Would you shoot if you didn't call him in?

[jakebird]

So where is it illegal to kill a turkey you don't call in?

Pennsylvania

Read the language of the law again. Hunting by calling only. Since there is no way to know for sure what a gobbler was thinking, we can't honestly say it's illegal to kill a bird that you didn't "call in." More turkeys die from good scouting, patience, and woodsmanship, than calling by a long shot. As a challenge, please insist on always setting up at least a half mile straight downhill and across a river from any gobbling turkey. Just to be "sure" he is actually coming to your call and not possibly coming to a terrain feature or on his way to intercept some live hens over beyond you in the holler.

I'm a lifelong PA resident, and let me just say that PA hunters crack me up. Lots of fun at parties, these guys.

*Ease in tight for a good set up-  YOU'RE STALKING!

* Reposition for a better tactical advantage - YOU'RE STALKING!

* Use a decoy- SHOULD BE ILLEGAL! CALLING ONLY!

* Anything short of a hand crafted wing bone- YOU'RE NOT A REAL CALLER!

Yawn.....

[jakebird]

If the Good Lord(or fate, karma etc) puts you in the path of an advancing long beard then, yes, I most certainly will. If conditions are favorable, I have been known to actively do so myself- I consider it a viable tactic. As I have said,"Do not mess up a good thing with calling.". If it makes you feel better, call to make him raise his head- there, you called him?

11 pages and now the perfect reply.  Thanks Prospector! Just because I can't seem to help myself IMO some of the PA stuff that has been posted is truly goofy.  I do have wife's cousins in the Poconos and as I've mentioned we may visit there in mid May.  Their area is surrounded by state game lands.  I hope to maybe give it a try.  I was glad they dropped the orange hat shuffle but may need guidance on what the meaning of "conspiring" is in what has been printed in this thread.  If I ask my wife's cousins where they have seen birds are we both destined for prison if they didn't possess a call at the time?  Will a pre-dawn response from an owl hooter count?  A post dawn crow call?

Best of luck. Ignore the elitist trolls. We're not all snobby a holes. Most of what PA elitists lean on as "tradition" is mostly close mindedness and ignorance. Some guys just can't wrap their head around the fact that there's other ways to do something outside their own little bubble. Which of course means that all other ways must be wrong.

[Marc]

Okay I have a question? I have heard "ducks" brought up in this conversation a few times. If you are set-up and calling ducks into your spead, and 4 or 5 ducks "sneak in" and land in your decoys, are you going to shoot them or not? You didn't see them until they were already on the water. What about one or 2 that swim into the decoys?

We all have our personal ethics for duck hunting, which I think probably vary regionally to some degree.

Some say that the idea is to call them in, and water-swatting is the ultimate/ethical deception of the birds.

Personally, I tremendously enjoy the wing-shooting aspect of duck hunting, and am robbing myself of that pleasure when I shoot one on the water.  I was raised NOT to shoot them on the water.  If they land before I can see or shoot them, they are often safe.  On a tough day, I might jump them off the water and shoot...  I vastly prefer to shoot incoming birds on the wing, rather than jumping them off the water.

Common scenario. A hunter is hunting pressured (quiet) birds, and so they're calling very softly and very rarely. As little as once an hour. A gobbler sneaks in, feeding along as he goes. Nearly an hour since you last called. Maybe you had even dozed off. Did you call him in or not? Are you going to ask him to be sure before you pull the trigger? ?

I don't know...  Probably???  Maybe???

Was watching a podcast in which they studied birds on a transmitter in a given area, and then put (seasoned) hunters in the same area.  High percentage of the brids being tracked, went into the area the hunters had been calling hours later...

I do a series of calling before eating lunch, and see a bird coming in cautiously with is head up an hour later, I assume he is looking for that hen that (he thought) was there...  And I will shoot him.

I have often picked a nice comfortable spot where I can hear birds, to relax on a quiet day, and do a series of calling before settling in.  Many times I have been jump-startled by a bird that sneaks in quitely and suddely gobbles very close to me...  I assume trying to locate the hen he thought was there...  That is a shooter for sure. 

And quite honestly, if a bird wanders into gun range where I have been calling on & off, I will likely "feel" like he came to the call.

There is certainly a skill set for ambushing, and stalking birds...  ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG with harvesting a bird ethically like this...  The enjoyment for me is calling them in (which often involves repositioning)...

Hunting is not something I need to do...  Nor is killing.  I hunt and take game in the manner that makes it fun and/or exciting to me.  The thread did not ask if other methods were ethical or OK, it simply asked for a preference.  I enjoy calling them in, and with such a limited number to take, I will generally, only shoot a bird I "feel like" I called in...

[runngun]

Marc, you are absolutely correct. I feel the same way.
I heard Phil Robertson say that the purpose of calling ducks is to get them to land in the decoys. Once they land, you have fooled them.  Like you once they have landed, I absolutely enjoy jumping them up.

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[Happy]

If the Good Lord(or fate, karma etc) puts you in the path of an advancing long beard then, yes, I most certainly will. If conditions are favorable, I have been known to actively do so myself- I consider it a viable tactic. As I have said,"Do not mess up a good thing with calling.". If it makes you feel better, call to make him raise his head- there, you called him?

11 pages and now the perfect reply.  Thanks Prospector! Just because I can't seem to help myself IMO some of the PA stuff that has been posted is truly goofy.  I do have wife's cousins in the Poconos and as I've mentioned we may visit there in mid May.  Their area is surrounded by state game lands.  I hope to maybe give it a try.  I was glad they dropped the orange hat shuffle but may need guidance on what the meaning of "conspiring" is in what has been printed in this thread.  If I ask my wife's cousins where they have seen birds are we both destined for prison if they didn't possess a call at the time?  Will a pre-dawn response from an owl hooter count?  A post dawn crow call?

Best of luck. Ignore the elitist trolls. We're not all snobby a holes. Most of what PA elitists lean on as "tradition" is mostly close mindedness and ignorance. Some guys just can't wrap their head around the fact that there's other ways to do something outside their own little bubble. Which of course means that all other ways must be wrong.

Oh lawdy! More elitist giving their opinions? Ma git the gun!

Good-looking and Platinum level member of the Elitist club

[g8rvet]

Had one sneak in today on a very windy day, had not called in a while.  I did not shoot. 



Oh wait, it was a hen.  Never mind.   

[Spitten and drummen]

Yes - in a minute.  Some of these posts are a hoot. To each his own.

lol. Doesn't surprise me.

[Spitten and drummen]

Nothing to do with being an elitist , I will not shoot one that does not play the game with me. Heck , I'm at a point where sometimes I don't shoot ones I fool. I enjoy the hunt and I do limit out with my 3 birds every year. I believe to shoot or not is a personal decision. If I sit and call one up that gobbles or not , it is  in my criteria to kill him. If not , he gets a pass and we will go one on one another day. If that opportunity does not happen again , I'm absolutely fine with it. When I was younger , I would kill a bird anyway I could as long as it was done legally . I was the same way with deer. Full of bloodlust.

[Howie g]

lol ,, proud dad of a up coming elitist...
My 10 year old son and I rode up on two long beards on our golf cart while going home after a morn hunt last week .   My dad asked him why he didn't shot one ,, my ten year old said " what fun would that be ?"
Proud "elite " dad moment .

[RutnNStrutn]

Oh wait, it was a hen.  Never mind.   

Sent from my moto z4 using Tapatalk

[dublelung]

Yes I would and yes I have and it's still more sporting than those of you who set over your "flock" of dekes!

[Number17]

lol ,, proud dad of a up coming elitist...
My 10 year old son and I rode up on two long beards on our golf cart while going home after a morn hunt last week .   My dad asked him why he didn't shot one ,, my ten year old said " what fun would that be ?"
Proud "elite " dad moment .

Congrats on not raising a road hunter.
My boy won't shoot jakes or hens. I never told him he could or couldn't, but somewhere along the line he decided longbeards or nothing.
He's 9 this year and killed gobblers the past two years helping me call with wingbones and cane yelpers from Mr. Ezolt.

[Yoder409]

Nothing to do with being an elitist , I will not shoot one that does not play the game with me. Heck , I'm at a point where sometimes I don't shoot ones I fool. I enjoy the hunt.........

We could spend time over a cup of coffee, sir ...........you and me.

[Zobo]

lol ,, proud dad of a up coming elitist...
My 10 year old son and I rode up on two long beards on our golf cart while going home after a morn hunt last week .   My dad asked him why he didn't shot one ,, my ten year old said " what fun would that be ?"
Proud "elite " dad moment .

Exactly right! The kid gets it, I'd be proud too

[Bottomland OG]

I'm not at all for the road hunting crap or hunting over bait or anything like it. As far as shooting a turkey that doesn't gobble, well that's a choice that shouldn't be looked down on.  In the a lot of the southern states in certain areas the bird don't gobble much so if you only shoot if he comes in gobbling you are probably SOL. I'll also say more than likely if your setting somewhere and have called and a turkey shows up, he heard you. I'm probably gonna ruffle a few feathers but tree hugging is only half the game. I'm not being arrogant but I'm just as good at calling one up as anyone else if not better and I'm sure any seasoned turkey hunter feels the same way but being a good caller only goes so far. If he ant coming, well he ant coming. I'm going to play his game until I feel he ant playing far then I'm going to him if I can. Sometimes the terrain won't let you. Also it's way harder to kill one coming in silent because most are gonna pick you off before you even know they are there. Unless you're perched up in a ground blind or something like that. Being able to move on one and get in front of or in the right spot can be a challenge in itself also. Heck I know people that call them in and they sound like a dying calf in a hail storm. I'm not against sitting waiting, you just have to read the moment and do what you think is right. That's the beauty of turkey hunting as long as it is within the rules and regulations for the area your hunting get after it. I have killed them rascals both ways but that doesn't make me a less of a hunter. I have used the terrain to move on them and I have literally watched a bird fly off the roost and never move a tree, let him go clean out of hearing and wait on him to come back and kill him at noon and that's sitting by a tree not in a blind. With all that said if I just walk up on one out of the blue will I shoot? No, but I'm not going to look down my nose at someone that will. I hope I didn't get anyone bent over anything I said but just because your way is your way and my way is my way doesn't mean either is the right way. If it tickles your fancy do it.