Opinions on "Tree Shooting"

[Harty]

The situation you explain would be ethical in my book. Never happened to me. Would I shoot him?
Depends ...is it day one of the season or the last day etc.

[renegade19]

Boom!  Next!

[7shooter]

Been chasing them for 43 years and have never seen one fly up into a tree coming in. Seen them hop up on logs and such but never a tree.

[gdc23]

I think its fair game if he is coming due to responding to your call.

[dublelung]

I have no control over where he puts his feet or the elevation he is when he comes to my calling. Bang! Flop!

[Gamblinman]

Turkey hunting is a "sport" these days. It's not used or needed as a necessity to feed the family as it once was. While it may be legal to do so, I don't see it being very sporting in this day and time.

[Bearhunter247]

Last season I worked a bird all morning actually called him up but never got a shot. At around 11 he wouldn't budge after I'd circled him calling he was still gobbling every time I called. Kept easing closer finally saw him in the tree ended up crawling all the way to the tree. Ended up letting him go just didn't feel right.


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[greencop01]

Like shooting sitting ducks, not right for me.

[THattaway]

The technical term is "limb whooping".

I've killed exactly one turkey off a limb in 35 years of hunting. He flew tree to tree at 10AM coming to the call, watched him trade trees 3 times. As he flared into a 50' tall poplar tree about 15' from me I rolled up onto one knee with the gun almost straight up. I had to wait to get a clear shot at his head as he peered down from side to side, it was a little windy and the leaves were already out. He hit the ground with a tremendous thud. Under the same circumstances I'd shoot another without a second thought. We must do everything we can to remove that gene from the pool, just like quail that run and won't hold for a pointed setter.

Over the years I've passed on other turkeys in trees, in gun range and during legal shooting light (for all purposes legal to shoot by state regs) because I didn't call them in. For all the methods being used today I think it's comical folks would think legally shooting a turkey out of a tree was "unethical".

[EZ]

A twist.
Turkey on a limb at 25 yards, or a turkey on the ground at 50+ yards?

[GobbleNut]

A twist.
Turkey on a limb at 25 yards, or a turkey on the ground at 50+ yards?

My "train wreck" emoji isn't working.... 

[Happy]

I have only had one tree hop on his way in. I wasn't the shooter and he dropped to the ground about 60 yards out and trotted in. Pedro took care of him. That Turkey was more desperate for attention than a millenial that lost their face book account

[EZ]

A twist.
Turkey on a limb at 25 yards, or a turkey on the ground at 50+ yards?

My "train wreck" emoji isn't working.... 

LOL!!!!

[camotoe]

First year I ever turkey hunted about 10 years ago or so I was in a W M A romp and stomp last day of the year and last hour of the hunt . I had my 12 year old son with me . On our walk back to the truck I let him take a gobbler call out and play with it, he's banging away on it having a good time.  We are 100 yards from the truck on a lil dirt path when this gobbler flew in bout dusting our heads . Lands looking for his rival see us and jumps up flying off . I did take a shot as he flew off and would again .


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[huntineveryday]

I was bow hunting a specific dominant gobbler in one of my younger years, and this guy had been frustrating me all week. Finally, I call from a creek bottom late in the day and he comes clear across the corn field towards me. There's one stalk ranged at my outer range, once he hit that I've got him. Well, he's 100 yards, then 50, then 5 yards out of range...I draw back, waiting for him to cross my pre-ranged stalk...and the damn thing flies up and lands on a cottonwood limb directly above me! To be honest, I didn't consider the ethics of it, I checked what was behind my target, pasture with nothing in it for a mile...I drew back...pulled the trigger of my release...and...nothing! And I mean nothing, not a nick, a leaf falling, no response from the turkey, nothing! I somehow threaded my arrow through a maze of cottonwood branches and leaves, past the turkey, without hitting a single thing! So naturally I got more frustrated and nocked  another arrow, aimed, pulled the trigger on the release...and CRACK! I hit dead center of the branch the turkey was sitting on (was about dead center where I was aiming, didn't take into account the branch he was on!). I don't know if it was the shock, sound, or impact that thrust him from that branch, but he was flat out moving when he hit the horizon! I found my first arrow out in that pasture, and that fall deer hunting I noticed my second arrow was still stuck in that branch!!!

So I have tried, and if a legal opportunity were to present itself, I'd try again.