Ground-pounding opinions

BakkenRoosterMan

BakkenRoosterMan

Member
So i came across a video taken early in my hunting career. It was one where I ground pounded a pheasant in the middle of an open field.

I'm not proud of it. I don't feel good about it. And the best thing I can say is that it ended a long drought of birds in the bag.

I still feel guilty about it to this day, even if I haven't done it since. But i'm interested to hear your opinions on the subject.
 
While ground pounding is not very sportsman like, it doesn't make the bird taste any different. Who knows, that particular may have been wounded, and that's why you got within shotgun range in open field. It's not illegal, stop beating yourself up.
 
Dog and hunter safety are paramount in importance…lots of guys shoot ruffed grouse on the ground, usually solo and dogless…if I’m watching a cripple escape and it’s in the wide open, like a picked crop field, and dogs are no where near the bird, and are not in pursuit, I have and will do that..
 
Safety for the dog and other hunters should be most important.

That being said, I've shot plenty of injured roosters on the ground. Sometimes if you don't finish one off, you'll never see it again.

I never set out with the game plan "I'm gonna ground pound my limit today" though.
 
If you can aim for and hit mostly the head I would say its a good option for eating and dispatching the bird. Assuming its safe.
I hunt with dogs so I normally don't have the option. I think I took my first one two years ago. Pheasants are damn hard to come up on in that position. Grouse on the other hand....
 
2 weeks ago today a local bank was hosting a pheasant hunt on a preserve near Duluth that’s also got a great sporting clays course, as well as trap, skeet, and 5 stand, etc; one of the brothers that owns the joint lost his dog, a terrific springer, when one of the clients shot it. If barrels were always pointed up, it wouldn’t have happened…I heard it was a strong flush, and the bird was sufficiently high, but the shooter likely had the barrel pointed down, and it went off as he was raising the gun, likely pushing the safety off and putting finger on trigger with too much pressure. Could have killed a person just as easily. There are 2 brothers now banned for life, nobody took responsibility but the owner knows it was one of them, probably knows which one, but made a point of nobody fessing up. I know someone that guides there, got much info from him, but from others as well. Bad deal…preventable deal. IMO, barrels are pointed up, all the time…
 
If there is no dog anywhere near the bird, I’ll give it one second to get airborne, or it’s getting blasted. I’ve tried getting them to take to the air only to watch them keep on running. They ain’t getting anymore breaks. I like eating pheasants.
 
I'll ground pound a wounded rooster if it's safe & if I feel it could be lost if I don't. Those 2 criteria rarely crop up together. I won't ground pound another one again as a first shot option. Haven't in many, many years. I just find it dissatisfying, actually a bit disturbing, & of very little benefit to my dog (except maybe for the retrieve?).
 
I got my current dog because the owner brought a guest to hunt who shot down into a ditch at a pheasant and killed the landowners dog. he then offered the landowner $100 as restitution.

The dog owner and his guest we banned. The dog owner hunted there almost exclusively for 2 decades. His dog (no mine) was 1.5 year old and started at a very good kennel in KS. He paid $6500 for the dog (which he told everyone) and then they offered the land owner $100! SMH.

This past Sat for the Illinois opener, one of the hunters accidentally discharged his weapon! Was right next to his 10 year old nephew and 72 year old older brother. Sort of the same story, My dog flushed a cock out towards them and I hear BANG!, then nothing else. Assume they bagged it. Come around some thick bushes and they are all standing there like scared sheep. At least he had gun pointed up.
 
Opening weekend in SD my gun went off sooner than I intended as I was mounting the gun while a rooster flushed and was flying away…gun barrel pointed up, in general direction of the bird, and I got it with 2nd shot. Illustrates that it does happen, in fact, it’s happened to me before…100 times? No…10, over the years? Sure…I hunt 45+ days per fall including sharpy and hun hunting. Bottom line, barrels pointed down at the ground isn’t acceptable….I also know for a fact more guys than you’d suspect leave the safety off…trust me…maybe not your buddies, but it’s common. As a kid, at the duck camp my dad was a member of, a few of us kids would clean guns for the elders in the evening…I recall like it was yesterday my buddy going through the motions and opening the action of his dad’s 1100 auto…I can see that shell flying through the air, and there were 2 more in the magazine…10+ guys sitting in the great room around this big oak poker table, and a few sitting on other chairs…the place got very quiet. Not good!
 
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Yeah when I was younger I sluiced my fair share but as I have grown older I just don’t feel the need to. If you own aggressive retrievers you really are playing with fire. I know a guy that shot his own dog and he never hunted again. Just not worth the risk to me.
 
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