I did not read all the post, just the last couple especially Shemps.
If someone ambushes a bird that is not knowing being worked by a hunter, I have no problem with it. BUT, if you know or even think someone is working a bird and you get in between them and " ambush" the bird, that person is WRONG! That in my book is cheating and unethical.
Shemp, maybe the other hunter that shot the bird, really thought you where a hen. Or the other hunters snaked in and shot that bird, knowing it was in front of another hunter. There is a lot of stuff that happens on public land that effects other hunters hunts.( both positive and negative) Most things we will never know and it is probably better.