Since turkey season is in full swing here, and across much of the country, let's look at a few lines from the Western trappers about turkeys.

From Robert Campbell:
The chief of the Republican Pawnees was Ish-Ka-ta-pa. Mr. Smith and myself staid in his lodge.
We had no interpreters. We lived on the corn taken from the caches, and killed some buffalo bulls
on the Smoky Hill Fork while going out.
That was the only meat we had except that we got occasionally a wild turkey.

From General Thomas James:
After proceeding with our perogues about ten days the game became scarce and the
company began to suffer from want of food. We stopped and all sallied out to hunt: the first day
furnished but one wild turkey. The second and third days produced nothing more, the turkey
subsisting us all for three days.

From Charles Larpenteur:
One young Indian went out turkey
hunting by moonlight, and returned in the morning with 14 fine large turkeys. I traded six of
him, among which one weighed 24 pounds.

From Pattie:
We were each to ascend a fork of the river. The banks of that which fell to my lot, were
very brushy, and frequented by numbers of bears, of whom I felt fearful, as I had never before
travelled alone in the woods. I walked on with caution until night, and encamped near a pile of
drift wood, which I set on fire, thinking thus to frighten any animals that might approach during
the night. [54] I placed a spit, with a turkey I had killed upon it, before the fire to roast. After I
had eaten my supper I laid down by the side of a log with my gun by my side. I did not fall asleep
for some time.

From Rufus Sage, another reference to turkey hunting by moonlight:
My experiments in turkey-hunting made me a proficient shot by moonlight, a feat which adds
materially to the sport. This is done by manoeuvring so as to have the turkey in a direct line between
the marksman and the moon, causing its shadow to fall upon his face, —then, raising his
rifle to a level from the ground upwards, the instant the sight becomes darkened he fires, and, if
his piece be true, seldom fails to make a centre shot.
The most feasible mode of hunting turkeys is to watch their roosting places at night; and, after the
moon attains the required position, they may be killed by dozens in the above manner. They rarely
leave their roosts on account of the firing; but remain, half stupefied with affright, while they
are picked off one after another by the practised hunter.

A tom I shot with a flintlock fowler:

While coon hunting we see that is possible, but some still crash off through the trees hitting limb that are in their way. And this is just with a hand held light and the dog......jk

I've spooked em off the roost in the dark also, maybe they were crawling up to them?

Sure gets a guy's heart going when you're not expecting it, and they crash through the trees. Some times I wonder if one has ever impaled itself and died that way.