Jim Carlson

Kansas Archery Center LLC

Manhattan, Kansas

Turkey hunting isn’t big business here, so I keep it pretty simple. Kansas hasn’t had a fall season for a few years because the wild turkey population is down. So our window to sell turkey gear is basically in April. Right here locally, most turkey hunters call it a season once May hits, and they focus on other things. Once turkey season is over, I pull the turkey gear from the shelf to make room for other merchandise.

As far as what I offer for turkey gear, I sell decoys by Primos and Heads Up. For calls, I have Primos, Quaker Boy and Flextone. And I carry Ameristep ground blinds. The two main reasons I settled on these brands are that I’ve either personally used them with great results or customers recommended them.

I don’t get hung up on offering products in each price range. I don’t buy items just because they’re cheap and I can make a larger margin. I carry only reliable products. If something is affordable and checks the right boxes, then I might bring it in, but the main thing is it has to meet the customer’s needs.

Tom Goldsmith

Plum Creek Archery

Dyersville, Iowa

Plum Creek Archery carries a limited supply of turkey hunting equipment. We have broadheads specifically for turkey hunting and a very small assortment of calls. We use a min-max feature in our POS system to help us know when to re-order. A small selection of turkey gear helps keep inventory manageable. One new product that caught our eyes at the ATA Show was a spur-measuring tool. I don’t recall the brand right off the top of my head, but it was pretty cool.

Turkey broadheads sell very well for us in early spring. We’ve found it important to keep several turkey broadhead options on hand for both styles of harvest, whether utilizing a body/vitals shot or the head/neck shot. Turkey calls are hit and miss when it comes to sales.

Bryan Dickess

Mike's Archery

Ironton, Ohio

Our store is different from many pro shops. We have a strong online presence as well as a solid customer base here locally and a good-sized store. Just to provide some perspective, we stock every bow brand. Keeping in tune with that, our turkey-hunting merchandise is a much broader selection than what most pro shops are able to carry.

For example, we keep a full line of turkey decoys in stock from Avian-X, Flextone and Hunters Specialties. We have mouth calls, friction calls and locator calls. Brands that perform well are Woodhaven, Hunters Specialties and Higdon Power Calls. We’re also currently looking at a couple of others, including KLUK. 

We keep ground blinds in stock all year long, along with some stools and other ground blind accessories. For broadheads, we keep the Magnus Bullhead, Slock Master Head Hunter, and Beast Turkey Decapper. We also keep the Finisher Series apparel from Blocker Outdoors on hand. We do very well with that line, especially the leafy items.

There’s a lot more turkey gear and brands to choose from than most dealers realize. We stay attentive to what the market dictates by listening to what customers are asking for and watching trends. Mike’s Archery is a big NWTFsupporter, and we try to keep a finger on that pulse as well so we’re in the loop on new turkey gear. 

As far as new stuff that we’re excited about, it’s for sure the Beast Decapper broadhead. It’s designed well, but we also know the marketing behind it will have folks looking for it. Also, Higdon has a new gobble call that Beau Brooks is pushing. Brooks has been a friend of ours for a long time. He’s hot on the social media side of things right now, so I expect that call will do well. Outside of that, anything that Woodhaven launches is something we want to have in stock, as the company has a serious following among dedicated turkey hunters.

Stu MacLaren

Wicked Archery

Loxahatchee, Florida

We’re strictly an archery dealer, and for turkeys, we recommend large mechanical broadheads. We don’t have ground blinds. Here in Florida, it’s so dense that folks usually just hide in the natural cover. A lot of turkey hunters don’t use decoys because it’s so thick that once a bird can see them, it’s likely already within shooting range. But we do have a few Primos decoys here. As far as calls, I offer a small variety of the different types of calls, including mouth calls, slate calls, glass pot calls, and some box calls.

I'm originally from Vermont, and I did a lot of turkey hunting up there. I found what works, and the same stuff that worked up there works almost anywhere. I sell items that I would use. Not many folks bowhunt turkeys around here, so we don’t get too deep into this category.

As far as merchandising and displays, we have a static location for the turkey gear. Our shop is pretty small, and our customers find it relatively easy to see everything when they walk through. Turkey gear makes up a small share of our sales.