Sq2Hunter

I dont think that it is unethical, however, it is illegal here. Possibly for safety reasons.

HOSS

I wouldn' t say unethical if you can pull it of add it to your bag of tricks and use it when opportunity presents itself just be careful and have fun

Bobgobble2

Sour1,i' ve seen these ethical posts get ridiculously ugly before including this excact subject you talk about here!Bottomline is when most hunters take to the woods there gonna do what they are best at and what the law allows!For many relying on there ability to manuever,stalk,and position themselves are what they are good at and thats what they have confidence in.Others rely on there calling ability,equipment they have,scouting they' ve done,and overall past experience!We all have our own style of turkey hunting developed from our past experiences afield!Because of that we do what works for us!Does this mean there are no ethics that the turkey hunter should follow?Absolutely not!Obviously breaking the law,trespassing ,poaching,and in many states shooting a bird off the roost are no brainers!But shooting birds off a feeder,out of a truck,off a quad,and forgive me for not mentioning more but I' m not going to start an argument here!!Where' s the hunt in this???As far as stalking is concerned,we all have to position ourselves in the turkey woods to work a bird!For myself a combination of calling and positioning is what works for me.Fooling a bird in close is the high of the sport and to that end is what I work for in the turkey woods and part of that is manuevering to give yourself an opportunity to do so!To take the call out of turkey hunting would to me,be far less fun, and make hunting spring gobblers even tougher than what it is now especially on public ground!I manuever to get in position to call to a bird not with the intention to sneak up on him and kill him!Just my style that has proven effective enough for me!Sure many guys have snuck up on a bird or two and got the drop on them but to make a habit out stalking as your primary means to to turkey hunting will for the most part result in spooked birds,which makes for running and flying shots,which results in wounded birds!!Besides this sooner or later you will run into somebody else doing the same thing which no question results in a dangerous situation.I know guys that absolutely will not hunt public ground because of this!!I' ve been stalked myself on private ground before and when the 2 fellas popped out of the brush one of them carrying a rifle pointed in my direction,I turned white being scared to death because I had no idea they were there!!Ethical or not I' ll leave that up to the individual himself to decide,but for me I' ll stick to what works!!Bob

loner

as already stated, if it is legal it is etheical!

Wickman (Buckmaster)

thats not unethical and if it is on privite land with no one else then it would be pretty safe expechally since you werent calling to get others attention.

TomC

Bobgobble makes a good point here:
However, sometimes you get the chance to use this maneuver--I think we all have but, in my opinion, I do not think it' s unethical. Just be careful other hunters aren' t around. They might be trying the same maneuver. Put this consideration on your " mental checklist" before you start the stalk and I think you' ll be fine.

Antler Eater

I would echo what has already been said. It is legal here so stalking turkeys is an option not a question of ethics. Under certain conditions there may be a safety issue and there has to be some discipline involved in shot selection but really that should be used when making any shooting decision. Depending on location, time of year, pressure, etc. stalking could be a more effective way to hunt turkeys than calling.

I have ambushed turkeys on a stake out with no calls or decoys. Set up just like hunting a deer on a transition route. I have stalked them and made kills that way. I quickly found that I didn' t get the same thrill out of turkey hunting by those means. I wouldn' t criticize a fellow hunter for doing it that way, all I am saying is that for me it gives me no satisfaction. Not to dissimilar than one person liking a certain type of food while another may not. Both have to eat, their tastes lead them in different directions. One is not ethically better than the other just different, that is all.

I don' t expect everyone to feel the same way I do about this subject, but in my case the fun of turkey hunting is using calls, interacting with the birds, drawing them into your ruse, and trying to close the deal. I understand that there is a relatively small window of opportunity to hunt them effectively in this fashion but that is okay. When the breeding season is over then the memories of the spring hunts carry me to the next season. If they are not responding to the calls, I would get just as much satisfaction mowing the grass as I would hunting turkeys. But that is just me.

RIStrutStopper

It is not legal here, plus I hunt on public land so it' s not even a question for me. I just don' t do it.

benhuntin

ABSOLUTELY NOT UNETHICAL. Sneaking up on any wild animal without being seen or heard is the unltimate challange. I have tried it on many occasions but seem to get busted most of the time. [:-]

WANWTF

I don' t see it as unethical at all, but it can be dangerous - and I wouldn' t recomend doing it on public land. But like the last " ethics" string that was going on here, there is unethical behavior that is legal. I' ve had it happen while turkey hunting and deer hunting.

If I am calling a bird in, and someone comes in and sets up between me and that bird knowing I was there (and I have had this happen)- he didn' t do anything illegal, but I don' t think he is being ethical in the least. Now when this happens, I make sure to do anything in my power to spook an otherwise incoming bird.

Deer hunting - Here in WA, most people site their rifles in at 200yds minimum - Your shots are a lot of times pretty far. When I bust my butt long before the crack of dawn (cross a river, scale a cliff, and climb what people on the east coast would consider a mountain) and set up before the sun comes up and some yahoo comes in at the crack of dawn, (actually two of them) and sit down closer than 50 yards from me scoping the exact same valley and shooting zones, though not illegal, it is far from ethical. Thankfully, as soon as the sun came up, they wandered off to try and run deer down and I was able to bag a nice 4x4 muley.