Is it ethical or not? Is it legal in Alabama?

Depends on the persons moral compass as to whether it's ethical. It is not illegal to do so in Alabama.

I've done it once for a buddy who was standing beside me begging me too because he couldn't see the bird and had dedicated almost an entire season on him.

Never done it, but have had a couple gobblers in years past that if the opportunity had arisen I would have been tempted to blow bark, limbs, and feathers across half an acre.

that's a big NO NO in my book

why?

i wouldnt do it but if it's leagal shooting light i dont think it's illegal

Are you saying you wouldnt do it in the dark?

You can limb launch them in bama legally.


I have never done it, but as said before.

I am not going to say I wouldn't.

why hunt turkeys if you don't play the game in a sportsmanship way. Like shooting doves off a wire.

I wouldn't do it. To me the hunt is far more enjoyable than the actual kill. I have been close enough to shoot one off the roost, but I just sit there and enjoy it.

I have never wanted to kill one bad enough to do it that way.

Then you have never had a bird torment you so bad day in and day out that you lie awake at night thinking about how you can kill him. He consumes your thoughts to the point you can't function at work, at home, for thinking about him.

Kill all them sumbeaches.

i have seen birds stay on roost till 9-10 o'clock in the morning. and if i have a chance to walk up there and bust his gobbling self of the limb then im gonna do it!!!!!! legal shooting light ofcoarse

I always killed em before it got that bad...

legal in Alabama

I did it once but it wasn't illegal or unethical in my opinion..... I had been fooling with a turkey that had been gobbling just enough to keep me from leaving him for about 2 hours. Finally he started working a little bit and closed the distance from probably 250 yards to 150 or so.......I couldn't hear him drum yet, but he was heating up a little and I could tell he was strutting back and forth across a bench, coming my way 20 steps or so, and then stopping to strut again. I had all day and fully intended on killing him.

I heard wings behind me and caught a glimpse of movement. I eased around and saw a gobbler fly from across a big hollow behind me and light on a limb in a big chestnut oak that was behind me a little and to my left. I could see that he had a very thin beard that looked to be about six inches long. I figured that he was either an early hatch jake or a late hatch 2 year old......He never strutted so I couldn't see his fan and I hadn't heard him gobble all morning. I watched him for a few minutes and decided not to shoot him especially since I was working a turkey and I felt like I was finally getting things going my way. I was just praying he wouldn't spot me from his high perch and start putting and ruin everything.

The turkey I was fooling with gobbled again at what I judged to be about 120 yards and then shut up....I was pretty sure I was going to be able to hear him drum or see him pretty soon. Twenty minutes later though he gobbled again and he was a full 200 yards off again.....back to square one.

At this point my patience wore thin. I eased around and blew that long-bearded jake (he did turn out to be just a jake) into the next world. Main thing I remember about it that he was on the edge of that big deep hollow and it seemed like he fell forever before I ever heard the thump, then it seemed like those little downy feathers from the neck kept falling like little snowflakes for a long time after I shot. The turkey ended up falling so far that his breast was all bloody and bruised up when I cleaned him.

Best I can figure, he heard me working that other bird and figured he'd just pitch up on a limb and watch and see what happened, so I guess I called him up. I just would have felt a little better if he hadn't turned out to be a jake, but still it was kinda cool to blow one off a limb.

I think it was three seasons ago I shot one off a limb. It was really windy in the middle of a day, and a buddy and I were setting up in a few spots and calling blind...didn't figure we would hear a gobble for the wind anyway. Sat on the edge of a small food plot that had a big windrow of stumps pushed up along the side of the plot opposite of us. Called randomly a few times over the course of 30 - 40 minutes...and without making a peep...a tom pitched up over that stump pile from the woodline behind it. He lit in a pine out in the plot - maybe ten feet off the ground and 40 yards from me. He commenced to rubbernecking around looking for the calling, then went in and out of strut a couple times on the limb. Whenever he'd puff up that howling wind made him look like a roofer trying to handle a sheet of plywood against a gust...he would teeter then flail and slidestep trying to keep strutting and not bust it. Needless to say...after probably ten minutes of the spectacle I saved the wind the trouble and drilled him. Never regretted that one...never shot one off his actual roost...but I know exactly what 3toe is talking about. Turkeys can drive you to terrible places.

What Ike and Brent described ain't the same thing as slipping up on a roosted turkey in the dark and shooting him when it gets daylight. Some folks say its the same, but I wouldn't. Flying up into a tree to get a better look at me would not get one a free pass in my book.

Big No No!! Turkey hunting is about getting up early, locating the bird, and the art of calling to them!!

turkey hunting is about eating fried turkey at the end of the day.

The Bankwalker and I located a turkey in Florida last year. He was roosted over a swamp and there was no way to access him without getting soaked. So, we set up on a small island of dry ground about 200 yards from the gobbler. When I called to him he shut up for about 15 minutes then started gobbling again. The next thing we knew, he had flown in and landed in a tree about 25 yards from us. Either one of could have easily killed him but we did not. Luckily, he pitched down on our little island and it all ended for him!!

But I am not saying that I wouldn't shoot one off the roost.

Depends what turkey hunting is all about in your eyes.To some it's about the calling,how he answer's back did he strut ect...To me it's about killing and if it's legal...BOOM! I might change my outlook but for now I'm set on killing one of em'.