Safety or Time Outs for Turkeys?

[MKMGOBL]

Hello, I was just wondering what others think about this situation or if turkey has safety (as in playing tag when we were kids) in a base, home or a time out in trees? If it's been asked before sorry to bring it back up. Now I believe that roosting is when a turkey pitches up at night and spend the evening on a limb off the ground. I also understand game laws where I hunt about shooting turkeys from the roost. For me personally, if it was legal where I hunt I could not see myself shooting a gobbler that way. Not saying anyone who does it (where legal) is wrong, just not my preference.

On to my question. It's mid-morning and you're working a gobbler. He's coming in but just before he's in range, a coyote/fox/racoon/bobcat or something spooks him and he pitches to a tree limb in front of you and in range. Is that considered a roosting bird? I understand it all depends on how one reads the definition of roost. Just wondering what the consensus are on here. The discussion came up and there's mixed feelings on it.

roost
   (ro?ost) n.
1.  A place where winged animals, especially birds or bats, rest or sleep.
2.  A group of animals in a roost.
3.  A place for temporary rest or sleep: "One corner of the Panhandle served as a roost for outlaws, thieves, and killers" (Timothy Egan).
intr.v. roost·ed, roost·ing, roosts
1.  To rest or sleep on a perch or in a roost.
2.  To rest or sleep: "We roosted high on a hill with a bottle of cheap wine and a blanket".

[ilbucksndux]

I have not shot a turkey out of a tree even though it is legal after 8 am.  Once I was walking along a old log road I stopped turned and looked up and there was a big boy just sitting there looking at me. The thought crossed my mind to blast him but I did not. It just didnt seem fun. I clapped my hands and he ended up flying off. Not saying I would never do it ,but that day he was safe.

[SteelerFan]

My opinion:

I don't shoot doves off a limb / wire, I don't shoot ducks on the water, I don't shoot geese walking in a field, and I won't shoot a turkey in a tree - regardless of how or why he got there. Just my personal rules of engagement.

By definition, a turkey seeking refuge in a tree mid-morning, to me, would be just seeking safety. Letter of law vs intent has to be considered if you hunt a state that prohibits "roost shooting" specifically. In my brain, the term roost applies to the location the bird is going to spend the night.

[TauntoHawk]

Ill give opinion with a story.

One time a buddy and I were hunting big old bird 3 days in a row we were set up on him. Roosted on a edge of big knob over looking the Hudson River with a big swamp to it's back. 3 days that bird gave us the slip. He had a knack for always just getting by we set up in different spots each day, sometimes called sometimes didn't but he always just got by us. Once he was down that property was a maze of little ridges and beaver swamps those birds would gobble from a dry spot and by the time you could find a way to em they'd be two ridges over. So day 4 we decided to get in early and get right under them where they were flying down. Under them we got, had hens roosted in the tree we sat at and he was less than 30yds from us. We didn't make a peep one by one the other turkeys flew down. I let two 2yr old toms strut past inside 10yds determined to kill that giant bird the second his feet touched the ground. That old warrior gobbled and strutted on the limb well past day light, all the other birds were down and starting to drift off out of sight. I'll admit we had a brief discussion about just taking the bird off the limb but ultimately decided if we were gonna beat him itd be on the ground or not at all. And again that bird beat us with his 6th sense and he pitched clean out of sight to catch up to the birds that had flown down a solid 30min earlier and never made another sound.

We ended up leaving that bird alone for a little and i filled my tags on other less stuburn birds. Late in the season by buddy went back to that bird and hunted him with a strut decoy and he came in on a string. He was as nice as a bird as we had thought 25lbs 11.25 beard with 1 5/8th spurs.

It wasn't something I had given thought before then but in that moment I just didn't have the desire and once I've made that call I don't see going against it. In fact get close to the roost is often soemthing I employ when birds are difficult so I've had numerous occasions since then where I could have but it just doesn't cross my mind.

I don't belittle anyone who would where legal though I understand people hunt for different reasons. I don't turkeys for their meat, I eat it but I hunt for the fun and challenge.

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[dublelung]

I've shot 2 out of trees, not roost trees but they were still trees. The first one had been across a beaver pond gobbling and drumming all morning. As it got later and his hens started dispersing we turned up the aggressive calling and he flew the pond, lit high in a tree above me, drummed once, and I shot him! No regrets!
the other one was on the edge of a thicket and I'd been working him a couple hours. As I stood up to relocate the gobbler pitched up and toward me and lit about 10ft off the ground, I assume to get a better vantage point. It worked! I saw him, but he didn't see me. Again, no regrets!

[greencop01]

To each his own. If its legal whatever floats your boat. But I march to a different drummer. I have ethics and my ethics say I won't shoot a turkey off a limb. When I first started hunting turkeys anything legal goes, I would do it. As I got older and hunted more its more about the method now, I'ld rather call them in, no decoys, no blinds. Now if there were no cover in a spot I will 'make' a blind of nature's materials. But it all goes back to whats legal. I don't turn my nose up or anything, but for me I have my personal rules I put on myself. Again I don't judge others. If they poach or break the law I know some game wardens who are looking for extra work. If its legal do it. If it bothers you, don't do it.

[Cottonmouth]

I personally would never shoot one off a limb. Just not fair to the bird in my opinion. I've had birds over the years that drove me insane trying to figure them out and have had some fly up 40 yds away to roost, but that's not how I wanted them. If I have to resort to roost shooting just to say I killed one, I'll just take up buzzard hunting.

[Tom Foolery]

For the guys that have the ethics to not shoot a turkey off a limb he has went to for some reason I assume you would not shoot a buck if he chased a doe into a thicket and bedded down?


Myself, if I'm working a bird and he comes in and flies up on a limb to get a better look and he's in range, he's toast.  I'm not going to sneak in and shoot them from a roost but if a bird has worked in range I see no difference in shooting him on the ground or from the limb he has decided to  play over watch from.   

[Gooserbat]

Myself, if I'm working a bird and he comes in and flies up on a limb to get a better look and he's in range, he's toast.  I'm not going to sneak in and shoot them from a roost but if a bird has worked in range I see no difference in shooting him on the ground or from the limb he has decided to  play over watch from.

Pretty much sums up my feelings. 

[1iagobblergetter]

For the guys that have the ethics to not shoot a turkey off a limb he has went to for some reason I assume you would not shoot a buck if he chased a doe into a thicket and bedded down?


Myself, if I'm working a bird and he comes in and flies up on a limb to get a better look and he's in range, he's toast.  I'm not going to sneak in and shoot them from a roost but if a bird has worked in range I see no difference in shooting him on the ground or from the limb he has decided to  play over watch from.

x2...I wouldn't sneak in and shoot one off the Roost. Just as I wouldn't belly crawl  and shoot one without calling  and having it commit. The funnest part of turkey hunting for me is calling and hopefully getting a response and getting them to commit. It's just the way I like to hunt and I'm not going to judge anyone else as long as they hunt according to state regulation. I also choose not to shoot Jakes,but if my son or anyone else wants to that's fine by me in the spring if that makes the hunt for a person.

[MKMGOBL]

The topic came up when I was talking about one of my WV hunts. I tried pulling this old gobbler off roost but it just didn't happen. He had hens and was pretty content on staying with them. After he pitched down and had his girls, I ran the ridge top hoping to find one willing to play the game but that wasn't happening either. On my return back toward the wheeler, I ended up back where I start off the morning and got the bird I was after to play. I ended up working him down this point to the flat I was on but he came in on an angle off the hillside. I was caught facing uphill to the left and he came down the wrong way to my right. I watched him take his time strutting a good 75yds off the hillside and by the time he was in range, I was twisted so far...it was hurting. I took the shot missed him! I totally pulled the gun and the shot about 2 feet to the left of him blowing a piles of leaves in the air....I  wasn't even close.

Well the gobbler when about 2 or 3 feet and pitched to a limb of a tree growing on the hillside. He was literally eye level looking at me as I was trying to clear the hull I jammed by half shucking my 870 express super magnum. I swear he was there for at least 10 seconds of more looking at me as I was cussing and swearing (at my gun) before he pitched off gliding down in the holler.

I was asked if my gun didn't jam, would I have shot him? Hell yeah I would have shot him! I worked that bird a long time off that hill and that he was not on roost. I didn't sneak under him in the dark while he was sleeping. He was off roost by 6:20 and had been out with his ladies all morning humping. Jumping on a limb wasn't a time out in my book mid-morning. In the 27yrs I've been chasing long beards, I've never shot at a roosted bird and I never will. But if were happen to find myself in that kind of a situation again, that gobbler better hope my gun jams

[fallhnt]

IL law states illegal before 7:00. I've never shot one out of a tree in the Spring but have in the Fall. After a scatter and have had them fly from tree to tree to find me.

[stinkpickle]

It would feel weird.  I can't really say what I would do...depends on the situation, I guess.

[chatterbox]

In NH, it's illegal to shoot them while they're roosted.
Now, the law doesn't stipulate whether or not you can shoot them later in the day on the limb, but I have never encountered that situation, so if I saw one on the limb, I would give him a pass.

[Tom Threetoes]

In Indiana it's legal to shoot a bird off the roost if it's legal shooting time. I don't like it and don't do it, but I called a bird off the roost once and he flew into the tree I was sitting against and gobbled his rear off. If I could've got turned around and found him before he spooked I'd have shot him for sure. I figured I tricked him fair and square. As it turned out he spiraled down that tree trunk and landed right behind me. I could hear him walking in the pine needles, but it didn't take him long to decide that lump on the other side of the tree didn't belong!