Would you shoot a turkey out off the roost?

[TheHunt]

I would not do it now or for the last 30 years...  But when I was 14 - 18 and if they were available to kill.  WITH OUT A SHADOW OF ANY DOUBT.    I would have killed it in the tree given any opportunity.  I guess when you are young it was more about the kill then the sport. 

[bowhunterwa87]

Sure

[Atroxus]

If it's legal then no one has a right to complain how another hunter harvests his/her kill. (as long as it's done clean and quick)

If you have a personal rule that prohibits you from sluicing a bird out the tree then good on you 
I have a ton of "rules" and challenges, but I won't force them upon you all under the hammer of public scrutiny.

So while I won't shoot one out of a tree as I see no point in it....I won't bash someone else for doing it, unless I had that flock pegged the night before and was set up to call them.  Where I hunt turkey though there's usually only one road in and I'll park out of the way but make it obvious I'm down there.  If they drove past me and sluiced one then I'd be a little hot under the collar I suppose - but then that doesn't really have anything to do with turkey hunting, that's just being an *censored*.


Have you ever sluiced a grouse off a dirt road?  It's the same thing if you ask an upland guy with a prized bird dog.

Have you ever shot a running phez?  Same thing

Shot a duck on the water?  Same thing!


So don't get on here bashing the way someone else does something just because YOU don't think it's ethical.  The more I read HW the more I'm turning away from what's seen as ethical and relying on what's Legal. 

The problem is if enough people see something as unethical pretty soon it's prohibited  -  hounds anyone?

(I'm not talking to anyone in particular, so don't take offense)

  I could not have said it better. Some of the posts on this forum makes me think at times that we hunters are doing more to hose each other than the Anti-Hunters could ever hope to.

I have never hunted turkeys...yet. I hope to try my hand at it some day, and if/when I do I would shoot a roosting turkey. I would also shoot a deer over bait, and ducks on the water as long as it is legal, and safe to do so. Maybe in the future as I become more skilled I will start putting additional restrictions on myself to make my hunts more challenging, but I am not there yet, and what one person might consider challenging, I might currently find impossible. 

[Smossy]

If its legal. Im stickin em. Put to much money into everything to go home empty handed.

[runamuk]

everyone wants everyone else to be subjected to the same rules they impose upon themselves, that is what I'm against.

me too...we agree again...good googly moogly we could end up pals and stuff

Look out you guys aren't going to start swapping spit now are you?

Naw pretty sure he is married and I am.... well .... I errr....hey look a turkey

[superdown]

If its legal. Im stickin em. Put to much money into everything to go home empty handed.

I definitely shared that sentiment before i was successful but when you get that first and the following kills under your belt it quickly changes or it should then your able to actually define success from matter of course if that makes sense.

[Smossy]

If its legal. Im stickin em. Put to much money into everything to go home empty handed.

I definitely shared that sentiment before i was successful but when you get that first and the following kills under your belt it quickly changes or it should then your able to actually define success from matter of course if that makes sense.

Makes perfect sense, I haven't been successful on anything but grouse yet. First year really into everything.

[KFhunter]

I have two views of turkey

1) is they're a pest and vermin if you own property and they're crapping on your hay stack and getting into your garden.  In that instance they should be treated as vermin and shot. Turkey crap on your hay isn't good.

My other view is they are fun to call in!   I only hunt the ones way up in the woods,  so no farm turkeys for me.   I never thought I'd enjoy calling them in.  But WDFW gave my boy a free turkey tag so what the heck right?  glad I did it what a hoot!

So I doubt I ever become a true turkey fanatic myself,  I sure enjoy taking the kiddies out for a bird - especially the first bird.  What a fantastic way to get kids into hunting 

[ICEMAN]

Wow, think how many guys might be spooked to give their personal opinion on this subject from the attitude they may face.

Would you shoot a deer that was spooked over a ridge by other hunters, the deer running into 50 yards of you and looking back for the other hunters?

You have three hunters in a canyon slowly hunting the canyon floor, a bear begins to move into the open in front of you obvisouly pushed by your buddies presence. You shooting?

A hen mallard begins to drop into your spread, you have not shot a duck yet today, do you shoot?

Too many "unethical" shots to take out there if you ask around. Hunting ethics discussions always cause a lot of grief in my opinion.

I have met guys who would not shoot a tom out of a tree, but would cheat on their wifes or girlfriends.  Just sayin'

If it is legal to shoot a tom out of a tree, I could see doing it.

[KFhunter]

BLR has a good point though,  shooting a turkey from the bottom up is going to trash the breast. 

I'd still arrow one though if I were deer hunting -needed some camp chow- and had a left over tag.

[irishevox]

Wow, think how many guys might be spooked to give their personal opinion on this subject from the attitude they may face.

Would you shoot a deer that was spooked over a ridge by other hunters, the deer running into 50 yards of you and looking back for the other hunters?

You have three hunters in a canyon slowly hunting the canyon floor, a bear begins to move into the open in front of you obvisouly pushed by your buddies presence. You shooting?

A hen mallard begins to drop into your spread, you have not shot a duck yet today, do you shoot?

Too many "unethical" shots to take out there if you ask around. Hunting ethics discussions always cause a lot of grief in my opinion.

I have met guys who would not shoot a tom out of a tree, but would cheat on their wifes or girlfriends.  Just sayin'

If it is legal to shoot a tom out of a tree, I could see doing it.

Very well said ICE but I mean if it's legal why not and I would shoot a mallard hen and I would shoot the deer as well.  So I mean I am not saying I would kill a turkey in his but if I hunted all season and didn't get one and I didn't want tag soup I would do it maybe on my last hunt if I hadn't killed one the whole season. 

[furbearer365]

I just watched one of the biggest turkey lovers in the world shoot one out of a tree on the hunting channel (Michael Waddell). He was calling turkeys in Tennessee I believe, and the turkey he was calling just up and flew to them and landed in the tree above him, so how do you see this situation?  The turkey was in a tree, but he technically called it in.  Of course they feel safe in tree, if every animal had the option to be in a tree they would.  Would you shoot a coon out of a tree?  You guys compare turkey hunting to deer hunting, why not compare it to coon hunting?  Coons den in trees, so if a hound chases a coon up his den tree, why are you shooting out of where he "FEELS" the safest.  Im not for or against it either way, if you want to call them in and do it mono-y-mono then go for it, if the thunder chicken wants to sit in the tree and give himself away and gobble you in to his safe place, then by all means.  Hell, I think it would be a cool story to say that I was called in by a turkey.

[packmule]

http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,96685.100.html

This topic got worked over pretty good last year...see Yelp's response on page 5, that was a pretty good summation in that debate I thought.

To each their own, but no I wouldn't.

[Karl Blanchard]

Wow, think how many guys might be spooked to give their personal opinion on this subject from the attitude they may face.

Would you shoot a deer that was spooked over a ridge by other hunters, the deer running into 50 yards of you and looking back for the other hunters?

You have three hunters in a canyon slowly hunting the canyon floor, a bear begins to move into the open in front of you obviously pushed by your buddies presence. You shooting?

A hen mallard begins to drop into your spread, you have not shot a duck yet today, do you shoot?

Too many "unethical" shots to take out there if you ask around. Hunting ethics discussions always cause a lot of grief in my opinion.

I have met guys who would not shoot a tom out of a tree, but would cheat on their wife's or girlfriends.  Just say in'

If it is legal to shoot a tom out of a tree, I could see doing it.

I don't think anyone has stated on this thread that if you did you are a horrible unethical person.  Just like a guy shouldn't be chastised for doing it, a guy shouldn't be chastised for not doing it, or taking part in it.  Goes both ways.

[huntnnw]

once again its a bird! who cares