Ontario woodcock reports 2014

How is the clean up hunt?

Clean up hunt was good. We have a rooster only rule in our group so it makes it More challenging to obtain our limit. There was A LOT of hunters then in previous years.

Yes. And a lot of dead birds left to waste in places where downed birds would have been easy to find. I think there's a lot of guys that just shoot them and leave them after they get their limit...jerks

I bet there were all kinds of cripples as well. Yes? Were there plenty of points where the bird then wouldn't flush?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mount Sweetness

I bet there were all kinds of cripples as well. Yes? Were there plenty of points where the bird then wouldn't flush?

---

I think more like guys blasting them out of the sky and leaving them....I found a lot of birds shot up bad and just left....they didn't look like they died from a crippling shot.

Yes a lot of runners with no flush

Hey! I thought this was a woodcock thread! You know, little brown bird, big long bill? :silly:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BSP1

Yes. And a lot of dead birds left to waste in places where downed birds would have been easy to find. I think there's a lot of guys that just shoot them and leave them after they get their limit...jerks

---

I've found this recently at Fingal. Birds released Tuesday, on Wednesday after the crowds cleared I ran my dog along a hedgerow & she deked in and made a hard flush on a hen with no head. That bird was freshly dead & still warm ... she knows the difference & won't go in to flush a carcass. It was right at the edge, where even the most incompetent dog could have found it. And no predator in the world eats the head and leaves the body intact. But a close shot will take the head clean off a pheasant....

Found two dead hens along that hedgerow, right at the edge. I'm betting guys shoot the hens and then trade up for roosters. It's asinine.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by welsh

Hey! I thought this was a woodcock thread! You know, little brown bird, big long bill? :silly:



I've found this recently at Fingal. Birds released Tuesday, on Wednesday after the crowds cleared I ran my dog along a hedgerow & she deked in and made a hard flush on a hen with no head. That bird was freshly dead & still warm ... she knows the difference & won't go in to flush a carcass. It was right at the edge, where even the most incompetent dog could have found it. And no predator in the world eats the head and leaves the body intact. But a close shot will take the head clean off a pheasant....

Found two dead hens along that hedgerow, right at the edge. I'm betting guys shoot the hens and then trade up for roosters. It's asinine.

---

Yes I know. Sorry... But I didn't start the comments on the clean up hunt! :)

In regards to woodcock on pelee.... Guys claim to have flushed some... But I never saw any

Owls and hawks eat the heads first. Watched a Redtail eat a head of a rooster a couple years back and just leave the rest. Climbed out of my stand and took the bird home.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by welsh

Hey! I thought this was a woodcock thread! You know, little brown bird, big long bill? :silly:



I've found this recently at Fingal. Birds released Tuesday, on Wednesday after the crowds cleared I ran my dog along a hedgerow & she deked in and made a hard flush on a hen with no head. That bird was freshly dead & still warm ... she knows the difference & won't go in to flush a carcass. It was right at the edge, where even the most incompetent dog could have found it. And no predator in the world eats the head and leaves the body intact. But a close shot will take the head clean off a pheasant....

Found two dead hens along that hedgerow, right at the edge. I'm betting guys shoot the hens and then trade up for roosters. It's asinine.

---

On pelee there were more rooster found dead then hens.... So I bet it was guys limiting out and just shooting

Sorry I didn't mean to hijack the thread. The woodcock cover on Pelee is great. To be honest I am surprised we didn't flush more...but again we were there for pheasants not woodcock.