What game bird do you hate/depise the most?

[KurtR]

I’d love to take the guys that hate turkeys on an eastern hunt, just the bird vs your calls. There is nothing like it. I’ve never hunted turkeys out west, but I see guys kill them outside of blinds without bows every year with regularity. I’ve been trying for almost a decade to kill an eastern with a bow, no blind and no decoys, in the spring. It’s a tall order.

If eastern turkeys could smell like a deer, they’d be next to impossible to kill with a shotgun and calls.

Honestly, most all other bird hunting sucks when you don’t kill birds. Turkey hunting is the only bird hunting that’s still enjoyable when the birds win.


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So going on a hike and carrying stuff around. At least if I go pheasant hunting I don’t get covered in ticks and get to watch the dogs work if I just want to walk around and not kill anything.

 

[fatlander]

So going on a hike and carrying stuff around. At least if I go pheasant hunting I don’t get covered in ticks and get to watch the dogs work if I just want to walk around and not kill anything.

There’s no going on a hike and carrying stuff around for turkeys east of the Mississippi. The east is small and flat outside of Appalachia and that’s still small compared to the Rockies. It’s a pocket full of calls, and playing a chess game with the bird. Some of my most memorable turkey hunts haven’t been the hunts where turkeys died. I’ve killed a pile and watched a bigger pile die.

They’re difficult to kill when you play the game at their level. Sticking a solid decoy out or crawling behind a fan isn’t playing the game at his level.

I firmly believe they (heavily pressured easterns) are more difficult to kill, with a bow, without decoys and a blind, than mature whitetails and mature elk, combined.


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[flathead#2]

I gotta agree, Eastern Public Land Turkey is not the same as a western one.
Taste pretty good too.

And Coots for me as the most worthless, barely edible game bird.
And there's lots of em.

 

[Live_weighT34]

That’s easy, doves. You couldn’t give me another dove to eat or hunt.

 

[Taudisio]

I have been chewing one this for a while. Definitely a common merganser. They fly fast, but they aren’t very acrobatic so it’s usually pretty straight. They eat fish so they need to be thinned out for the trout’s sake. Smell like a rotten pile of fish. Ugly. I don’t think I’ve ever had one land in the decoys, just buzz by. They are at least as heavy as a mallard, so you have to carry that back to the truck without getting the mallard meat. I can’t think of a positive thing to say other than, they fly fast. My dog doesn’t even like them.

 

[Ucsdryder]

Most frustrating… wild chukar. Not even close.

 

[Kurts86]

Turkeys because just mentioning them summons a legion of SouthEasterners explaining how great they are to hunt and all the unwritten rules of chasing them.

I do enjoy turkey hunting but I’ve had enough of NWTF shows and discussing the birds with the losers of the War of Northern Aggression.

 

[fatlander]

Turkeys because just mentioning them summons a legion of SouthEasterners explaining how great they are to hunt and all the unwritten rules of chasing them.

I do enjoy turkey hunting but I’ve had enough of NWTF shows and discussing the birds with the losers of the War of Northern Aggression.

Some rules aren’t unwritten anymore. Fresh out of South Carolina. Up until 2016 had they had highest bag limits in the country. On their way to the lowest in the country in less than a decade. Maybe some of those stupid rebs you’re tired of were on to something?


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[pirogue]

Crows. Ok, may not be a game bird, but I love to shoot a bunch.

Crows. Ok, may not be a game bird, but I love to shoot a bunch.

I’d say since there is a season on them, the Feds consider them a game bird. Don’t understand why they get protection. All they’re good for is to rob cornfields, ruin predator calling setup by flying in and drowning out calls, destroy and kill turkey and duck nests, and thier young.

 

[Mojave]

Turkeys because just mentioning them summons a legion of SouthEasterners explaining how great they are to hunt and all the unwritten rules of chasing them.

I do enjoy turkey hunting but I’ve had enough of NWTF shows and discussing the birds with the losers of the War of Northern Aggression.

When I lived in Maine I got told regularly that Eastern turkeys were PHD's and only the worthy could kill one. So the slack jawed yokels who lost the war of northern aggression aren't the only ones that act like you have to be in some kind of super secret Dutch rudder club to kill one.

I don't really have a bird species that I would say I hate. I hate self inflicted gun wounds of made up laws that many hunters of all types (not just bird hunters) enact on one another. Archery hunters to rifle hunters, vertical bow hunters to cross bo hunters, bear and lion hunters by meat hunters and a 1000 other combinations.

I don't see the point of hunting quail.

I don't get the Texas live and die love of dove shooting.

Here in Europe, people that shoot a capercaillie or a black grouse in the Austria are some how loftier than those that shoot one in Sweden for 1/5th the price. That and you can kill multiples in Scandinavia and you can't do that in the Alps. You can also hunt Capercaillie in Bulgaria and Russia and obviously this is also not as cool as shooting one in the Alps. The answer is always the same "it's not the same experience". No it is not, it's a hell of a lot more fun and you get more opportunities. I did the black grouse in Austria last year, and I don't care enough about capercaillie to spend $5000 on a single bird to do it in Austria in 2025 or 2027. If I do it, it will be in Scandinavia.

Turkeys are interesting. But in Wyoming and Texas it is legal to shoot them with a rifle. Something I understand is totally taboo in most of the Turkey states.

Went to a Ducks Unlimited Dinner one time. That was enough to make me avoid those people like the plague. I like to hunt ducks and geese but people ruin it. The birds just adapt to not wanting to get killed. I don't have a problem with that.

 

[satchamo]

Turkeys because just mentioning them summons a legion of SouthEasterners explaining how great they are to hunt and all the unwritten rules of chasing them.

I do enjoy turkey hunting but I’ve had enough of NWTF shows and discussing the birds with the losers of the War of Northern Aggression.

I honestly love turkey hunting probably more than any form of hunting but as someone who lives north of the Mason Dixon line, you’re 100% spot on. Waterfowl culture has invaded the sport.