Hunt the Roost
 

Got a surprising answer from my local game warden recently. You want to get close to birds? You want to choose between several gobblers? Sneak into a roost site before daylight and watch the trees when the sun comes up. You will be able to kill your pick of birds, and shoot them right out of the trees before they even wake up.
Yes, thats right, it's legal to do in my state. But I don't know many people who do it that way.
I will admit that I have shot one out of a tree. But after 1 1/2 hours of calling and having the same bird answer on an extremely windy morning. I decided to go to the bird. After another 1/2 hour of belly crawling and slipping behind trees, I saw the large gobbler, pacing back and forth on a large oak limb. I figured I'd worked hard enough to deserve that bird and killed him. Sneaking in and killing a fully alert bird that is gobbling, seems different than shooting a sleepy bird from the roost.
Both require quite a bit of skill. I mean it's not easy to sneak into a roost site and get close enough to kill a turkey and it's definitely not easy to come within shotgun range of a fully alert and gobbling bird. It's legal so why not? I personally will stick to calling them in whenever possible. But is the bird I shot out of a tree considered a roosting bird? He's been gobbling for 2 hours and walking up and down a limb.

I wish that were legal in florida, theyre bad about callin out of the trees in pressured wma's

Shooting a turkey out of a tree at sunrise would take all the challenge and fun out of the hunt. That's not what turkey hunting is about. It's legal in Louisiana, but that don't make it right. To each his own though, as long as he is legal.

Not legal here in Pa or in Ohio where I also hunt, which I'm glad. Would have no desire to shoot one of the roost even if it was legal. Nothing better than playing their game on the ground to have him come in Spittin and drummin.

That would seem to take all the fun out of the hunt. Myself I've never shot one out of a tree, thought about it on a couple of hunts, but so far haven't done it and probably won't.

I totally agree... that kind of goes against the FUN of the hunt.

Atleast here in Illinois our roosted birds are protected to an extent. No birds may be shot out of a tre until after 7 AM.... which by then, they are all on the ground.

ive had hunts ruined from bozos sneaking in and killing birds off roost

It is legal here in Colorado to but I do not think it is very ethical. It is called hunting! I hunt roost areas but I wait for the birds to fly off and come in to me, if he doesn't than I use my experience to get ahead of him or I hunt another day.
After the kill the fun is all over. I believe in far chase.
I was set up on a roost and a dumb __s shot a hen out of the tree, I know it was a hen cuz I found the eggs etc. after he cleaned it. Maybe she had a beard and thats legal and fine but out of the Roost, that just makes me angry!
legal is legal I guess but I don't think it should be legal. I certainly don't think a DOW officer should be recommending it!

If it is legal give it a try. You should alway be willing to try different methods. It could possibly be your new favorite way to hunt. Just because its not the most popular method does not in any way make it unethical or wrong. Hunting is luck.So give it a shot and if its not for you try one of the many other methods.
Good luck
Get there early!!

If you shoot them from the roost, Your Not a turkey hunter plain and simple.

Ditto what Adrian said!!

Sorry buddy but that is simply your opinion.
If you shoot a turkey using any legal method then you just harvested a tukrey. There are many methods that people dont believe in like ,hunting with dogs, flushing a flock of birds, baiting, even using calls. I myself am not a fan of most methods. But like i said if it is legal and it works for you to make your hunt the most productive and fun, then more power to ya.
AND THATS A FACT.

Adrian j Hare, I think the same thing.

hunting is more than luck, if you really believe hunting is just luck play the lottery to det your kicks, Shooting a turkey from roost is bs and defeats the whole purpose behind turkey hunting. The same can be said for spotlighting deer but people will defend that just the same.

Isn't the purpose of turkey hunting to kill a turkey? If its not then don't take a weapon with you next time you go turkey "hunting".
Personally, I would not shoot a turkey off the roost, but if its legal I couldn't care less if another person does.

gyro288; I agree with you, very well said.

Turkey hunting can involve luck and in some states shooting a gobbler out of a tree is Legal, but where is the skill in sneaking up on a turkey in the dark and shooting it out of a tree at first light? The easiest thing about turkey hunting is sneaking up on em in the dark ( in my opinion and experience).
I had a hunt where I watched a nice gobbler strut and gobble on the roost for 1 hr or so he would not fly down to me but I called in another gobbler, the roosted gobbler flew down and they began to fight.
they went out of sight necks wrapped together still fighting. No I didn't get a gobbler that morning but I got a nice one on his way to roost that evening, he came right to me. I wouldn't give that experience up and I got some great video.
So I ask all hunters that would shoot a turkey out of a tree Legaly....Why would you not give the turkey a sporting chance? Why would you miss out at a chance of an even better experience for your self?

No, the purpose of hunting turkeys is not to kill a turkey. It may be the ultimate goal but not the purpose. If your whole purpose is to kill, then you have missed the mark badly. I have had some incredible hunts without ever pulling the trigger. Turkey hunting is the ultimate, the ultimate, and sneaking up on a bird on the roost steals all that the sport is about.

Enough said !...

90% of my best hunt i didn't even shoulder my gun if you are doing it because you have to feed your family is one thing but other then thatso what if you have to wait till the last day to shoot your bird i would rather kill one one the last day then to kill one on the first couple especially off the roost
and i would like to add if your best method is tree hunting sounds like you need to watch a few more videos and a whole lot of practicing

I agree with most of you - as shooting a turkey in his roost defies the reasons the majority of us love to turkey hunt.

For me, personally, it would be like netting fish and calling that fishing. No skill, no thrill of the hunt/catch. I mean sure, you get a fish - but it's NOT fishing.

I agree that roost hunting is not a way I'd like to kill my turkey. I disagree with the comment that was made about killing turkey is why we hunt....I have been fortunate enough to have killed a turkey, but my favorite hunt was last year in Mo with arrowmaster. Had a monster come in and stayed too far out to shoot, but wow it was a great show, frustrating, but great. The same question arose before here and there and people have even said they wouldn't shoot a tom if it were in a tree for any reason, that I also disagree with. if I call in old tom and he jumps or flies to a low hanging branch to get a better look...fair game. But to sneak into a roost and shoot a turkey, maybe legal.....Kind of like the old story about the old man and the game warden fishing. The old man pulls out tnt lights it and throws it in the water.. Boom the fish float up. The W says you can't do that and the old man lights another and tosses it to the GW...and says you gonna talk or fish? Doesn't make it right. Be safe!!!

I've never seen a gobbler on the limb much after shootin light... Doubt I ever will...

I have set up in area's I new the birds were from roosting them the night before and relized after first light that that I had set up within 10 yards of several roosting birds... Never even thought about shootin one off the roost... That thought doesent even enter my mind while turkey hunting... Now I've been trying to set up on a gobbling bird and thought about sneakin up just over a rise and seeing if I could bush wack him... But that doesent usually work!!!

There are several phases to becoming a hunter - to start the main goal is to shoot a turkey or shoot a deer, but the later phases of turkey hunting or any hunting for that matter changes from just shooting one, to shooting the most, or shooting the biggest, to fully evolve into tactics of how you hunt and how close you can get the animal or bird to you to more than the actual shot itself. And the last phase is helping others as many get more enjoyment of seeing others harvetst their first ever Tom!

To me that is how hunting evolves - each to their own as amny don;t fully evolve to that last phase.

Oh and to shoot one off the Roost - Sorry in my book you are not an ethical hunter - You don't need that turkey to survive.

JW

I do not agree that hunting is all about killing. It is a small part of it but not what makes it. My best experiences in the woods were days that i didnt even see any turkey. The privilage to go out and sit in the woods all day to just get away from traffic, work, and the economy is thereputic enough to keep me from going crazy.

Agreed Adrian

Any slob hunter with a shotgun can shoot a turkey off the roost. What is the challenge of that? It isn't the essence of turkey hunting and isn't considered fair chase.

MC

I think you guys are missing the point. By definition if you are hunting a turkey you are trying to kill it.
I am not trying to say you cannot enjoy all of the other aspects of the hunt.

Ethics police are out hard on this one. If its legal let it go.

I agree. I've always wanted to shoot one off the roost at first light but never had the chance. Yet.

I've killed 4 turkeys in the air and get slammed by some for doing it, yet if I shoot one off the roost it's not "challenging ". :hit:

You are hunting the king of the woods. Anything making noise he doesnt like he covers it up with his own gobble. He shows off to anything that will take notice and those that wont he makes sure they hear him. He is the man, he can handle 15 women all clucking for his attention, after he satisfies those he will be out looking for more. At first gobble he makes our heart pick up a bit, a closer gobble our heart is at a small thump, at first sight slight thunder, at 30 yards our heart is out of our chest beating loud enough, we wonder if he can hear it.
Yes I have a love affair with this creature and I wont apologize for it. The bird I know and respect deserves to play the game, he deserves better than to be shot from his roost, his place of rest, his escape from the game. It is the game that you miss out on shooting from the roost. You didn’t play, the game hadn’t even started, you knocked out the champ before the bell had even rung. In my book you should be expelled from the sport. You have missed the point, and I don’t think you will ever get it. But I will tell you that if you ever do come over from the dark side and the light ever does come on for you, you will be part one incredible club.

I don't consider it a game because death is involved. Sportin clays is a game.

Interesting, and mostly expected responses. I was a little shocked myself that a game warden suggested it, as a legal means of hunting. But I think it's fine, and I agree that killing a bird is the reason hunters hunt. The one and only reason I hunt is for food. If I'm out there as a naturalist/photographer/ bird watcher/ guide, I won't have a gun along. When I take a gun, and take a life, it is only to sustain my own life. When I hunt, to put turkeys in the freezer, I will choose the most eficient method possible. It is not a sporting event for me. So I will take my game wardens advice and try it. I love the calling, the strutting, the challenge of it all too, and I'm damned good at it, but thats just a game I create in my head, a cat and mouse game, to make killing fun.
I love nature and enjoy being out there for all the non-turkey related sights and sounds. But when I'm hunting, not just out for a walk, but hunting for a holiday meal, it's serious business, I only want to kill a bird. I don't have time for too many days afield and I want them to count. It's a lot of effort to kill those birds, when $15-20.,would buy one at the store. But I get two birds for a $17. tag in my spare time, and I can walk out and do it. My hunting gear was paid for years ago, including enough ammo to last my lifetime, in anticipation of being old someday on a fixed income, and still needing to eat. So to get the food I need, with as little time and money spent as possible, I will try anything.
I really think sport hunters, who spend so much time /travel and money to try and get a bird, don't really know the real meaning of having to kill for food. They're just rich guys on vacation, enjoying the sights and sounds. There is nothing wrong with that at all, I make part of my living guiding them, and if I had enough money I would travel and hunt for sport too. But the true nature of hunting is killing and eating.

Very well said!

Well to go back a bit to my first post - that is only one phase of us as being a hunter.........and some never progress onto the next phase.....

What ever enjoyment you get out of it - Good for you......but to me it is one thing I in my ethics is beyond fair chase -

JW

Just read back through all the posts, and agree with most. However you feel about it, that is the right thing for you. I do disagree with whoever said shooting turkeys from trees is not turkey hunting period. It obviously is not your idea of turkey hunting, but if it's legal, it is in fact turkey hunting. Very basic, possibly very easy, certainly very efficient and not everyones idea of an exciting hunt maybe, but still hunting. Unsportsmanlike sure, but still hunting.
We can all agree probably that our ancesters used every method and technological advancement possible to efficiently kill everything edible for survival. We can also agree I think, that most of the methods they used would be illegal and considered unethical today, but only unethical because it's now illegal and no longer practiced or accepted where you live. But in places where hunting traditions and practices continue and have not been made illegal, they are considered completely ethical and normal and you'd be the outcast wannabe who didn't understand the proper way to do things, who wasn't a real hunter. What our forefathers did was hunting. Simply and efficiently killing game for food is hunting, however they did it. Driving animals over cliffs was hunting, even if it is no longer legal or practiced except by poachers. Poachers are hunters too though. They probably hunt closer to the old traditions than we do, the laws be damned. But their methods are no longer acceptable for conservation purposes. They are sort of disinfranchised hunters, but still hunters.
Now we live in a world where game laws are in place, and are needed to protect game animals from extinction, and on the other end of the scale, overpopulation. The scale must be kept in balance, as we don't want either of those to occur.
The traditional hunt which meant killing everything in sight to eat and store for the winter has been largely replaced by farming animals for slaughter, so there's always a ready supply at the store. And farming animals for high fence hunting is acceptable to many. Why do we cling to hunting at all? For most it's because they love the outdoors, the sights, the sounds, the chase, the chance to spend time alone or the chance to hunt with friends. The connection to the natural worls is strong. Who cares if we kill anything, if we have a great day? For most it's the sport, and the overall experience and I agree it's great, and it's the best part of hunting! But true hunting has nothing to do with sport. Whether you spend ten minutes sneaking under a tree, or all day having fun watching, calling and choosing a bird with your best buddy, when you pull the trigger and the bird dies you have hunted either way. Hunting hasn't changed as much as the people doing it, and everyone has their own idea of how to do it right. But hunting is still, basically, seeing something edible and figuring out a way to efficiently kill it, before we starve. Modern hunting is seeing something edible, checking the game laws, buying proper tags and following prescribed methods to suit a consevation plan, then killing the animal for food that you may not even need to survive. This is something a real hunter, a traditional hunter, did not have to do. But I agree that it's necessary today, if totally artificial. The most efficient ways to hunt have been largely deemed illegal for safety reasons or to keep GAME animals from being totally slaughtered, to keep the scale balanced, and so hunting the way great grandpa did it is no longer acceptable, even though great grandpa wasn't playing a GAME. Great grandpa, by todays standards would be an unethical poacher, but he was still a great hunter in his day.
I agree that there are different phases people go through, but believe that moving away from simply killing for food and doing it for any other reason is more for the sport and moving in a direction away from true hunting. I love the sport, but am willing to try the less sportsmanlike method because I'm a true hunter. I'll probably find that it has some built in challenges and fun too. I want to, as much as possible, and within the law, try true survival style hunting, the true tradition, the way it was done in the past. Just kill it and grill it because I am free to do so, within the law. How could that be wrong?

Two phases
1.Shoot turkey
2. Eat turkey
Also, here is a free ethics lesson
You should always be willing to share the experience and it is never about the most or biggest.
If you kill for just the "sport" or "thrill" that is a waste of life and you have strayed far from the beaten path.
Your welcome.

I have to agree with you at a point, but as a person that stands behind a name Turkey guide, your statement here don't help the rest of the guides and outfitters out there. I take it that you will go to all means to kill a bird just for the success.

Hate to say it but I have guided 100's of turkey hunters to success and not once ever allowed a client to shoot from the tree legal or not and it is legal where I live. That just don't make me feel like I'm teaching anyone proper hunting. Most of these laws were set not by hunters but Bioligist that never looked at the whole ball game.

If you shoot birds from the roost then feel proud, just don't call yourself a hunter sorry....

Let me start off by telling a story leading up to the success of my 2nd bird last year.

I'd been on this bird for a few days and I had been so close that I wanted to put this bird down no matter the circumstance. I got out early Saturday morning, put out my decoys and setup close to the tree he had roosted in the past few days and waited for daylight. Upon the sun breaking over the hills, and the darkness fading, I noticed the tom up in the same tree as the previous days. I watched him waiting for him to sound off so I could play the "game." As seconds turned to minutes I watched him walk to one side of the limb, turn around and walk back to the other side, all the while not making a peep.

As time went on and flydown approached, I realized he wasnt going to gobble at all. I made a few tree yelps and did a flydown cackle soon after. I was still determined to get this bird no matter what. Soon after my flydown, he flew out of the tree and walked directly to my decoys. At thirty yards he gave me the opportunity, and I unloaded a 3 inch #6 load in his direction. He fell and I went over to claim my reward expecting to be overjoyed.

From flydown to shot was no more than 20 seconds.

As I walked up I realized I wasn't happy, I wasn't ecstatic. Infact, I felt disguisted with myself that I had been so determined to KILL this animal that I had gone to any length to do so. This, to me, wasn't hunting -- it was murder. Sure it's how some people do it, but I know I will never do it like that again. If he isn't going to gobble and play the game, I won't either. For him to flydown right into my decoy and me to shoot him within seconds of landing, just isn't my idea of turkey hunting. Turkey killing, maybe. Obviously, we all have different ethics, and I suppose I needed that experience to further understand what kind of hunter I want to be, but, never again.

I'd much rather run and gun, get em all riled up and have them come in gobbling and excited - not bonzai them as soon as they hit the ground.

But, if that's the kind of hunter someone else wants to be, then to each their own, but I wouldn't spend a day hunting with them. JMO

X2!!!

Hatchet Jack

Would anyone shoot a bedded buck?

This discussion has raised a good question...and NOt the ethcis question that in the obvious one. It's the question of what makes birds stay on the roost in the moring for long periods. I once flushed one from the roost at 10 am.....It was a cold and dreary day, spitting rain, I guess he just didn't want to get out of bed without a good reason. Third week of our season so I always wondered how much the pressure influenced that phenomenon as well. Frustrating to say the least. Of course it became apparent that I was meant to go home and grab the fishing rod, and went out and absolutely hammered the trout in the dreary conditions. Sometimes you just have to say that today is not the day and find something else to do, imo. I personally don't agree with roost shoting and its illegal in my state, but interestingly I've been called unsportsmanlike by other turkey hunters (old school)for such common and accepted prcatices as using decoys and hunting field edge strut zones. Just some food for thought.

Ok, my turn. To start off with, I would never shoot a roosted turkey. That's not what I'm out there for. I want the challenge and the show. I love the meat too, but I won't say that a turkey dinner is the only thing I go to the woods for.

That being said, if shooting a roosting turkey is legal and that is how you want to take your bird, go for it. While I don't agree with some of the things that you do, I'm sure I do things that others don't agree with also. Surely there are those out there who don't believe a repeating firearm is sporting. I wouldn't dream of running deer with dogs, but in some parts of the country it's just part of the hunt. In some states it's legal to hunt turkeys with rifles. That's not anything like the turkey hunting I know, but it's legal and that's how many people do it.

We as hunters (whatever the definition of that may be) need to stick together. Face it. We are much more like the guy who shoots the gobbler off a branch than the anti-hunter PETA nut that's trying to take away our tradition, sport, lifestyle, whatever you want to call it. We just need to realize that we won't ever all agree on what's right, and try not to bash those who have different views of what's right.

Make your own judgments within the confines of your state law. If you're out for meat, I wish you luck putting a tom on your table. If you're out there for the show, I hope he struts and spits n drums for you like a champ. As for me, I want both!

Let's all just pray that we can enjoy turkey hunting, for whatever our intentions are, for many years to come.

rw