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September 26th, 2024, 08:20 AM
#1
Finding downed birds
https://oodmag.com/finding-downed-birds/
Watching birds fall will tell you how badly they were hit, determining how you go about your retrieve. Be quiet and have your gun handy.
What can I but enumerate old themes,
First that sea-rider Oisin led by the nose
Through three enchanted islands, allegorical dreams,
Vain gaiety, vain battle, vain repose,
Themes of the embittered heart, or so it seems.
-- "The Circus Animals’ Desertion" by William Butler Yeats
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September 26th, 2024 08:20 AM
# ADS
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September 26th, 2024, 08:47 AM
#2
All good points made. Have and do implement alot of the suggestions mention.
The only addendum I'd make, and maybe it doesn't need to be mention, if you think you've cripple the bird and try as you may can't find it might want to consider it part of your daily limit.
Time in the outdoors is never wasted
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September 27th, 2024, 08:57 AM
#3
My beagle finds everything for me. A good dog is a must in the uplands. But the disappointment of not finding a downed cripple is bad! I remember looking for a crippled woodcock for more than two hours. I knew it went down. Marked the spot, and it vanished! I searched everywhere!!!! It's an awful feeling!
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October 15th, 2024, 11:48 AM
#4
I'm not sure I'd agree with that "But a dogless hunter can recover downed birds effectively too". If you've every hunted over a good dog, hunting without one feels strangely similar to leaving your shotgun and home and relying on throwing rocks you hope you'll find on the way.
May temper it down to "But a dogless hunter can recover downed birds too".
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October 15th, 2024, 12:44 PM
#5
Originally Posted by
werner.reiche
May temper it down to "But a dogless hunter can recover downed birds too".
ya my feeling also. For me rather leave the gun at home than the dog. Of the 4 birds I recovered yesterday one one was found by me, and a fifth bird that I'm pretty sure I downed was never found by man or dog.
Last edited by finsfurfeathers; October 15th, 2024 at 12:58 PM.
Time in the outdoors is never wasted
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October 17th, 2024, 11:02 PM
#6
Has too much time on their hands
When dogless but with a partner, the shooter doesn’t budge an inch from where he took the shot. He then verbally guides his partner to where he marked the bird’s fall. The partner does all the searching.
With or without a dog, sometimes the bird doesn’t make it to the ground; it gets hung up in a tree or bush. Especially with woodcock, but I’ve even had a pheasant get hung up. Look up.
"What calm deer hunter's heart has not skipped a beat when the stillness of a cold November morning is broken by the echoes of hounds tonguing yonder?" -Anonymous-
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October 19th, 2024, 05:38 PM
#7
Has too much time on their hands
My son had no idea he hit this one until our dog came out of the fir thicket with the bird in its mouth. In dog we trust.
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"What calm deer hunter's heart has not skipped a beat when the stillness of a cold November morning is broken by the echoes of hounds tonguing yonder?" -Anonymous-
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