It's interesting how even back then turkey hunting ethics evolved differently depending on the area. I won't call the man's name, but you know the place where I grew up and I'm sure you knew a fellow from there whose family owned 12,000 acres. I used to hear the stories of all his turkey hunts. One morning he was on his way to a gobbling bird and heard a different gobbler putting at him. He saw his beard against the sky and blasted him out, and all the other hunters in the group talked about how lucky he was. He carried an M-1 carbine in the truck with him when on the farm and had a gobbler run out of a pasture and fly up into a tree. He got popped out.

Everyone in that group carried a scoped rifle and a shotgun. The particular guy I'm talking about eventually quit fooling with a shotgun and hunted strictly with rifle. There was another guy in that group that was a prominent attorney who I'm pretty sure you knew. I remember how impressed I was when he got an article printed in The American Rifleman explaining how turkey hunting was done in AL. He even included his 30-06 recipe that he used.

I'm sure everyone in that group eventually reached the conclusion that it's not sporting to shoot a turkey with a rifle or shoot one off the roost, but there was no turkey hunting culture at all back then, and they didn't know about our "rules" we have now.

For the record, I wouldn't dream of shooting a turkey outa his roost tree and have been that way for decades. But it ain't the way I was brought up. My dad used to say that all was fair in love and turkey hunting.