where the wing attaches to the body. It leaves a tidy .40 caliber hole all the way through. The turkey might go a few yards but he won't go far. Hunting with a decoy and a Tom that holds still at close range, it is certainly possible to take a head shot. But out in the shadows it is still iffy and I like to kill what I'm shooting at. So it's the wing butt for me. Download a couple of turkey sillouhettes with the internal organs shown and learn how they fit together and where to aim.
 
I have had very good luck with front facing shots placed at or just slightly above where the neck meets the body, both with a .36 cal roundball and with a modern crossbow. It takes the fight right out of them. The "hit 'em high watch 'em die" adage has held absolutely true in both cases.

Here's video from a couple of years back with my Tip Curits .36 cal flinter on a PA hen during their Fall season to demonstrate:

 
I have shot them with 40 and 50 cal rb. Thru the wing butt is best I believe if the shot is available. What cal are you using? Dan.
 
Wish I could use a roundball for turkey out here. For archery, I imagine a line going straight up from the legs & slightly forward. Check some archery forums for shot placement tips. While hitting them low could end up gut-shooting them or just hitting the keel (assuming you're a little forward of the legs), too low and you take out the legs. A turkey can run without wings. But he can't fly or run without his legs.
 
In descending order. The craw, the back bone facing away, and up the poop chute on a strutting bird facing away.
 
Back
Top