Shooting a roosted turkey.....


Guest SRA

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Re: Shooting a roosted turkey.....

Nope. Not ever. Legal or not.

I hunt turkeys for the sport of outwitting them on their own turf and for the thrill of the gobble. I have no interest in filling my tag any other way than calling the bird to my gun.......last minute of the last day included.

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Re: Shooting a roosted turkey.....

Can't remember what species it was, but I read somewhere where the best and most widely used method to get fowl on the table was to sneek up the roost trees and club 'em. Believe it was in the Midwest somewhere in the early part of the 20th century. Nevertheless, I wouldn't sneek up on a roost and shoot 'em off a limb and I dang sure wouldn't club 'em.

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Re: Shooting a roosted turkey.....

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Redbeard, I read an article in the NAHC magazine. It was the ocellated turkey in Mexico. The only way to get kill one was to find one that was "singing" in the morning and shoot it out of the tree. There were no calls known to man that would call these birds in.

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Roost shooting is the accepted method for oscellated birds. But, there are newly developed methods for calling oscellateds (May/June 2005 issue Turkey Call magazine p. 68) that are being used and studied. Hopefully, if I ever get to go hunting them (like in a million years) I can call to them.

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Re: Shooting a roosted turkey.....

Lovett Williams guides out of there and his site says they have in the past resorted to roost shootin' if everything else fails. It goes on further to say the best manual call they have mastered is obtained by using Doug Camp's Owl Hooter. They also use that new electronic caller we see on ebay now that mimics their calls. They discourage roost shootin' as the fall often times breaks the long spurs the hunters are after in the first place, as well as damagin' the feathers of the bird. The site goes onto say they have had 100% success in the past few years. The price wasn't much more than huntin' the Osceola. I may do it once my son gets a few more years on him and can go with me. It's deep jungle hunting, primitive style.

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Re: Shooting a roosted turkey.....

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It's deep jungle hunting, primitive style.

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From what I hear, that's a bit of an understatement. A freind of mine went 3 years ago. He got his bird but swore he'd never do that again. After hearing the story about his hunt I just don't know if I want an oscellated turkey that bad. What probably made it a bit harder was he went right from a Texas Rio hunt to his oscellated turkey hunt without a break. He's a few years older than me too so I guess that makes him older than dirt.

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Re: Shooting a roosted turkey.....

Yeah Rhino, I've always been apprehensive about leaving the country huntin', especially Mexico and especially the Yucatan........I'd go if somebody important was along, somebody with clout, somebody with money. Heck, I might resemble some bandit they been chasing for a decade, then where would I be. A good friend and callmaker here in Georgia was at the time, a DNR chief in charge of Ocumugee WMA. He went down with a few others, flew into a private airfield, got picked up by a weathly Mexican landowner's gopher. As they traveled thru the dusty roads, the police stopped them (with uzies) and even though they were with a known Mexican citizen they still hauled there butts into a precienct and held them for 3 hours. Once back on the road, about 40 miles later, they got stopped again but this time they had papers and weren't detained. He said they all limited out the first afternoon there. Said he'd never return. That was for the Gould's turkey.

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Guest INHunterman

Re: Shooting a roosted turkey.....

I wouldn't do it. To me it violates the principles of fair chase. Besides it would be awfully hard to get close enought to the tree without spooking the bird.

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Re: Shooting a roosted turkey.....

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i think if there was a bird with like a 12 or 13 inch beard in a tree everyone would shoot it out of the tree lets be honest...lol..at least i would. i saw michael waddell do it on road trips...?

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I saw that too and was thinking about that, but it wasn't in its roost. The bird was coming to them but then starting moving away. Then they started closing the distance with the bird, then it flew over them and was watching them from behind. Then they shot it. Yes out of the tree, but not it's roost.

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Re: Shooting a roosted turkey.....

Well unless a very ackward situation occurs i would never shoot a turkey out of a tree. But take for instance, i'm hunting somewhere thats scattered with deep ravines. A turkey's gobbin on the other side of the ravine, 150 yards away. I see him approach the other side of the ravine where he stops and gobbles several times. After some sweet hen talk the tom pitches up and flys straight at me cause he's in Loooovvvveeeee! grin.gif Only to land 8 feet off the ground on a limb at 15 yards. If legal. . . BBBOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!!! In all other circumstances if the turkey is in a tree i'm not takin the shot.

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Re: Shooting a roosted turkey.....

I had a chance a couple years ago. I litterally set up within 20 yards of a roosted bird. Could have taken him off the limb, as it is legal here, but there is no sport in that, IMO. So I let him fly down and THEN shot him. Granted his feet were not on the ground more than about 2 seconds, but he knew something was up and was not going to stick around.

I guess if it is legal and that is how someone wants to make their claim to being a "turkey hunter" then by all means go for it. For me, I'll pass every time.

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Re: Shooting a roosted turkey.....

I could have once but didn't. I saw Waddell do it on his show "road trip" but it wasn't roosted. He called it in "kind of". It jumped from tree to tree right to him and he blasted it. In that situation I would. I probably wouldn't shoot a roosted bird though.

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Re: Shooting a roosted turkey.....

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NO There's no law against it here but IMHO turkey hunting is not about killing a turkey like that at all.

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Couldn't have said it better myself. You know I didn't bag a bird this year but had a great season just the same..and yes I had several opps to take a roosted bird. Just not my style! IMO

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