Can you tell if a shot rooster is going to run?

The pillow feather explosion and the bird keeps beating its wings climbing...then crashes. Running bird that will die eventually. Think of a B52 in those old war movies...shotup but can still make it to base.

No, that would be the B -17. Think of the movie "The Memphis Belle" ;)

But I know what you meant anyway. Great movie by the way....:10sign:
 
Other than seeing the head go down, I don't know how to tell.

I have also seen a bird do the death climb and make a full recovery. It was flying straight up, higher and higher until it was almost upside down at one point, but then rolled over and glided into a plum bush only 100 yards away. The dog pointed it, and it flushed a second time, healthy as ever... I suspect it was a zombie... :laugh:

But IMO, nothing underscores the importance of a good dog like when your dog retrieves a cripple.
 
On the whole, flushing birds are the easiest to shoot once you get a sense of the lead. Find your MoJo and go back.:thumbsup

Yes.:)

Though I've found shooting clays has little to do with how well I shoot birds. (don't ask me? lol) I can miss every clay, then head out and nail birds or, hit every clay then head out missing birds:confused:


I've found that on every trip there's always one day I can't shoot to save my life:eek: Everyone in the group goes through the same thing too:confused:

I've found that switching guns for a day can help.

Unfortunately on the trip I cut short, I only brought one gun.:( I know better, but nevertheless I did it anyway.
 
There's always the bird in somebodies game bag, quail are notorious about it, who recovers from blut force trauma and after a struggle with the host, (hunter), emerges and flys to freedom. I have seen it done in cars, with dogs in pursuit, on the road, looks like a swarm of bees in the car! I have even seen it on a game warden check, as a hunter shows his bag, a rooster leaps up and runs pell-mell into the field. Warden says, " your one short".
 
There's always the bird in somebodies game bag, quail are notorious about it, who recovers from blut force trauma and after a struggle with the host, (hunter), emerges and flys to freedom. I have seen it done in cars, with dogs in pursuit, on the road, looks like a swarm of bees in the car! I have even seen it on a game warden check, as a hunter shows his bag, a rooster leaps up and runs pell-mell into the field. Warden says, " your one short".

So true LOL. I've had Quail start calling in my game bag on more than one occasion.:D
 
I've hunted with dad for pheasants since about 1991 or so. Added my brother in law about 1996 or so. Us three are the core group. We've added a few here and there, but not every year, not always the same guys. Without fail, the first bird that goes down that we know isn't dead right there, all 3 of us take off at a sprint to where it fell, trying to get on it before it takes off. The others usually want to stand around high fiving and 'oh did you see that'. Doesn't take but one bird that has ran off and hard to find for them to change their mind. Always make a solid mark on where it went down, drop a hat when you get there, and start looking for feathers and getting the dogs in. We lose a few, but not very many.

cheesy,

Our experience has taught us the same thing. HUSTLE to the spot you think it went down if in heavy cover, few exceptions. Yet another reason to take a kid hunting.....you can make them run to the spot you think it went down while you keep it marked;)

1991 is the same year I went on my first "outta town" pheasant hunt with my ole' man (carrying a gun anyway).
 
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cheesy,

Our experience has taught us the same thing. HUSTLE to the spot you think it went down if in heavy cover, few exceptions. Yet another reason to take a kid hunting.....you can make them run to the spot you think it went down while you keep it marked;)

1991 is the same year I went on my first "outta town" pheasant hunt with my ole' man (carrying a gun anyway).

Where you're from, why'd you have to go 'outta town'? We always went to a farmers place out east of Concordia. The birds kind of dried up around there as well as the relationships in the late 90's, and we quit going there. Since relocated out west and had a long run of good years. Not sure what we'll do this year.
 
Where you're from, why'd you have to go 'outta town'? We always went to a farmers place out east of Concordia. The birds kind of dried up around there as well as the relationships in the late 90's, and we quit going there. Since relocated out west and had a long run of good years. Not sure what we'll do this year.

Well, as far as hunting is concerned, my family expected to do it all within 10 miles of the house. We had a few roosters in Lyon county, but not enough to hunt them specifically (if you're thinking of where my dad lives now, we didn't live there when I was a kid). Driving up to Clifton-Clyde was outta town....in fact, my uncles even called it "W KS":D, despite the fact we drove almost straight north for 1.5hrs "clear the hell upta Clifton for birds that won't even sit for the brits":rolleyes: Yes, grampa was a quail hunter. He thought pheasant hunting was only an excuse to get away from gramma and drink for the w/e, otherwise I don't think we would've ever went. I don't think I ever saw him shoot a rooster, he seldom got away from the heater and the Shnapps/Canadian Mist bottle. Quail hunting with him was a different story. He considered quail hunting/dog work to be a good enough reason to stay outta the sauce for the better part of a day.
 
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Gotcha, I was thinking you were out west. No wonder you're still quail hunting, you caught the tail end of the good stuff in SEK, just like me.

Clifton-Clyde :), thats where we hunted all those years, probably drove by your group more than once.
 
Gotcha, I was thinking you were out west. No wonder you're still quail hunting, you caught the tail end of the good stuff in SEK, just like me.

Clifton-Clyde :), thats where we hunted all those years, probably drove by your group more than once.

Wow, what a small world. Same age'ish, same job'ish, and we hunted the same place during the same years. Tell me you didn't stay with a guy named Clifford and hunt on his land.....if so, we may share more history yet.

I remember it driving me crazy that we couldn't shoot the quail up there. Dad, uncles, and grampa would all say, "They're trying to establish a population out here; besides, we can shoot "our own" quail at home." I remember seeing some of the biggest coveys I've ever seen in my life up there. Another thing was it seemed the quail there didn't fly as far as ours' did back home. As a child I thought "now that's how quail should be. Coveys of 30+birds getting up and landing 40-50 yards away." Anyway, if that area was anything like it was back then that's where I'd go to this day. If the men of the family would've went ahead and made our annual pheasant outing a combo outing, it would have been much more exciting. The last couple years we hunted there we didn't hardly see any birds (3 or 4 in an entire w/e). By that time I was old enough to drive and the WIHA program was born. I sat in a HS classroom one day and drew up a plan. Borrowed my buddy's mom's mini-van and drove all around Pawnee and Rush counties (before dad lived out there) and saw more pheasants in one evening than I'd seen in the past 4 years combine around Clifton. That led to me shooting my first limit of pheasants. As far as the Clifton area is concerned, let's hope that one day that area is as productive as it once was my friend.

We've officially high-jacked this thread....my apologies to the OP.
 
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I watched a rooster take a hit once - it busted his wing badly, and I swear he hit the ground at 40mph. You actually heard the thud. I figured 'Dead bird', so my sports and I casually sauntered over to where the bird had hit, only to find the dog circling the area frantically, trying to find that rooster. Turns out, he'd sucked across the road via a culvert, dropped 20 feet into a ravine on the other side, and kept running! I have a lot of faith in the dogs I hunt with, so I sent Tango in after it. Ten minutes later, she returns with a very alive rooster in her mouth, looking pretty perturbed. Still can't believe just how resilient these birds are!
 
Years ago when we were pushing a strip of tall sorgum the farmer left for hunting we dropped a bird that fell at least 60 feet from the air with a thud in fresly planted wheat (the fall alone should have killed it). We decided to pick that one up after finishing the push through the strip. We came back about 10 minutes later and when my buddy located the bird I looked away as he reached down to pick it up. Suddenly I to hear a shot. I looked quick and saw that rooster dropping feathers with that shot and then another shot and more feathers and we watched that bird fly a few hundred yards. Unbelievable!
Another time my buddy shot a rooster, it did a complete summer sault and resumed altitude, and flew away into never-never land!
 
I hope you didn't mean if there moving on the ground.:eek:

Good way for a dog to get accidentally shot and I for one would never forgive myself....:(
 
I hope you didn't mean if there moving on the ground.:eek:
Good way for a dog to get accidentally shot and I for one would never forgive myself....:(
I think everyone agrees with you that it's a bad idea to shoot your dog but a running pheasant in the right cover or heading toward the right cover is a lost bird. A blackberry thicket for example.
Don't shoot your dog. Shoot the rooster on the ground if you can safely do it. Hitting the "D" key on your keyboard when your finger was just slightly off the "F" key may be an accident. Gun accidents are never accidents.
 
Better a lost bird than a lost dog. No bird is worth the risk IMO. Personally, I just make it a habit and choose not to shoot at a running bird. Anyway, that's what we have the dogs FOR isn't it?

In a given situation, say for instance your dog is completely out of the picture and the instant you go to trigger the shot on a running bird, out from nowhere the dog appears in the sight picture. Things happen fast, too fast. Get in the habit of not doing it and there will never be an issue. Same could be said about shooting low flying birds over your dog.

Just my way of thinking, your certainly entitled to your opinion though.
 
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Better a lost bird than a lost dog. No bird is worth the risk IMO. Personally, I just make it a habit and choose not to shoot at a running bird. Anyway, that's what we have the dogs FOR isn't it?

In a given situation, say for instance your dog is completely out of the picture and the instant you go to trigger the shot on a running bird, out from nowhere the dog appears in the sight picture. Things happen fast, too fast. Get in the habit of not doing it and there will never be an issue. Same could be said about shooting low flying birds over your dog.

Just my way of thinking, your certainly entitled to your opinion though.

I like your answer! In answering the O.P. question, I think the short answer is "Yes! Every TIME unless they're dead or their LEGS are broken!"
 
lung or heart shot is my guess. They literally bleed out in mid-air. Damdest thing when you actually witness it. I had it happen one time and the bird flew at least 200 yards and landed right in front of a guy standing on a gravel road. :10sign:
i see this happen at least an avg. Of once a year
 
Seeing a rooster fall out of the air 200 yd.s away because it has a perforated engine room is definitely one of those, "Oh! Cool!" moments but as long as the odds are of that happening there's another one even more rare but just as deadly.
Year before last I jumped a rooster off a fence row that I missed cleanly with both barrels. The sun was in my eyes or something. Anyway, it flew higher and higher and then set its wings for a fast downhill glide into some shelter belts across the road. It was going as fast as a rooster can fly when it hit the single strand phone line that paralleled the road and dropped dead. That one and another years before that flew into a tree limb with the same result are the rarest dead birds I've seen. When I cleaned the wire bird its liver was just mush and busted into pieces. Not a pellet in it. Yum.
 
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