A true triple?

I bet, in all seriousness, there have been some triples never realized or recovered because a bird was hit and flew off only to sky upwards hundreds of yards away while all the other chaos is going on and the bird wasn’t watched after it was shot at and appeared to just fly away. I’m always amazed how often that happens…several times per season, it seems…some are 300+ yards away…
 
When I was a youngster, Dad helped me line up the .410 to shoot a quail in a thicket, I picked up six dead quail. Ethical, no, but it was pretty cool at that age. Later in life I took the heads off of two turkeys with one shot from a bow. That was an extremely lucky shot. I was hunting in Nebraska and had three permits in my wallet at the time.
 
hyresmack said:
No sh#@ wild phez don't frush all at the same time and give you time to do a triple many times much less a four banger. Then the other guy who claims he had time to do a spin around ballet spin to get third bird at 35, 40 yd. BS. Big difference between a true triple and a staggered flush, big different!!
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A real triple shot on wild birds? Very, very, very rare occurrence!! I've never done it, nor seen it done. True double shots are rare.
 
benelli-banger said:
I bet, in all seriousness, there have been some triples never realized or recovered because a bird was hit and flew off only to sky upwards hundreds of yards away while all the other chaos is going on and the bird wasn’t watched after it was shot at and appeared to just fly away. I’m always amazed how often that happens…several times per season, it seems…some are 300+ yards away…
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That is very rare.
 
I see many birds shot annually that are heart/lung shots where the bird flies 100, 200, 300 yards away before flying straight up in the air, only to fall stone dead…I watch “missed” birds fly away regularly…only to do what I described. I’m in the presence of hundreds of birds that are shot/shot at each fall, not that long ago it was 1,000+ shot/shot at. You are right, it may be rare that this would occur as a part of a triple, but the basic condition I describe isn’t rare. It becomes less likely that a hunter would watch a bird fly away if he also had other birds in the air, or, birds that just dropped. A lot of guys don’t watch a single bird fly away that they’ve just shot at…it’s worth doing, especially a bird that showed some subtle indication that it was hit…its flight rhythm changed, something looks different, whatever. One time I was watching a big group marching in some CRP…10+ hunters…watched a bird get shot at by many of the guys and keep flying back behind them, only to eventually do this…it flew far enough that it died on an adjacent tilled field…I walked out with a dog and picked the bird up…the hunters had already loaded up in their pickups with benches in the beds and taken off. Think about how far a heart/lung shot deer runs before dying…no different with birds, except they’re flying…something occurs as their oxygen is running out, evidently, causing them to oftentimes fly straight up…one thing is a certainty when that happens—dead bird. Not easy to find when they’re 200-400+ yards away! Had several this fall already…that I know of!
 
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benelli-banger said:
I see many birds shot annually that are heart/lung shots where the bird flies 100, 200, 300 yards away before flying straight up in the air, only to fall stone dead…I watch “missed” birds fly away regularly…only to do what I described. I’m in the presence of hundreds of birds that are shot/shot at each fall, not that long ago it was 1,000+ shot/shot at. You are right, it may be rare that this would occur as a part of a triple, but the basic condition I describe isn’t rare. It becomes less likely that a hunter would watch a bird fly away if he also had other birds in the air, or, birds that just dropped. A lot of guys don’t watch a single bird fly away that they’ve just shot at…it’s worth doing, especially a bird that showed some subtle indication that it was hit…its flight rhythm changed, something looks different, whatever. One time I was watching a big group marching in some CRP…10+ hunters…watched a bird get shot at by many of the guys and keep flying back behind them, only to eventually do this…it flew far enough that it died on an adjacent tilled field…I walked out with a dog and picked the bird up…the hunters had already loaded up in their pickups with benches in the beds and taken off…
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I agree with BB. A couple years ago in Kansas a rooster got up in front of me I shot and thought I whiffed, bird flew away. Upon the crack of the shot a rooster flushed behind me and I turned and dumped him. A couple minutes later my dog comes back with the first bird; it had clearly made it 2-300 yards and died. Had the second rooster not flushed, I would have most likely seen the first drop.
 
I watch any bird that flies away; if it doesn’t “sky and die”, I watch where it lands. I shoot LOTS of birds that way, including sharpies and huns, but pheasants, too. Sharpies very often land in or around a solitary tree/bush 100-400 or more yards away. I’ve had 20-30 sharpies flush out of a bush the size of a pickup truck many times…talk about pandalerium!!!! 🥳 That usually happens midday on a warm, sunny day…great fun!
 
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benelli-banger said:
I see many birds shot annually that are heart/lung shots where the bird flies 100, 200, 300 yards away before flying straight up in the air, only to fall stone dead
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I've never witnessed that with a pheasant but I have with a wood duck. A lone drake flew past the dekes and that thing flew away seemingly unscathed after all three of us shot at it multiple times. We looked at each other like WTF. It gained altitude, made a right turn away from us, and started flying over an open field across the pond. I watched it fall stone dead. It looked like it hit a glass wall. I walked over there later and it was laying there dead in the field.
 
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I've only seen the heart shot once on a pheasant. A friend I was hunting with who is a semi novice at pheasant hunting (but duck hunts alot) shot a rooster and it skied about 100 yards straight up and I just yelled "watch him watch him" because I knew he was coming back down dead but didn't want to lose him. It landed about 200 yards away by the time he fell back to earth.
 
benelli-banger said:
I bet, in all seriousness, there have been some triples never realized or recovered because a bird was hit and flew off only to sky upwards hundreds of yards away while all the other chaos is going on and the bird wasn’t watched after it was shot at and appeared to just fly away. I’m always amazed how often that happens…several times per season, it seems…some are 300+ yards away…
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I have a cousin that is a photographer, when we have our family hunt he takes some time to carry a camera instead of a gun. I have a picture on the wall of one of those straight up birds that died and fell. I also have a picture of my daughter shooting her first pheasant. He was right behind her so he got the picture of her and the bird head down after the shot.
 
hyresmack said:
Your an awesome shot or have not seen very many wild pheasants be shot
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I'm pretty selective on which roosters I shoot at. If they are beyond 30 yards, I don't even raise my gun. I only hunt wild pheasants but they are all on private land that only gets hunted by me.
 
gimruis said:
I'm pretty selective on which roosters I shoot at. If they are beyond 30 yards, I don't even raise my gun. I only hunt wild pheasants.
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Wild or released, same difference when it comes to physiology…distance of shot may be relevant…probably is…
 
Shot a true triple in South Dakota a few years back, really cool experience. I also shot three roosters with an over/under in MN. Two birds got up, two went down. Broke gun reloaded as third bird got up, dumped him too without taking a step. Occurred really fast !!! Not a true triple, but almost better than shooting three with my automatic.
 
Rooster Shooter said:
Shot a true triple in South Dakota a few years back, really cool experience. I also shot three roosters with an over/under in MN. Two birds got up, two went down. Broke gun reloaded as third bird got up, dumped him too without taking a step. Occurred really fast !!! Not a true triple, but almost better than shooting three with my automatic.
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Oh boy you’re in for it now. Goose and his cousin will be coming for you.
 
3 seasons ago, in SD upon returning to town for the night , I passed a crep field where a combine was pulling onto the road where he just cut the cornfield right next to it. It was already getting dark…. Hmmm- I know where I’m hunting tommorrow morning! Next morning I head back to that same field. I was about an hour early. I slowly pulled into the ditch and shut the truck off, as I sat there studying my hunting atlas- my dog in the truck is going nuts. I look up and am watching pheasant after pheasant get up in the crep and fly over the hood of the truck and into the harvested cornfield. That last 1/2 hour of waiting seemed like eternity! I was planning to head home after a this mornings hunt. I took one dog and walked the weed covered fence line between the crep and cornfield- the dog got birdie and picked up her pace on a scent trail. I hustled for about 100 yards to stay with her. She went straight down the weedy fence line, hey stubby tail wagging a hundred miles an hour- then boom, her tail goes straight up and frozen( love when that happens🤓)! I walked up her left side, when I was next her, 2 hens get up about 6-7 yards in front of us, at this point I’m 95% shouldered. Then 2 roosters get up right behind them from the same spot- both bank left. I swing left, as the gun reaches the closer/ second birds head- I pull and watch him fold and keep swinging left to catch up to the first. Upon the shot a third rooster got up and banked right. I dumped the second one on the left and quickly turned a180 to the right and folded the one going to the right as he was going away from me with my third and final shell. That morning hunt from truck to back to the truck and take pictures was a total of 20 minutes! Triple rooster limit on my last morning.
Last year, late season Kansas- 1st morning , 1 point - 5 roosters get up from the same spot- I didn’t scratch a feather!! I even reloaded 1 shell and got a shot off!! I’m still haunted by that encounter!
 
Reading this is giving me unrealistic expections for my outing that starts in a hour. A great memory for sure...and a bit a humbling encounter.

Well, got my 3, with three shots, but it took at least an hour. My buddy got 2, we could quite get him a limit, had chances...maybe tomorrow.
 
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