^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Here's my story...I suppose I was 12 or 14 and my grandfather had taken me hunting one afternoon. He set me up in a spot and went off and set up just out of sight. This side of dark, a gobbler came along and pitched in a limb behind me and to my left. I was on the ground with my back against a tree and very, very slowly turned, shouldered the shotgun left-handed (I'm a right handed shooter) and knocked him off of the limb. I don't feel bad about it at all.

LOL

I've had 3 or 4 memorable mornings where I was set up within shotgun range. Always by accident. I would never get that close on purpose. As posted elsewhere, I personally think shooting a healthy bird off the roost is a loser move that will surely result in a jinx. I wouldn't hunt with a feller that would.

perzactly^^^^^

brother and I walked over 1 1/2 miles into a wooded low area in Oklahoma to get near a pre dawn gobbling bird. Accidently got waaay too close, like 20 yards and he was in a small tree. We watched him gobble, then fly out of sight!!!! Sure as hell wasn't going to limb his arse.

Some of y'all's responses reminds me of Jerry Clower's Coon Huntin' Story where he talks about giving the coon a "sportin' chance" by not shooting it in the tree but climbing the tree & throwing it out into the pack of dogs...

"Give every coon a sportin' chance... That coon has the option of whoopin' every dog in the pack & walking off... Give everything a sportin' chance"...

I'm an American citizen; the 5th amendment gives me the right to avoid self incrimination.

Roost shooting gets such a bad name because of the way turkeys have to roost in bunches in the west. There just ain't many trees so they roost in big droves. You can see then in the trees even at night. Guy I'm hunting with now was fussing about his last group of hunters from TN shooting up a roost and ruining it.

But as Ike said, one that flys up into a tree to check out a hen is cheating and deserves to die. I was about to shoot one around 10 years ago when he decided to fly up in a tree and look for the hen. That didn't work out well for him.

When we first got turkeys to hunt back in the 60s, the idea that you shouldn't shoot a turkey out of a tree had never occurred to anyone in our group. They shot them with rifles; why would you not shoot him in a tree?

It takes a while to develop a turkey hunting culture and get people to agree on the rules. Some places never seem to do that.

I guaran-damn-tee you if I somehow wind up within shotgun range of one tomorrow morning that's still up in a tree, there is no way on God's green earth I'm waiting for him to hit the ground and risk losing him. I'd take that as a sign from the Lord that he has finally chosen to have mercy on me and give me a bird and I'll limb-launch his azz so fast it'd make your head spin. These sumbitches have fooled me, humbled me and whipped my azz for 5 years now.....it's personal.

I got a good laugh out of your frustration, it was almost like I could feel it.

Fooled me all year...haven't killed a single bird this year

Yep. It's easy to be "ethical" when there's 3 more around the corner, or if you've killed 150 birds or both.

I've never shot one of the limb, but I don't disparage someone that would.

Hell I might shoot a Jake off the limb in the morning.

damn ... this thread is really gettin' good now!! LOL

When I was in hs, I watched a flock of turkeys fly up to roost right beside a logging road. I marked the spot good and told my dad that night that I was gonna slip in amongst them before daylight the next morning and would be sure to kill one. I knew some of them were gobblers, and I figured I could either shoot one out of the tree or shoot him as soon as he hit the ground.

My dad was against the idea. Not due to anything about ethics; he was sure I would spook the turkeys trying to get so close. I was confident I could use the road and not make much noise, and I begged, and he finally gave in and told me to try. Bear in mind this was about 1969, and I had killed only 3 or 4 turkeys in my life.

I got up at 3am the next morning and followed the road to a tree I had picked out. It started getting light and I could hear drumming from a couple of them. I was trying to turn a squirrel nest into a turkey, when I spotted a gobbler going into strut in a tree right in front of me. I didn't waste any time and tried to shoot his head off. I guess I shot right over him; turkeys flew in every direction and my gobbler sailed out of sight. Still don't know how I missed him.

No. It's knowing the exact tree he is in, walking in with no light, sitting motion less for 90 minutes, then killing the bird. If I shoot a big buck or bull elk I didn't call in is it less of a kill. I think not. Kinda like saying killing a turkey at over 30 yards or a buck at 400 is in some how unfair. To each his own. I have killed dozens I called in and watched my share of ones I called in die from another hunters gun. I sleep well at night.

I guess it's whatever your comfortable with.
You don't shoot a turkey or a dove off a limb, but it's ok to do it to a squirrel. You don't ground shoot quail but you do turkeys. I guess limbing a turkey would be about like shooting a duck after it lands on the water. Kind of takes the fun out of it.

Nothing wrong with shooting dove off a limb or ducks off the water.

I grew up in a family of meat hunters... less shells it takes the better. Guess I'm not cultured enough to have grown up hunting with folks who added their own versions of game laws they can judge other hunters against.

As for ducks, most folks who talk about not shooting ducks off the water don't have the public land hunting skills to get them into the decoys to even have opportunities to do that... and are the same ones skybusting at birds 80-110yds they have no chance of hitting except for that one stray golden bb that connects about every 5 yrs and keeps em slinging steel and educating everything on the water. That's another thing I could see as situational, if a fella has some prime timber hole where slow flying puddle ducks come in on a string then wait for higher percent kills shot when they are close and in the air.

... stepping off my soapbox now

I, and most of the turkey hunters I knew then, didn't limb birds back in the 60's when I counted it a good season if I heard 5 er 6 gobblers alll season and hadn't killed but a couple of birds.

Sorry to put you on that soap box fella. Ain't nobody ever tried to add their own versions of game laws especially put them on others. I was brought up with a set of guidelines and I stick with them. To each his own.