How about hunting Quail with a good Bird Dog and seeing a covey on the ground and lining up a couple and swatting them....As long as it is safe....
And back in the market hunting days they swatted a hundred rafted Ducks at a time with punt guns....So some may say there is precedent....It was legal and safe back then....
My thoughts are this thread evidences a generational shift in how we look at taking game...Like many situations today, attitudes and norms have changed...some for the better and others not so much.....
I can tell you this, re the above Quail scenario, do the same on any of the Plantations or good Commercial Quail operations down south, and there is a good chance you will not be asked to return...And a better than even chance told not to do it a second time or make up your mind and leave now....fortunately there still are places where traditions run deep.....Myself, I don't see why any would differentiate between Waterfowl and Quail.... as long as it is safe....
Addition: In many States it is illegal to shoot Deer while they are swimming....If they are only standing in water it is legal.....Why can't you shoot Deer swimming when it is OK for Ducks?.....They are both something to kill and eat....addition again.....To a good shooter, a Deer slurping up the corn has as much chance as one swimming...some are even pavloved to the timer....I always have said food plots and feeders are the modern day equivalent of the olden days ring of fire....
I've shot more than a few quail as they ran ahead of the dogs, and plenty more on the ground without dogs. I am sure I'll do it again without regret, remorse or guilt. If I got booted from a plantation for doing so, I'd consider it a blessing as I don't need to associate with with plantations, nor those type of judgmental people anyhow. As long as that rule is/was disclosed before the hunt, I'd have no issue with it, but I would turn down the opportunity to hunt. It'd be win/win, for me at least.
As far as food plots and feeders.....how about fall bears in a berry patch? I've shot a couple of bears over the years as they gorged themselves on what I believe was the only patch in an entire drainage....so it may as well have been a feeder, but it's a technique often embraced and suggested by hunters, and very often even game departments. Same with deer/elk/moose gut piles and carcass'. What about antelope over a water hole in an otherwise dry area? That's a perfectly acceptable way of hunting them, and may as well be a feeder.
Good conversation we have here!
