How long do you look for a bird?

M

Madison COunty

New member
Today I went to a game farm to work my dog. I shot a couple birds off his points and he found them. One bird I shot and he couldn't find.

I'm curious because we have all had it happen to us. If you shoot a bird when hunting (wild birds) and can't find it right away how long do you look for it before moving on?

We looked for about 10 minutes
 
Depends. 2 examples:

Opening day last year, the first rooster I put lead into, went down. I could tell by the way I hit him, it wasn't a solid connection. He went down over a hill and out of sight. Took me 30 seconds to get on top of the hill, and by the time I did, there was no sign of him. I did find tracks where I suspected he landed, and by the separation of the prints, he was booking it. I looked for that bird thoroughly for about 10 minutes and moved on.

Later In the season, I got lucky enough to have a close flushed fly up and straight ahead of me. One shot put him to the dirt. I thought he was dead before he hit the ground, again judging by the way he fell, but to my surprise he literally bounced once, landed on his feet and ran off. I cursed, yelled at my hunting partner to come help me find him, and booked after him. We looked for that bird for damn near an hour and never found him. Made me sick.

In short, the length of time I search for a bird is directly proportionate to how hard I hit the bird.
 
david0311

As some one else stated it depends on the situation--how hard was bird hit--

How are the dogs acting/reacting to the fall area--I do my best to keep myself and others out of the fall area as much as possible--to prevent them from stomping around screwing up the dogs--and trying to direct the dogs:eek:

It all depends on the situation --and the dogs--but 15min. would be close to a average

One thing I have had very good success with over the years is if the bird is not found on initial search--is returning to the area later--sometimes a half hour to many hours later and letting dogs work the area where the hit/cripple went down I have retrieved or should say my dogs have found many birds thought lost by other's :cheers:
 
We give it maybe 10 minutes, then move on and later at least one person with a dog or two swings back through and we almost never fail to find it.
 
BakkenRoosterMan said:
I need a dog it would seem...
Click to expand...

I does make a difference, obviously... Unless you are hunting fence edges and the only place they have to go down is stubble or something, your odds of finding a wounded bird that had time to hunker down are pretty slim without a dog.
 
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David makes a great point, we will go back to a spot half an hour or more later and let the dogs look again if we can't find a bird in the initial search. I usually will search 15mins to a half hour to find a down bird.
 
I can't tell you how many times my Labs have brought me wounded birds out of nowhere. Last year was a prime example. I shot a bird that coasted a long distance. Neither the dog or I got a good mark on it, but it was ground we could hunt so we went down towards where it was at. Not long after we got down there here he comes out with the wounded by still very much alive bird. I am with David, let the dogs work the area before you go in trouncing on the cover. If the dogs can't find it, odds are you won't either. It also depends on conditions. Hot and dry and the dogs will struggle, cold and snowy they can find anything.
 
A good dog that marks birds well / a trainer that teaches this , a dog that trails good and tracks foot scent .

A dog is a must for pheasant hunting .

This year when you are practicing on clays focus on breaking the leading edge of of the clay .
Our eyes focus on the motion of wing beats naturally and a number of shots hit birds center of mass . Since I have started focusing on leading edge of target / head of game bird my dead in the air number of birds have went up quite a bit .
I like to punch the going away birds as soon as I can .
 
I always follow up a bird with a hanging leg, a glider and birds that climb after the shot. These birds are often immobile or dead where they land. They are as common as the roosters you hit and bounce only to right themselves and run. Tough duty without a dog but worth 10 minutes of looking. You will recover 1/3 to almost twice as many pheasants with a dog. A hard hit (mortally) pheasant is sometimes very subtle.
 
Well put waterman , a quail with a leg down is almost always found dead where it lands . In your experience are these lung shot birds ?
 
Twenty minutes or so. Mainly relying on the dog to find it but looking all along too.
 
david0311 said:
As some one else stated it depends on the situation--how hard was bird hit--

How are the dogs acting/reacting to the fall area--I do my best to keep myself and others out of the fall area as much as possible--to prevent them from stomping around screwing up the dogs--and trying to direct the dogs:eek:

It all depends on the situation --and the dogs--but 15min. would be close to a average

One thing I have had very good success with over the years is if the bird is not found on initial search--is returning to the area later--sometimes a half hour to many hours later and letting dogs work the area where the hit/cripple went down I have retrieved or should say my dogs have found many birds thought lost by other's :cheers:
Click to expand...

This is spot on!
 
thats good info... ive also had good luck just taking a lil break & watering my dog or just settleing the dog down etc. & then let n her reserch the area many times we can locate the bird but i try to avoid stinking up the area my self if i can help it...

10-20 min about what ill search... maybe do that again on a 2nd pass later also
 
BakkenRoosterMan said:
Depends. 2 examples:

Opening day last year, the first rooster I put lead into, went down. I could tell by the way I hit him, it wasn't a solid connection. He went down over a hill and out of sight. Took me 30 seconds to get on top of the hill, and by the time I did, there was no sign of him. I did find tracks where I suspected he landed, and by the separation of the prints, he was booking it. I looked for that bird thoroughly for about 10 minutes and moved on.

Later In the season, I got lucky enough to have a close flushed fly up and straight ahead of me. One shot put him to the dirt. I thought he was dead before he hit the ground, again judging by the way he fell, but to my surprise he literally bounced once, landed on his feet and ran off. I cursed, yelled at my hunting partner to come help me find him, and booked after him. We looked for that bird for damn near an hour and never found him. Made me sick.

In short, the length of time I search for a bird is directly proportionate to how hard I hit the bird.
Click to expand...

well said!
 
I don't want to put a number on it, because every situation is different. I would say until the bird is found or it feels like I did everything I could do.

I had a quail last year that the length of search was borderline madness, but I knew it went down, and we did eventually find it. Then it ended up being a crazy chase because it had a broken wing and the cover was as thick as anything I've ever hunted before. I was really proud of my dogs and myself for sticking it out. Most delicious quail I've ever had... :thumbsup:

Coming back through later works sometimes. I don't have a designated amount of time I wait, just "later", before we leave the field. And I always come back through with the wind in the dogs' faces. I'll just park myself 20 yards short of where I marked it down and hang out for a bit.
 
Last year I had two different people tell me that they had lost more birds than they recovered on opening weekend. To me, that type of BS is unethical. At the point when you realize you are not able to effectively recover the game you are shooting, you should stop hunting.
 
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