Can you shoot a turkey in its roost?

[BOWHUNTER45]

Back home in Maine the wild turkeys come running or flying in whenever they hear the bird seed can rattle when we refill the feeders. They show up almost every morning and raise their young in the tall grass in our back field. I never turkey hunted there because it would have had no challenge. I could just step out on the porch with a slingshot and have turkey dinner. Well maybe not a slingshot. They are about the only thing I cannot seem to shoot proficiently. Perhaps that would make it sporting haha.
     Turkeys on the roost are hard to identify. A game warden friend of mine growing up told me about a buy who came up to him right at dawn one morning bragging about  shooting the biggest turkey ever off its roost. He showed it to the warden. It was a Turkey Vulture. OOPS.

big difference in baiting a turkey rather than calling a turkey ... go into the woods and try calling a turkey ....you might get him or you might not ... now go back to the same spot and toss out some corn and grain and see how much easier it was.... no sense in comparing the two !!!!

[TwoSixFourWins]

I wasn't saying that I though calling them was easy because I have done it in other places for fun. I'm not that big into turkey hunting but its fun to watch them run around our property. I only mentioned it as a comparison to the lack of sporting like shooting off a roost. I wouldn't shoot turkeys over bait. Just to clarify. 

[BOWHUNTER45]

  I know .... just saw a good spot for change 

[DOUBLELUNG]

100 years ago, serious turkey hunters argued for fall-only hunting.  Decrying that, calling in a love-dumb tom by imitating its mating call was the worst form of unsportsman-like conduct.

[turkeydancer]

 
While this state has not said that shooting a tom from the roost or using sexy hen calls to get him in close enough is illegal, they definitely say that hunting over feed and shooting from roads are illegal.
Use to see a few guys that were hunting private land drive in to the Steven's County Fairgrounds and watch as their buds come running out and filling their buckets with grain for the next days hunt.  Also new a landowner that feed the turkeys, and would bang on the side of his pail to get the birds in close so his son could shoot a couple.  Also had a couple guys that have bragged that there is nothing to turkey hunting, you just drive up the country road until you see one you like and leap from your vehicle and shoot them.  I also have had people stop on the road and fire into the birds I was working, and also seen them do it on posted land.
 
Gives all sportsmen a black eye, and makes it harder to gain access to those lands.

That's why I ask, where do you draw the line ... at what's legal only, what's traditional acceptable, or no line at all.

[BOWHUNTER45]

  I have friends that give me sheet all the time ...they make comments like I call them right up to my truck    I just LMAO     All I can say is get your calls and lets roll ....

[Kowsrule30]

I don't see the big deal about stalking a turkey.... That's how I mainly hunt them.... Have killed four that way.... Sitting calling them in isn't my cup of tea... It's no different then calling elk or deer while still hunting them or spot and stock..... So most turkey hunters are so trigger happy they pepper the first thing they see move? Is that the problem??? It's no different then patterning any big game animal then hunting them.... They just fly and have two legs....

I patterned a flock of 17 birds @ 4 years ago...It would take them 7-8 days to make their rounds on 4-5 different ridges.... Different roost everyday.... On the sixth day Dad and I finally cut them off on a 4 mile stock.... He shot his in the face at 5 yards... I shot mine in the back of head at 27 when it was quartering away on a dead run.... Only call I ever used on that trip was a locater... I rather have them not know where I'm at and know right where they are as I stalk in... Having all those Ravens around was really their downfall though.... Might head back over there this year.... 

[BOWHUNTER45]

Sometimes you have to do just that  there are days when I do not care how good you can call the birds want nothening to do with you and you have to pattern them ...We are talking about blowing them off the roost ...

[bobcat]

I keep reading about "blowing them off the roost."

Makes it sound like someone is shooting them with a 30/06 out of a tree.

I really doubt a shotgun with bird shot will blow them out of a tree, probably just a few pellets will hit their small bird brain, and they then FALL out of the tree.

Just sayin'.

Unless these roosted turkey shooters are shooting them at 10 yards or less, then in that case I suppose they just might be BLOWN right out of the tree.       

[sled]

  I guess it would be like shooting deer or elk out of winter feed lots or winter range like some people do.

[BOWHUNTER45]

This has went way to far 

[pianoman9701]

I don't see the big deal about stalking a turkey.... That's how I mainly hunt them.... Have killed four that way.... Sitting calling them in isn't my cup of tea... It's no different then calling elk or deer while still hunting them or spot and stock..... So most turkey hunters are so trigger happy they pepper the first thing they see move? Is that the problem??? It's no different then patterning any big game animal then hunting them.... They just fly and have two legs....

I patterned a flock of 17 birds @ 4 years ago...It would take them 7-8 days to make their rounds on 4-5 different ridges.... Different roost everyday.... On the sixth day Dad and I finally cut them off on a 4 mile stock.... He shot his in the face at 5 yards... I shot mine in the back of head at 27 when it was quartering away on a dead run.... Only call I ever used on that trip was a locater... I rather have them not know where I'm at and know right where they are as I stalk in... Having all those Ravens around was really their downfall though.... Might head back over there this year....

That sounds like fun and challenging, too.

[Fowlweather25]

For anyone who thinks a turkey doesn't feel safe from predators in their roost, try walking in on a farm raised turkey or chicken in their roost around dusk or dawn and see how willing they are to leave their roost for ya. It's instinct.

And just because the wdfw has deemed it legal or hasn't deemed it illegal to shoot a roosted turkey or a sitting duck does NOT mean its ethical to do so. Half of us spend most of our time on here b!?ching about wdfws rules now half of you on this thread are defending them? Hmmmmmm.

I can't stand skybusters when I'm duck hunting and shooting a turkey out of a roost or out of a flock on the side of the road doesn't seem real cool either. If you don't know how to do it right, go to cabelas in the summer and check out the how to videos in the clearance section. Don't go out in the field and make us all look like a bunch of *censored* bags!

[gaddy]

DONT SLUCE THE ROOST!! sorry thats just how i learned.
hunt em hard & enjoy every day.
i figure the longer it takes, the more time i have chaseing them.

[bobcat]

Half of us spend most of our time on here b!?ching about wdfws rules now half of you on this thread are defending them? Hmmmmmm.

I didn't realize this had anything to do with any rules or lack of rules. This is about ethics, not laws. You can't have a law for everything. Shooting turkeys out of a tree is ethical in some people's minds, and not in others. Just like shooting a duck on the water or a pheasant on the ground is considered unethical by many. But generally I believe most people feel it's ok to shoot a grouse on the ground, or out of a tree. I remember several years ago at a WDFW commission meeting, a guy was there, I think representing the Ruffed Grouse Society, and he was trying to convince them to make it illegal to shoot grouse with a rifle or pistol, because in his mind it was unethical. My opinioin is, the fewer laws we have, the better. Let people make up their own minds on what feels right to them.