What makes 40 yards “ethical”?

[crow]

Because the most excitement happens at 35 and under.

Having been around hundreds of easterns daily for years has taken the lust for the kill away. Having hand caught a strutter in the wild, I want them close just for the show. If you lay flat more will get closer.

After the 3rd day, if I lay flat I might fall asleep

[Turkeytider]

I agree it's just more satisfying to myself knowing i won the game and called him into my setup as close as possible. Regardless what gun or shell i'm using i just like those close and personal shots. I don't get up at 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning thinking that i'm not going to kill a gobbler today.  But i can tell you the turkey wins most of the time and it's so gratifying on that days i'm successful in killing that gobbler.  If he lives today, i just hope i get to hunt him again tomorrow.  I guess you could say i just like looking eye to eye with him for that close shot. it's mostly out of respect to the gobbler for me to do my job and kill him under 40 yards or less regardless of the equipment i'm using.

Me exactly. I`ve won the match if he`s inside of 40 yards ( preferably 20-30 ). I don`t want him to feel a thing. I owe it to him IMO, and I don`t care what load or gun, the farther the shot, the higher the likelihood of a cripple......which would ruin my season. JMO.

[Dtrkyman]

It is a fine line,  like bowhunting when I started 30 yards was considered far.  Well I shot field archery before I ever hunted and we shot out to 60 meters so I didn't understand the 30 yard deal?

Personally I don't feel like 50 yards is far, I have only shot one bird at that distance and most under 30, I do not carry a rangefinder and can judge distance quite well, I typically wait too long to shoot actually being I started archery hunting before anything else.

If a guy is 100 percent confident in the distance he shoots I have no issue with it, prayer shots or hoping for the golden BB is foolish!

[Cutt]

For 40 yards to be ethical depends on the hunter, and knowing he has a killing pattern 100% of the time. To me that would only be open areas, like field edges. factor in vegetation that 100% drops drastically, where now my ethical range might only be 25-30 yards. Probably 90% of my kills have been in the 20-30 yard range, and often wonder why I even switched to TSS, because of the cost?, where Hevi 13 was good enough, But will say with TSS, it does make that 40 yard shot, much more reliable than the Hevi-13, if needed for field hunts.

Then again, now with the TSS, I often wonder if it does create more unethical shots, among many hunters, extending their range too much? I often wondered this with 10 ring post trying to achieve the highest count possible, where now closer ranges are now too tight? I know when I made the switch to TSS and posted, some said you can get that tighter, but I was very happy and left it alone. All my 40 yard splatter targets had several BB's in the red area spine and skull alone, so couldn't see going tighter and messing up the decent 20 yard pattern.

Forty yards is more than enough with the right situation, and too far for most of my hunting in thicker wooded areas.  But honestly wonder if many high 10 ring posts are truly for the intentions of shooting further then they say? Because I don't understand going tighter for a better count in the 10, only to make your 20 and in less desirable?

[RemingtonRules]

40 yards really has nothing to do with the capability of the gun/shells anymore, it is about the capability of the hunter.

[Cowboy]

3 out of the last 4 I've killed, have been 22 yards, 17 yards, and 22 yards. All in the timber and all without blinds or deeks. Yes there is more satisfaction to me. Call em close. JMHO.

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[Turkeyman]

I was going to respond to this but, after reading Happy's response, would have only been paraphrasing. You KNOW when you called him in and fooled him as opposed to just getting him interested.

[eggshell]

I think 40 yards is mostly a yardstick from history. Having hunted turkeys for 52 years I have seen the progression of equipment. When I started most guns were 2 3/4" chambers and standard magnum loads and standard chokes. Then more 3" chambers started showing up, choke tubes and turkey loads, then copper coated and so on. Most of the celebrity experts of the "old days" preached 40 yards. That was kind of an industry standard for ballistics. That was about the limit for pattern and impact force for the shells of the day. I remember patterning my old guns and at 40 yards and I filled a 30 inch circle. You had to get down around 25-30 to keep a high percentage  inside a 12 inch circle. I used to go to meat shoots, in the 70s, where we shot cards for competition and usually 10-20 shot in a 4" circle was a winner at 40 yards. What happened is as equipment progressed the yardage standard did not because it had become a "custom and moral standard". Now somewhere it also got translated into the "I fooled him" standard. I agree with a lot of the posters that you know when you fooled him and when you pulled a "gotcha" hunt. If he came 300 yards to 50 and hangs up, then the choice is yours. You certainly fooled him for 250 yards, does 25 more make it official?

I shoot most of mine at 25-35 and actually prefer 35 for my gun. My choice and I feel good for it. I have killed them at 50+ too. Usually due to misjudging distance, but some intentional. During 52 years you'll do a lot of things, some to be proud of and some not so much.

Here is the bottom line. I think Gobblenut expressed it too. To people new and that you don't know the expertise level of preach 40 yards. To everyone who has worked out their gun and pattern, choose wisely where you can make a clean kill and you feel good about what you've done to "win the battle". Tradition and historic ballistic evidence is what set the 40 yard standard. So if Joe first timer grabs a gun, about any magnum shell and decent choke will kill his turkey inside 40 yards.

[RutnNStrutn]

I have enjoyed the many year search for the ideal combination of choke & load to get a good, tight shooting pattern. Currently I'm using an Indian Creek choke and Apex Small Town Blend TSS loads. My 20 ga throws a good pattern out to 50 yards, and my 12 ga out to 60 yards.
Does that mean I'm shooting that far? Absolutely not. 80% of my gobblers were at 20 yards or less. The rest were at 40 yards or less. 2 were at 45 yards, and my longest shot ever was 56 yards.
And no, I don't care what anyone else thinks of my set ups or shot choice. I hunt for me, not some Internet purist who thinks he's better than anyone else.
To me, anyone who thinks their way of hunting is right, and any other way is wrong is a jerk.
Ethical? That's arbitrary and a personal decision. What seems ethical to you, may not to me, or vice versa.
Personally, if it's legal, and it makes you happy, I support it and wish you the best of luck!!

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[Number17]

Haven't read all the responses but I'm with Happy and Gooserbat on this one. I'm not a what I would call a "meathunter" but rather a turkey hunter. If you're a "turkey hunter" you know when you've actually called a bird in as opposed to just having him interested. If you don't know the difference you haven't played the game long enough. Having a bird come in to 60, 70, 80 yards or whatever and swatting him with your super TSS load, or a rifle where legal, does not IMO constitute calling a bird in. So kill him at 80 or 90 yards and brag him up on social media if you like...but call yourself a turkey killer, not turkey hunter.

Are you sure you agree with him? Sounds like you're pretty set against killing them beyond the traditional yardage to me.

Gooserbat says: "I've killed birds at about any distance from 2 steps to 70.  To be honest, all felt good to me, but the closer ones felt better."

Why don't you tell him he's a no good turkey killer and not a real turkey hunter?

We all like that bird to come storming down the barrel, but some just refuse to do that, and I make no qualms about killing those ornery birds after a hunt or two and moving on to easier birds. If he plays the old I'll come in for a peak but not an inch closer to many times, I'm not letting him pass on those genes any longer.

I've killed into the the 50s, and let quite a few walk in that range too. I don't care what anyone does, honest to God I don't, but how can you openly talk down to people, then agree with someone who claims to have done exactly what your on your soapbox about?
I've killed turkeys and been on hunts with others that killed them just about every way imaginable, and loved every minute of it.

I fully intend to utilize that evil TSS and kill one with my .410 this year. How about you? Whatcha shooting?

[eggshell]

well I am pretty picky about my range and I am pretty touchy about people looking down on me. I'm really an emotionally fragile guy and I get emotionally wounded easily. So be gentle with the old man.

Now for some more range talk. I used to worry about judging my distance and shots, but they have these neat apps now for shooting solutions and I no longer have to carry a pen, paper and slide rule. I do still have the anemometer mounted on my helmet for windage and the spotting scope so I can see if it's a long beard before I loft a round. The fun part is just getting the shell close enough that the concussion kills him and I don't have to collect all the pieces.

Yeah sometimes our conversations just get crazy

[Haymarket]

It is a fine line,  like bowhunting when I started 30 yards was considered far.  Well I shot field archery before I ever hunted and we shot out to 60 meters so I didn't understand the 30 yard deal?

Bowhunting is completely different, as the limiting factor is animal movement in time when distances stretch beyond 3-40, and not accuracy at a set distance. One shouldn't take 60 yard shots on an animal with a bow, because the arrow takes too long to get there...with string noise, and the animal can move too far, or even a random step moves the kill zone out of the arrow path after release but before impact at 60 yards, no matter how good you are. That's why ethical limit for me there is 40, and for most others.

With turkeys and a shotgun, the limiting factor is pattern density and ke to kill cleanly. Obviously, people have both of those well beyond 40 yards today....so they shoot what they are confident it. I self limit to 40 yards, because I want to be sure, and because that's my own personal sporting limit. If I can't get him in closer than 40, than I'll try next time.

[strum]

I called one in last sat for my friend in Alabama from way way off not even sure how far. Thinking 500 yards or more.  It took 2 hours.  Then the turkey magically appeared in front of him, and he never got a shot. It just got so close he couldn't make a move. That said I was above him and I had a 55–60-yard shot.  Had my gun across my lab and had forgot to turn on my FF3.  I know I could have laid hat bird down if I had been ready. My gun is more than capable of that kind of shot. If I had have gotten the red dot on him I still may have let him walk. Not because of ethics but because I wanted my friend to take one and tomorrow is another day.
I felt I won because I called him so far but also he won because he fooled us both. We still cant figure out how he appeared so close.  Turkey walked out of our life but it was a magical morning for us. I wouldn't fault anyone who knows their equipment and takes one from that distance. But to throw a hail mary at one taking a chance of wounding it . I say no. Sadly most all of us have done it and regretted it too.

[timberjack86]

If I can't get one inside 35 yards I might as well go out west and shoot them with a rifle.

[justin.arps]

For me personally the closer the better, however if it's legal and it floats your boat sail away!I hunt with 3in 6 shot and it works for me, I've also played with tss and man it's amazing also. Good luck to you all this season.


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