Measurements were made of the sputtering yield of polycrystalline niobium due to 15 kev argon ion bombardment. The crystallographic orientations of individual grains were carefully surveyed using selected area electron channeling patterns. It was demonstrated that the average yield behavior could be calculated from theory provided allowance was made for ion channeling. The method for calculating yields can be applied to any combination of ion-polycrystalline target material provided the distribution of grain orientations (texture) is known.