Ethics and turkey hunting

Shooting a gobbler friom a car window is illegal

Shooting a gobbler before legal shooting time starts is a serious breach of ethics and laws. Dumping a gobbler after shooting time ends is equally wrong. Killing one with a rifle is illegal in this state although legal in others.

The advent of 3 1/2-inch 12 gauge shotguns and the heavy 10 gauge magnums with ultra-full choke tubes have made longer shots possible. I watched a gent unload one shot at a gobbler that would have kept coming had he not shot at 80 yards, and the bird flew away with the guy chasing it with two wild shots.

Only a fool would shoot at a bird that far away

Here was the dude who ignored my warning that the bird was too far away to shoot. He took an unbelieveably long chance and missed the shot
"I think I rocked him," he told me, somewhat proud that he may have buried some pellets in a bird that got away. I had told him to wait until the bird was 35 yards out, but he shot at over 80 yards and tried to convince me the bird was within range. Was it an ethical shot, or a Hail Mary shot? The latter is my thought.

There's no excuse for ultra-long shots. Allow the bird to approach within range, take your time, and when his head comes up, shoot. If the bird approaches, his head and neck tucked down, don't shoot. Birds often will go out of strut, straighten up, and lift their head after gobbling. The chance of wounding a bird is high until the head is straight up.

It's unethical to call to a bird if you know another hunter has been working it. Common sense, which plays a major role in hunting ethics, dictates that the newcomer should hunt elsewhere for a different bird.

I watched a big gobbler approach a highway, cross and head toward my hen and jake decoys. My set-up was 350 yards off the road, and the bird came off the road shoulder and out into the field. It then began to strut, gobble, and started my way again.

Most hunters, if they knew someone was watching, would never shoot a treed gobbler. It's just not an honest way to hunt. So, if we always believe that someone may be watching our actions, we follow the rules.

Ethics are legal and moral standards by which other people judge hunters. Shooting a gobbler from a car window is not ethical nor is it legal. Shooting one from someone's front yard, running out, grabbing the bird and racing back to the car for a fast getaway is not only unethical but illegal.

Turkeys are sure-nuff noble birds & ethics are needed

I had a chance several years ago to cheat. A huge gobbler was working my way, slowly but surely, and the minute hand was ticking slowly down to the end of shooting time. A soft little whining yelp teased the bird and he paused to gobble, do a little dance step and all it did was slow him down.

Ethical turkey hunters wouldn’d shoot this road-crossing gobbler

Ethical turkey hunting means hunting legal. For instance: we can't pot a gobbler from a roost tree, before or after dawn. Granted, some people might get away with it but it is unethical and illegal activity.

The gobbler had a beard that tickled the ground but was 55 yards out. Three minutes of legal shooting time was left, and I hoped he would get moving and take several fast steps closer. He could then dawdle along for another five yards, and be in range before shooting time ended.

He took two or three more steps, stopped again, went into a semi-serious strut, folded up his wings, and stood at 45 yards. It was now down to seconds: 10... 9 ... 8... and finally my watch said shooting time was over. Five seconds later the bird quickly walked to within 25 yards of me, stopped, and stood broadside with his head up for a full minute.

Watch gobblers and wait for the right moment to shoot.

Could I have shot? Absolutely. Did I shoot? The answer is no. Who would have known if I had cheated by less than a minute?

That answer is simple. I would have known, and every forkful of breast meat would have stuck in my throat. I couldn't have eaten that bird if I had violated ethical and legal codes of hunting conduct.

There are certain things ethical hunters will not do. A car came down the road, stopped when it saw the gobbler and pulled onto the shoulder. The driver leaned on the horn and startled the bird. It started coming again, and this time one nut-case yelled out the window while the other honked the horn. The gobbler lit out on a dead run, crossed a big field, and disappeared from sight.

Hunter ethics wasn't the issue here but instead, it was a clear case of hunter harassment.

You know, I know, and poachers know that conservation officers are spread too thin and it's hard for them to enforce all the laws. So, if anyone will help police our ranks, it must be you and me. Ethics must stand for something, and if ethical behavior goes out the window, where are we then?

Civilization must stand on a strong foundation of common sense and ethical behavior. If we lose one, the other will surely follow. If they both go, the world of hunting as we know it will falter and fail.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors

Major concerns about ice safety

Walleyes like the one above, and other game fish, are fun to catch on lures.

There is reasonably safe ice on many lakes or ponds north of US-10. It's been fairly cold the past two weeks, but taking a chances on early and thin ice is a risk that no one should take.

Most of the big lakes such as Crystal, Glen, Houghton, Higgins and many others have not 'gone over,' (frozen over) in the past 10 days. However, any ice before Jan. 1 can be a little suspect and due caution is advised.

There isn't a game fish that swims anywhere in North-Country lakes worth risking one's life by venturing out onto one-inch-thick ice. I'm very squeamish about two or three inches of ice, but once a solid mantle of four-inch or thicker ice covers a lake, it's safe for me to walk on.

Ice fishing is great winter fun but requires more than a little common sense.

This is a bad year for many outdoor pastimes, and the fact the ice is has formed early means that many anglers feel a pent-up need to go ice fishing. It is this desire to fish frozen water that can lead to an angler taking an unnecessary chance.

Falling into ice-cold water is a tremendous shock to the human body. The water is so cold it rips air from your lungs. A person with a bad heart or high blood pressure could be in extreme danger of a heart attack or a stroke when they first plunge through. There always is the risk of drowning as well.

In the past I've written about the three times I've gone through, and they need not be repeated now. However, the initial shock of going through and into the cold water, isn't something I need to do again. People who survive one such escapade should consider themselves fortunate. To fall through twice is uncommon, but to go through three times as I have shows either blind stupidity or loads of bad luck.

I'm not dumb, and don't take chances, and in each case it was a freakish accident. I'm far more cautious now than ever before.

Common sense should be the common denominator for ice fishermen. They should seek advice on local lakes from bait dealers or other anglers, and avoid making a mistake because they are so driven to go fishing that they become willing to take a chance with their life.

The ice story I wrote for Outdoor Life magazine was a true tragedy.

Years ago, while working for Outdoor Life magazine, I was a frequent ghost-writer for people who had stories to tell but couldn't write it themselves. One such story interview was conducted the same day I got married, and it involved the only survivor among several people who went through rotten ice on Lake Erie.

This man broke through three times, and was pulled out by the other men, and then they fell through and he had no chance to return the favor. It was, at that time, the first time Outdoor Life had run an ordeal story where someone died.

He described his gut-wrenching fear, told how he watched his friends and two other people go down during a blizzard, and how he was lucky to make it to shore. His clothing was caked with ice, and he was so cold that it was a major challenge to fit the key in the lock to unlock the vehicle door.

The fear hung in his voice like a black curtain being lowered over the faces of the victims. He questioned how and why he survived, and it was a horrific experience. The fact is they were fishing off a warm-water discharge, a blizzard came up without warning, visibility was zero, and they wandered too close to the discharge. The ice was rotted, and could not bear the weight of a single person.

Does a person need to drown for others to grasp the significance of bad ice? Do people have to wrap themselves around telephone poles, trees or vehicles to exercise more caution when snowmobiling?

Play it safe on the ice and live to fish another day.

This winter fishing business is based on making individual choices or decisions. Others can preach about ice safety, but if the choir isn't listening, it is very difficult to keep some people from making serious mistakes and killing themselves.

My buddy -- Dennis Buchner of Grawn -- is the state's largest wholesale live bait dealer. He's been starving, as have bait shop owners across the state, but he advises me that all of the smaller lakes and most, if not all of the bigger lakes, are reasonably safe. That said, it still become a person's individual decision to venture out on the ice. Use your own judgment and go through, it's still your mistake.

Weakened ice can be found on many lakes, and savvy anglers use a spud to test the ice ahead of them. Many carry a length of sturdy rope and some sharp-pointed objects like ice picks or screwdrivers to use to stab into the ice to pull yourself from the water. Wearing a life jacket may make you look like a sissy but I'd rather be alive and be called that than be a dead fisherman.

The ice conditions should be superb if we don't get rain or freezing rain over the next few days. Take advantage of the early-ice opportunity but use all due caution.

Engage brain before venturing out on early-ice. The fishing is usually the best it will be at this time of year, but catching a fish isn't worth risking a cold dunking or losing your life.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors

Firearms and common sense go together

Chuck Lunn with two snowies taken on a hunt. He didn’t shoot me.

Outdoor writing has been my personal livelihood  for 44 years. One would think over that period of time that I’d seen everything in the outdoors.

Today’s newspaper carried a short blurb. A deer hunter did something foolish, and managed to shoot and kill himself. It makes me wonder what’s wrong with people.

I have probably written at least 100 stories, and perhaps more, about the many ways in which Michigan hunters have managed to kill or wound themselves or others over the years. You’d think after awhile people would quit taking idiotic chances. Quit thinking that hunting accidents only happen to other people, but I learned differently about 20 years ago.

Accidents can and do happen, but are usually the result of poor judgment.

Today’s account of yesterday’s fatality detailed how the unlucky hunter had climbed into his tree stand, and was in the process of pulling his loaded rifle into the tree. No one knows for sure  exactly what caused this tragedy, but the barrel was pointing up when it went off. The bullet from his rifle killed him, and the police are supposedly investigating the accident.

If anyone out there is hunting from a tree stand or any other elevated platform, for God’s sake, don’t load the firearm ahead of time. Even an unloaded rifle, muzzleloader or shotgun should be raised into the stand butt-first. Use a stout rope, tied a firm knot around the firearm, and don’t load the silly thing until you have it in the blind.

A loaded firearm can catch the trigger on a twig on the way up, and boom, it blows off half your face. Or the shot goes off, and hits you in various parts of your body. I used to investigate such stories for The Detroit News as part of my job, and some of the ways people injure or kill themselves would amaze most sportsmen who have more than a little bit of common sense.

Here are a few examples, including one that happened to me.

One guy stopped to fire up a smoke while hunting. He stopped walking, rested the muzzle of his shotgun on one foot while lighting up, and the shotgun went off, blew away his toes and part of his foot. Now there is another reason to stop smoking. Now the guy hobbles around.

Two guys hunting together paused to have lunch. They met, leaned their loaded deer rifles against a tree, and started going through their brown-bag lunch. One guy accidentally bumped a rifle, it fell to the frozen ground, went off, and the survivor had to break the bad news to the other man’s wife about how an accident killed his best friend.

Another nimrod was duck hunting from a boat. He and his friend built a framework of wood and chicken wire around around the boat. They cut cattails, wove them into the wire, and went hunting. They saw some ducks coming, one man stuck the muzzle of his 3-inch 12 gauge through the wire to shoot. The ducks swerved, he pulled back on the shotgun stock, but the front bead was caught on the wire. So he reaches through the wire with a couple of fingers, and pushed the barrel backwards while pulling the stock back with the safety off and his finger on the trigger. They now call him Stubby after shooting off two fingers.

I was shot in the hand and wrist by a snowshoe hare hunter in my party who had become lost, and was firing three-shot bursts from his 12 gauge, as I went back to get him. He was firing wildly in a panic, and just as I found him, he shot in my direction. Many pellets him me but didn’t penetrate my Hunter Orange shooting coat, but some pellets did go into one gloved hand.

Take no chances, think before shooting, identify your target, and use caution.

These accidents occur because some people don’t pay attention, use very poor judgment, have little or no common sense, and seem willing to take chances while hunting. There were no firearm fatalities last year, but we’ve already had our first in 2010. One death is one too many.

Engage brain before picking up and using any firearm. The life you save could be your own.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors