Reaping Illegal in Alabama

[TauntoHawk]

16 turkey hunters shot this spring, 2 died. Not one reapper.

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For me it has nothing to do with safety and mostly with the fact that it's exactly as easy as spot lighting deer and shooting them.

With populations dipping many places is an easy almost guaranteed harvests method make much sense.

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[GobbleNut]

16 turkey hunters shot this spring, 2 died. Not one reaper.

Interesting.  Is this a national statistic?  Assuming this is true, I'm not totally surprised really.  I still personally believe that most turkey hunters are pretty responsible in terms of identifying their targets (visually) before pulling the trigger. I also believe that there has been a big enough fuss made about reaping and associated gobbler decoy use that those that do it are probably pretty careful about not putting themselves in compromising positions when doing so. Only time will tell if that argument is valid, but as of now, it can't be disputed based on the statistics as presented.

Now, the ethical considerations are another matter.  Hence the recent movement by states like Alabama to outlaw certain "reaping" strategies.  I still believe that unless gobbler/jake decoy use is totally outlawed, it is going to be awfully hard for a conservation officer to get a conviction for ticketing someone for reaping.  Too many loopholes related to "intent", in my opinion,...as has been discussed in the comments section of forums such as OG.