Evening hunt

[Shwangman]

Thanks to all who responded!!! For sure, why would you shoot one out of a tree, then you do need to go to the game farm!!!!

Thanks.

[Hotspotter]

This is a tough one for me to swallow ethically. Definitely not jumping down your throat or anything like that either. I know what you mean. This year's law states that you can hunt until sunset.....a time at which many of the birds in MN currently are flying up in their roost trees. Sometimes, cloudy/overcast weather will put them up there even sooner!

Sitting around or near the roost tree may prove to be a deadly technique this year before turkeys have adjusted. And they will, as they do out west where this is a more common hunting technique. Here, birds fly up in moonlight at times.

My fear is that it will be too deadly. Many times, killing a turkey gets to be front and center, a focus that we're drawn to above and against all odds and costs. And it will be legal this year to wait until roost. However, with birds approaching, how many hunters will quit right at sunset? Will the temptation to shoot afterwards by only a bit be too much?

We'll see.

Will I do it? Not like that. But I have no problem sitting on the oak flats and benches below typical roost sites, waiting for a group to saunter through that I might be able to call and steer my direction.

IMO, there is a difference between sitting in waiting near areas of likely occurrence, vs. under tall oaks on a ridge with feathers and piles of droppings littered under their wide branches.

This is a decision that everyone needs to make on their own however!

Joel

[tealitup]

If you have to shoot a turkey in a tree at sunset - please just go to a game farm.

If you find where they are roosting then get close early in the morning and set up a decoy and call. There is nothing like the rush of a bird on the roost calling back to you and flying down... knowing he is interested in your calls.... closer and closer comes the gobble-- where is he? then bam' he is 20 feet away looking at you and your gun is in your lap.

Wow, I wish I had early season this year.

[Borch]

Quote:

---

If you have to shoot a turkey in a tree at sunset - please just go to a game farm.

---

Shooting a roosted bird is illegal in MN whether it's early morning or evening. What the potential contreversy is about is the setting up on a birds roost tree in the evening and shooting it just before it flies up. Turkeys can be very vulerable at this time of day in this location. In some places a turkey will use a particular tree to roost almost exclusively. In other cases they may roost in 5-6 different locations.

Just give the roosting area some space. Set up 100 yards or so from the typical roost and call them in. Even with this birds will be more predictable in their movements if you do your scouting you'll be in the game.

[mnhunter2]

Been hunting turkeys in Iowa for years and have been able to hunt them intill sunset and if you think they are going to be easy to kill when they are going to roost you are crazy.

[Cooter]

What a horrible regulation....a great way to encourage turkey 'shooting'

[Borch]

To be honest I've hunted in places with the same regulations. Not many birds get killed after 1 pm as the number of hunters really goes down later in the day.

There will still be 5 times more birds shot in the first hour of the day than there will be in the last 3 hours of the day.

[harvey lee]

I just dont know why any hunter would shoot a Turkey roosting in a tree.Not much of a hunt to me. I would much rather do some scouting and be ready in my blind in the morning and call them in. Part of the hunt is calling them and when they answer. Thats the thrill to me.

[riverrat56]

Well going back to the question,

I would get out there by 3:30 or 4 or whenever you can, not that I've ever shot a turkey but after 6 years of not shooting one I consider myself an expert on what not to do.

If you are out in the morning and see or hear birds, they will likely follow that travel route back to the roost at night, if you were to far away to begin with, get closer and make a new set up for that night.

If you are set up on a feild edge you will probally need to get closer to the roost sight as the birds might get out in the middle of feild if they have been hunted earlier in the season and just sit there all day and strut, in that case I would attempted to find the route they take back to the roost at night and just sit there, no decoy and call very sparingly.

As everyone else implied don't get to close to the roost, if you don't get a bird that evening you will likely bump them off while leaving and mess up the next morning.

And finally has anyone here ever acctually hunted by a roost tree, like put there back against that tree? I just don't know how this otherwise warry and intelegent bird would be that much easier to harvest anyplace.

[Hotspotter]

I've hunted in several other states where this isn't a slam-dunk as well. Birds have adjusted over years of like regulations. My point was that this is simply a fear of mine, given it's the first year of the reg, and that I'm worried and perhaps erring on the side of caution.

As for...

Quote:

---

And finally has anyone here ever acctually hunted by a roost tree, like put there back against that tree? I just don't know how this otherwise warry and intelegent bird would be that much easier to harvest anyplace.

---

It's been illegal here all these years, and I haven't done it out west in some of the states that it's legal, mostly because I enjoy the morning volley of call/response so much. Esp. in some of the drier climates or areas devoid of trees like the central dakotas and or parts of Kansas and Oklahoma I've hunted. There are literally piles of droppings and feathers under favored roost locations. They still might not go back here every night, and sometimes it's pretty dark before they fly up, but waiting under these can be pretty easy pickins.

You get out of it what you put in. It's probably not an ultra-effective technique here where favored roost locations can be scattered, but sit under one for enough nights, esp. ones they had been at in previous days, and you're likely to connect. Maybe, no-more-so than one would by picking a frequent travel-route and parking it there all morning for 5 mornings in a row either.

Joel

[169Sportsman]

I have never shot a turkey out of a tree. But just to play devil's advocate for discussion sake. Do any of you guys that say not to hunt near the roost hunt deer bedding areas, or resting ponds for waterfowl? Kinda the same thing isnt it?

[Hotspotter]

No more than an apple is an orange is a pear. I see the analogy, and there are similarities. Turkeys IMO are slightly more vulnerable for a few reasons:

-they announce their presence and will shock gobble on the limb

-while their eyesight is superior, they have little sense of smell

-when it's dark out, you can get pretty close if you know where they are

Our forefathers used to mop them up this way That said, we're probably not half the hunters, and turkeys are still darned hard to kill!

Joel