Shooting flying turkeys

[roadrunner]

I would share my story, but then I remembered where I am, Rokslide, and decided to keep it to myself...

 

[ShortMountain91]

I would share my story, but then I remembered where I am, Rokslide, and decided to keep it to myself...

I knew when I posted it, I would get some hate. That's fine. I see no issue with reaping personally even though I rarely use the tactic. This was a unique situation where the tactic called for it.

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[MTtrout]

ETHICS. Ethics is what we put on ourselves. If it’s LEGAL and you see it ok to shoot a turkey on wing and don’t feel bad for doing so then that is your ethics, not someone else’s. If you shoot the turkey on the wing and feel bad or question your decision then you have pushed your ethics. The later is more important to understand. Establish your own ethics and punish yourself for breaking it, don’t punish someone else’s

 

[humvee8]

Shot at a flying turkey once but was a clean miss. Have avoided ever since and stick to the ground only.

 

[z987k]

Reaping is banned in like nine states. The thread was framed as being about wingshooting. It is not. It's about pulling a stunt so ill-advised it has often been banned entirely.

Reaping is not wingshooting, so, where is wing shooting turkey's banned?

 

[juju]

Reaping is not wingshooting, so, where is wing shooting turkey's banned?

This isn't about wingshooting. If you read the OP you may have noticed the big picture is running around with turkey dolls getting into situations that turn bad fast, then trying to fix it with wingshooting.

Wingshooting turkeys is a last resort hail Mary to try to fix wounding a bird. The problem is that with a turkey there's a lot of bird that you will hit that won't result in a clean kill. It's like trying to shoot a squirrel in a running dog's mouth without hitting the dog. That's why we shoot them in the head when they're standing to the gun. It's easy to miss and there's a lot of turkey to miss into.

And wounded turkeys are very hard to find. If you hunt in wide open terrain that may not ring true, but most places where turkeys live there's plenty of cover to lose them in.

If these were pheasants it wouldn't be a big deal. You can easily raise and plant more; not so the wild turkey. Turkeys can be wiped out. You can go from being lousy with them to having none in a few years. Wasting one on a stunt like reaping is unconscionable. It's poor stewardship and certainly not productive for conservation.

I won't bother to type on how much of turkey hunting you miss out on with this nonsense, because if you haven't experienced it you won't know and won't care. But maybe not having turkeys?

I've killed several older birds off public land that had multiple sizes of shot in their body. Once they get airborne they're near impossible to find and more likely to survive what wounding you did, if any, than additional wounding.

 

[KHNC]

Not sure if ‘reaping’ and wing shooting are the same according to Meat Eater.
There are states where reaping is illegal

Should You Reap A Turkey?

Ding ding. That’s the bell for any number of turkey hunters willing to go toe-to-toe over the morality of reaping a turkey, which consists of using a gobbler fan or decoy to sneak within bow or shotgun range of a longbeard and kill it. Some hunters think it’s one of the most thrilling ways to...

www.themeateater.com

Reaping is not even close to the same as wing shooting. Reaping was just made illegal in South Carolina this year.

 

[makersmark32]

Depends on the range, if they are inside 35 yards, take em

 

[T-town]

I can vividly remember dropping 3 different birds from the air 15-20 years ago. All were well within range, 30ish yards and all recovered where they fell.

1. Don't reap Easterns, its bad manners in the southeast
2. If you do 'reap" a turkey, know how to do it correctly so you aren't "forced" to shoot at a flying bird.

 

[Amos Keeto]

Just my two cents worth.
I've had a shot at one flying tom. It wasn't that I thought it illegal or immoral or even unethical. I just wasn't confident enough to pull the trigger.

On "reaping".
As I understand it, it's "illegal" on public lands.
Personally, there are WAY too many Fudd's running loose to even consider the stunt on public land.
I'm not even sure I'd try it on private land....even if I could.
Two bad hips, one bad shoulder, one bad elbow and one ankle full of pins!

I would feel like a "Life Alert" commercial!
"HELP! I've fallen and I can't get up!"
"HELP! I was turkey hunting and can't get up!"

 

[Derbooze]

I've never pulled the trigger at a flying turkey, mostly because they always have their back end to me in flight! I personally think it is fine.

I also don't have a problem with reaping. While it isn't illegal in my state, I can see why it would be on public lands. I've done it successfully on private land but never on public.

 

[30338]

12 weeks of paternity leave spent turkey hunting hard. It made me laugh for some reason. Best of luck on the birds.

 

[chowtownsfinest]

I tend to hunt turkeys in a mountain clearcut above a meadow and have watched them fly downhill away from me or fly up to roost in remnant trees. Never even thought about taking a poke. Guess I need to practice my wing shooting.

 

[UKwildcatfan]

First time I've heard of someone shooting at a flying turkey. Missing the best part of turkey hunting; fanning, strutting, getting in close.

 

[ShortMountain91]

12 weeks of paternity leave spent turkey hunting hard. It made me laugh for some reason. Best of luck on the birds.

Yep it's been the most spring turkey hunting I've gotten in since I was skipping class to hunt. Been a lot of fun even though the birds have turned very stale where I'm hunting.

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[Esteban]

Is it more or less ethical to shoot a turk in flight, or a turk on the roost? If the concern with shooting birds flying away is wound loss, seems shooting a sitting bird would be less controversial.

 

[satchamo]

No. But I’m a turkey hunting purist and I have no qualms in saying turkeys need killed on the ground, unaware of your presence. Any other way is cheating yourself and the bird. Turkeys are too precious for jump shooting.

 

[Macintosh]

Where I live there are no limitations on how you can hunt or shoot turkeys, only season dates and limitations are bow with a broadhead, or shotgun using shot sizes between #8 and #2 shot.

I had a friend who used to occasionally hunt turkeys like pheasants with his springer spaniels. He’d run brushy, wide ditches between cut corn fields. The birds would run ahead of the dogs, and a gunner would stay on either side of the ditch where they could keep up. At the end of the ditch the flock would hang up until pushed, then flush in a giant turkey-sized explosion of turkey noises. It was utterly chaotic and unfathomably exciting for the dogs…like pheasant hunting on steroids. The first time I was with him **actually** looking for pheasants, but we found turkeys instead. We didnt shoot because they were turkeys. But all of our dogs flipped their lids, they were so birdy it was insane. I havent ever experienced a flush even remotely close to that. So we decided to go try to repeat it intentionally, gunned for turkeys. I was never able to make the timing work, but he went back and repeated the exact same scenario and shot a turkey on the wing a couple times.
If I recall correctly there was an article in one of the wingshooting magazines (shooting sportsman??) a year or so after that describing a hunt very similar.

 

[Honyock]

Is it more or less ethical to shoot a turk in flight, or a turk on the roost? If the concern with shooting birds flying away is wound loss, seems shooting a sitting bird would be less controversial.

In Oklahoma it’s illegal to shoot a turkey on the roost, so that’s also a shot I won’t take.

 

[TxxAgg]

Where I live there are no limitations on how you can hunt or shoot turkeys, only season dates and limitations are bow with a broadhead, or shotgun using shot sizes between #8 and #2 shot.

I had a friend who used to occasionally hunt turkeys like pheasants with his springer spaniels. He’d run brushy, wide ditches between cut corn fields. The birds would run ahead of the dogs, and a gunner would stay on either side of the ditch where they could keep up. At the end of the ditch the flock would hang up until pushed, then flush in a giant turkey-sized explosion of turkey noises. It was utterly chaotic and unfathomably exciting for the dogs…like pheasant hunting on steroids. The first time I was with him **actually** looking for pheasants, but we found turkeys instead. We didnt shoot because they were turkeys. But all of our dogs flipped their lids, they were so birdy it was insane. I havent ever experienced a flush even remotely close to that. So we decided to go try to repeat it intentionally, gunned for turkeys. I was never able to make the timing work, but he went back and repeated the exact same scenario and shot a turkey on the wing a couple times.
If I recall correctly there was an article in one of the wingshooting magazines (shooting sportsman??) a year or so after that describing a hunt very similar.

Looks like a fun time!