Safety or Time Outs for Turkeys?

[Marc]

Interesting discussion. It is a question I have never considered actually, as I have never had or even contemplated this type of opportunity.

Shooting a roosted  Bird before fly down, or shooting a bird seeking refuge from a predator in a tree would be out of the question for me.

However if I am calling it a bird, and he for some reason flies over and lands in a tree next to me I am not quite sure how I would respond to that. It would seem to me at that point that the hunter has done his job incalling the bird and fooling him, and there is little difference between shooting a bird in the tree and shooting one on the ground as far as difficulty in hitting the target goes.

I have had birds fly to me from some distance off in late and midmorning, but I have never had a bird fly and land in a tree near me. I very seriously doubt that this is an ethical question that I will have to  toil with, as I  would think it is unlikely to occur.

[MK M GOBL]

I have heard a few nicknames along with this practice... if you are actually talking off the roost. i.e. Roost Boosting, Limb Lifting...

(Our Story) So my dad and I are hunting and we get this bird to gobble, I had already filled my tag and dad is looking too. We move in to this dry creek bed and making our way through the timber, bird is answering me and we are moving in to set up. We start getting close and looking to pick out a tree when the bird hammers, dad and I look at each other and figure to call him towards the edge of the creek bed and take him from there. This birds starts working his way to us and now just gobbling on his own, I'm no longer calling and bird just a coming and gobbling like mad. Before he gets to the bird pitches up in to the tree in front of us now 20 yards away, he's in the tree still gobbling and strutting back and forth on the limb. Dad looked at me and I nodded and he ended up helping him back down to the ground

Now to me a little different than hunting a roosted bird and a bird we called in still gobbling and strutting and coming to the call, but technically in a tree when dad killed him. I would have pulled the trigger too...

MK M GOBL

[Kylongspur88]

He's fair game when he leaves the roost tree.

[Happy]

Can't say I have ever had a moment that warranted me thinking about it. Only gobblers I have ever watched on trees were early morning "roost" situations. Never has even entered my mind to shoot then even if in range. Now if I called a tom in and he jumped up into a tree for a better look. Can't say I wouldn't point out the error of his ways to him. But I can't really say till I have been there.

Sent from my SM-G800R4 using Tapatalk

[Gobble!]

He's fair game when he leaves the roost tree.

x2

[MKMGOBL]

Thanks for all the great feedback on this one. As I said, the situation I was in has never happened since. Our turkey camp is in the rolling hills of WV just northwest of Morgantown and the hills are steep. I've had a lot of setups where I got in too close and had birds gobbling on roost right in front of me. I would never and never have raised a bead on them. I got skunked one year in WV and on the last day I had a nice gobbler sitting on roost about 30yds me. Nobody to this day would have known if I blasted him but I just personally can't. I'd rather play the chess game and put 'em into checkmate but that year, they put me into checkmate.

Good Luck & Hunt Safe