John Underwood remembers very clearly the first turkey he ever saw.

"I had gone out turkey hunting with my dad--my first time. I had never seen a turkey. It was just about daylight, and being young and inexperienced, I didn't stay where Dad put me. I went on down the road and sat in my own little spot. A turkey flew down from the roost right over my head. I dropped my gun and covered up my head--I thought he was attacking me. It scared me to death. I never even told my dad about it."

The scared 10-year-old has come a long way since his first encounter with a gobbler. He's hunted turkeys from Mississippi to Florida--partly, he says with a grin, to save face. Not only has he killed a number of birds the way most of us do--with a gun--he's gone most turkey hunters one better. He's bagged several birds with a bow and arrow.

Today, Underwood manages The Outdoors Shop, a sporting goods and outdoor clothing store in Tallahassee. And though he's employed as a gunsmith, just mention bowhunting within his earshot and he'll offer good ideas and reliable advice for almost any situation.

He started bowhunting for turkeys more than 20 years ago, before compound bows reached their current popularity, and has hunted them off and on ever since, when he's lived in places with good turkey hunting, when the season's right, when the mood strikes him. Most of his hunting has been in Mississippi and Florida, though he's spent a little time in Alabama as well.

John says he's killed two "bragging turkeys" with a bow, plus a couple of jakes.

As anyone who's spent much time trying to call up a longbeard knows, anything can go wrong on a turkey hunt. But when you mix in archery equipment, the potential for trouble climbs sharply. "You've got to have the turkey in closer," Underwood points out. "You don't just raise and fire, you've got to raise, draw, and fire. You can't shoot through brush like you can with a shotgun and you don't have the range you do with a shotgun. You've got more noise, more chance of being seen. Quite a few hunts are successful right up until the time of taking the bird and then it just all falls apart."

Though John shoots an 80-pound compound bow, he says a turkey hunter doesn't need that heavy a bow to be successful. "I killed my first turkey with a 45-pound recurve," he says, "and that's not as 'fast' as a 45-pound compound. I would say any bow capable of getting an arrow to a turkey is capable of killing."

But use a bow suited to your ability, he says. "These guys who reach for the sky and strain and stretch that bow--they'll hunt a long time before they kill a turkey. That's just like waving a red flag at him and saying, 'Here I am, here I am.' Unless you can take the bow and pull it straight back slowly and evenly, you're wasting your time. The turkey's not going to wait for all that."

Archers who hunt deer or hogs need to make some modifications to their arrows. While the so-called "turkey broadheads" are useful, they're not necessary to kill a longbeard. Underwood strongly recommends using a "small-game stopper" or "grappler" behind the broadhead. This device, which looks like a little metal collar fitted with wire antennae, helps prevent the arrow from passing through the bird.

"You use a broadhead to make him bleed," John says. "But he can make good his escape before he dies. So you put a grappler on the arrow. It slides down to the fletching and stops the arrow's progress. Then he can't fly."

Underwood says regular turkey hunting gear is fine. But he cautions that hunters need to pay meticulous attention to detail.

"Everything is done at close range," Underwood says. "With a shotgun, for instance, if you get the bird within 40 to 45 yards, you can kill it. But with a bow, 30 yards is a long shot with a turkey. You really want to get him to within about 20 yards if you can. And even then you may have to wait, because you may have to get him out from behind a vine or other vegetation. You've really got to pay attention to detail, because the turkey's right on top of you."

It is best to scout an area carefully, he says. "You have to be able to set up a blind or camouflage yourself into the surroundings. Pick the spot that you can shoot with the least amount of movement and twisting around. Make sure you can shoot from it without anything getting in the way. Once the turkey's in an area you don't want the blind interfering with anything."

Some manufacturers make special blinds for bowhunters that camouflage your lower half, which lets you use a box call with your hands below the turkey's line of sight.

Underwood uses a box call to get a turkey coming to him, then sets that call aside and switches to a mouth call so his hands are free. Unlike gun hunters, bowhunters can't sit on the ground; they just simply don't have enough room to draw the bow. So depending on the terrain, John either sits on a small folding chair or kneels to hunt.

Though he tries to shoot from a crouch or while standing, John cautions that a turkey hunter may wind up shooting from any position. "You have to practice shooting from two or three different positions. Practice shooting from a twisting position--a turkey rarely comes up in front of you. He's usually behind you!"

A hen decoy is one of his favorite tools for fooling a longbeard. It takes the gobbler's attention off of you and puts it on the decoy. Turkeys have pecked these decoys to pieces, fought with them, tried to mate with them.

A mechanical release is also a great aid when turkey hunting. "Any time you use a release, once you've practiced and can use it properly, you will cut down on the size of your group. With a turkey at 25 yards, you need all the accuracy you can get," Underwood adds.

That accuracy is critical to good arrow placement. "Obviously you don't shoot for the head, unless you're real gutsy and don't mind missing a lot of birds. The best place to shoot is the chest area right below the neck, if the bird is facing you. If he's facing away from you, below the neck and about three inches back, right at the wing bone, where you'll break the wing."

Killing a turkey with a bow is the ultimate challenge. "To me, taking a legal gobbler with a bow and arrow--you have arrived if you can do that," Underwood says. "You are truly a hunter."