So..... what were the turkey's odds when they were just domestic turkeys headed for the slaughter house? As I see it they were being raised to kill anyway. Are you telling me that the executioner at the slaughter house doesn't miss once and a while. Yes it is a mistake when that happens. Yes it is a mistake when I hit a deer and it runs off. If people get ticked off over this one they need a dose of reality. Go to any real village in Africa and they will see worse before dark. Good hunting.
Although cartridge selection is important there is nothing that will substitute for proper first shot placement. Good hunting, "D"
Posts: 1701 | Location: Western NC | Registered: 28 June 2000
I try to avoid making personal comments on the internet but D Hunter, I feel someone has to point out to you that attitudes like yours are what will lead to the demise of our sport. It is okay to cause suffering because suffering sometimes occurs by accident? I hesitate to even think of where that logic leads. I urge you to think about what you say (or type) before you put something out there that can be used as ammunition against us doing what we love.
D Hunter, just because something may have been raised for slaughter doesn't mean the manner in which it dies has to be a questionable method, such as a "turkey shoot" at a range for the whole public to scrutinize.
The same could be said for beef. Do you think that your response would ease any tension to those who are beef eaters but are very much against someone with a bow taking, say, a 90 yard shot at a beef cow that has it's legs tied in place?
Ted Kennedy's car has killed more people than my guns
Turkey shoots used to be a common thing from what I've heard.
I sort of agree with D Hunter on this one. They are going to die anyway. You all keep saying suffer, They may not have suffered at all. This is no worse than shooting a wild bird with a bow. There are piles of wild turkeys wouned with bows and not retrieved, that's what I call suffering animals.
You want to see something cruel, go to the slaughter plant where those birds were gonna end up anyway....
Reloader
Posts: 4146 | Location: North Louisiana | Registered: 18 February 2004
attempts to make this sound as a "bowhunters" sport is bogus, turkeys shoots with rifles were going on LONGGGGGGGG before this.With that said ,it was handled in the proper manner,authorities were notified, they were cought and will be handled in court and I doubt if that "club" will be around much after the fines start to be levied.
Posts: 34 | Location: Black Hills of South Dakota | Registered: 23 January 2007
I know for a fact that I'm not the oldest guy to post on AR, having said that, I wonder if anyone has actually shot in one of the old time 'Turkey Shoots' with a shotgun. There are NO live turkeys anywhere to be found. The guy with the pellet closest to the dead center of a paper target, wins a FROZEN turkey, (or even a ham) or a certificate for one at the local grocery store. Folks actually shooting live turkey's--give me a break.
Posts: 3563 | Location: GA, USA | Registered: 02 August 2004
Turkey shoots used to be a common thing from what I've heard
Yes. Trapshooting was originally done with live birds too.
Although the point raised by D. Hunter is technically true, animal-rights and anti-hunting passions are not based on what is actually true, but on what is emotional. Thus having a live bird shoot will tend to rouse the animal-rights and anti-hunting people, contributing further to the demise of legal hunting.
"How's that whole 'hopey-changey' thing working out for ya?"
Posts: 5883 | Location: People's Republic of Maryland | Registered: 11 March 2001
Plenty of live real turkeys were shot at the turkey shoots my grandfather used to go to in the texas hill country. One hundred yard offhand shot with a turkey in a cage set behing a stack of timbers. there was a notch cut in the timbers for the turkeys head to be seen. it was all done with rifles. Matter of fact i know a guy who was asked to leave and take his sako 22-250 with him after he killed 3 turkeys in a row.
Posts: 195 | Location: Athens Texas "The Black-Eye'd Pea Capitol of The World" | Registered: 25 December 2005
I don't really see where that was much different than shooting a turkey from a hunting blind with a bow. You hit 'em, they die !!! I agree with those about the old time turkey shoots, they happened, and IMHO, there was(is) nothing wrong with them. I do think that this club was stupid for having a public event like this, they were only asking for trouble. They will pay for their stupidity with fines no doubt !!!
Elite Archery and High Country dealer.
Posts: 931 | Location: Somewhere....... | Registered: 07 October 2002
I have heard that most of the turkeys in stores were executed after being for some time held prisoner with no trial, no legal representation and not even any just cause. Their manner of execution is also most grisly. Someone just chops their head off and they flop around. Someone needs to do something about this; it's not fair or sporting. It could even be classified as cruel.
So then i guess if they had deer tied up and guys shot arrows that them it would be ok with some of you? It's not the fact that they are killing those turkey...thousands are killed everyday for our consumption..but how they are being killed. Yeah, dead is dead, but why do it like that, just donest make alot of sense. I dont care for how long its been done, its not very ethical and does indeed give the anit's and peta types ammo.
Posts: 362 | Location: St.Louis Mo | Registered: 15 December 2005
I guess what each and everyone of us has to do is ask ourselves if WE'd want to be affiliated with such an event, tell our friends and fellow hunters about it, etc.
Count me out. Not my style, right or wrong.
Ted Kennedy's car has killed more people than my guns
As you probably know, silhouette shooting was originally done with live animals. The metal plates were developed as a "simulator" version of that sport. You can find a large article about that for example in the Gun Digest of 1963, if my memory serves me correctly. Or maybe 1965?
Anyway, it was common practice in those days, but not anymore. And as someone said, there is no reason to try to bring it back. The world has changed and keeping on practising such "sport" does really not do any favor for hunting in general.
And for those of you who wonder what's the difference between shooting a wild turkey and a raised turkey, behold; here comes the explanation:
When you have a raised turkey in hand, you have plenty of quicker and more certain ways of painlessly killing it available, than trying a shot with a bow or a rifle from 30-odd yards. With a wild turkey you don't, so shooting is at the top of the best and most painless ways of killing it. Therefore hunting/shooting is a ethically justified way of killing a wild turkey, but not a domesticated one. As far as I can tell, this is the most solid base for hunting in general; to hunt specifically and only wild animals.
How about shooting raised pheasants then? Well, that isn't hunting in its original and most solid form either.
In my opinion, that is...
Posts: 217 | Location: Finland | Registered: 08 January 2004
JTH you beat me to it. Have any of you ever been to a tower shoot? Live birds thrown out of a tower with a number of shooters around the circle. Some birds get killed outright. Some get away and some get winged. Inhumane? Maybe. The only one I ever went to, the local hawks were waiting in the edges of the field to take any that made it through the shooters. Indeed a generation back, in the hills of NC turkeys were used for the turkey shoots. As I understand it from my grandads telling of it, the turkey was in a pen of some kind behind a log with just his head visible to the shooters. The winner was the one that took his head off shooting his rifle off hand at the designated distance. Maybe I am a dinosour. We are products of our upbringing. It was not an unusual thing to watch my dad chop off the heads of a dozen chickens on Saturday mornings. The chicken and dumplings tasted good on Sunday. No mistake. Turkey shoots are not hunting. But nobody said they were. Ohh.....Maybe the antis are saying it is. Yeah if you never been hunting maybe you think this is hunting. Don't misunderstand me. This kind of turkey shoot is not my style either. I just fail to see that this is newsworthy. Good hunting.
Although cartridge selection is important there is nothing that will substitute for proper first shot placement. Good hunting, "D"
Posts: 1701 | Location: Western NC | Registered: 28 June 2000
I'd like to bring up the fact that the anti-hunting and animal rights movements have nothing to do with hunting ethics or responsible and humane use of animals. The 'true believers' are opposed to hunting in any form, be it "ethical" or not.
Opposition to the live turkey shoot as an appeal to non-hunters is a bit off-base. Anybody who is not a rabid anti-hunter or animal rights fanatic knows that the live turkey shoot has nothing to do with 'real' hunting. Most non-hunters (and even some of the less zealous animal rights believers) have little objection to killing game for food. But poll after poll has proven that the "fence sitters" are opposed to trophy hunting. Yet I have to see anybody in the hunting fraternity critize big buck contests on the basis of what non-hunters might think of them.
The live turkey shoot was dumb idea, especially in this politically-correct age. But I certainly wouldn't cry about the fate of those poor turkeys.
No longer Bigasanelk
Posts: 584 | Location: Central Wisconsin | Registered: 01 March 2006
On second thought, it may be that the antis ARE saying this is hunting. I guess if you never been out of the city you might think this is hunting. It is certainly not my style of hunting, so don't misunderstand. I just don't think this event is newsworthy. Good hunting. D
Although cartridge selection is important there is nothing that will substitute for proper first shot placement. Good hunting, "D"
Posts: 1701 | Location: Western NC | Registered: 28 June 2000
I also agree that the fanatic antis are against all kinds of hunting and killing of animals, so they are not that interested if something is considered as "hunting" or "shooting" or "killing" or whatever.
I don't know how it is in America, but where I live these sort of definitions have some significance, since after all, it isn't the antis who we hunters should really be worried about. They have chosen their side and can't be converted. Besides, they are so few that there's no reason to bother for them.
The really important people are those, who know nothing about hunting, have no strict opinions about it, and who are the huge majority of people. They have brains, and if some issue, like hunting, is explained to them and they get the picture that hunting is based on high ethics and there are real ecological and social reasons for doing it, they won't be against it too much.
If, on the other hand, it seems obvious that hunting is just a ethically arbitrary "sport", which anyone can define to mean anything, for example shooting animals in a small fenced area, it is much more harder to convince them that this should go on. And this vast majority is the people whose votes the politicians are after when setting laws etc.
The live turkey shoot wasn't really hunting from anyone's opinion I think, but if these sort of things are associated to hunters, we are the ones to pay the bill eventually. I would avoid these sort of events as much as possible.
Posts: 217 | Location: Finland | Registered: 08 January 2004
