Have you ever seen a pheasant do this?

B

Bob Peters

Well-known member
I was hunting with a buddy in NW Iowa and after trying all types of cover, we finally flushed a woods rooster. He flew along the edge of the trees and we each let loose 2 shells on him. He didn't appear to be hit, flew over a few trees and I saw him tuck his wings and dive bomb almost like a hawk into a canary grass field. We went over that way with the dog (who is very experienced) and looked for the bird never found him or got any scent. Thursday I was hunting alone and I shot a few shells at one that flew away over a large slough, gained in elevation and then tucked his wings and dove straight into the cattails. This one was way out there and no retrieve attempt was possible. I've missed a lot of pheasants over the last 3 years and never seen any act like this. From the books I've read, I don't think this is towering. I'm not even sure if the birds were hit at all.
 
Even with an experienced dog there is a good chance that rooster was laying out there dead. I never used to believe in the "air-washed" theory, but years ago I did the same on a rooster in east central Iowa. I had an experienced wirehair and I had marked the spot well. We looked and looked for 20 minutes, finally gave up. It bothered me enough that I want back to the same spot later and looked some more and finally I realized I was almost stepping on the stone dead bird. My dog passed through that spot many times and never picked up the scent.
 
Windshooter said:
Even with an experienced dog there is a good chance that rooster was laying out there dead. I never used to believe in the "air-washed" theory, but years ago I did the same on a rooster in east central Iowa. I had an experienced wirehair and I had marked the spot well. We looked and looked for 20 minutes, finally gave up. It bothered me enough that I want back to the same spot later and looked some more and finally I realized I was almost stepping on the stone dead bird. My dog passed through that spot many times and never picked up the scent.
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Yeah on that same hunt I hit a young rooster flying over a slough. He wasn't too far away and I did my best to make a visual mark and called the dog over right away. I was hunting on my uncle's land with his dog, and she knows every inch of that slough. Looked for 25 minutes and never could find him. I told my uncle about it and his guess was that the rooster was stone dead and never gave off any more scent so the dog couldn't find him. I also looked hard the whole time and never laid eyes on him.
 
Could these birds have been heart shot? or perhaps an artery cut? Over the years I have shot several that I really didn't think I hit very hard, or almost at all only to have them fly 150 to 300 yards and drop stone dead.
 
I've seen many pheasants over the years that either I knew I had hit or suspected I put a pellet or two in fly away. I always watch them until I can't see them anymore. But some will fly a few hundred years or even over a quarter mile then all of a sudden go straight up in the air and fold. They are dead before they hit the ground. I think it's either a head shot, a heart shot or they bleed out and die.
 
Saw this once and it was earlier this season. We were hunting a bottom, between 2 high hills, I was toward the end, ahead of the dogs and over the hill a rooster came gliding in to the end of the cover, came in hot and didn't seem to try to slow down. We hunted to the end and nothing came out, my buddy had also seen the bird come in. We push it some more and a rooster runs out that can't get airborne. The only thing I could come up with was that some one was hunting within a mile or so, hit this bird and damaged a wing to a point he couldn't get airborne, but was able to glide away. The damaged wing likely wasn't able to be used to slow down either. That was all I could come-up with to explain what I had seen.
 
I’ve seen it many times over the years. Some times you think it’s a pure miss or maybe you think you tickled it. I try to watch all birds as long as I can see them. Our group in ND had several just drop three or four hundred yards away. I had a “miss”in Montana this year that went over the hill. My dog was acting birds around some brush on the next hill, about 300 yds away. I found him four feet off the ground. See picture.5885BCB8-7B8F-4AA3-A3B3-DFA3291B9B95.jpeg
 
McFarmer said:
I’ve seen them do that when a hawk was around.
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I just saw one do this the other day. The following day I saw a covey of quail do the same thing and dive under a single scub tree that probably wasnt 10 ft tall. I went over and shood the hawk away and flushed them out into some salt cedar and tumble weeds that they couldn't quite make it to.
 
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Fold his wings & dive, beak first? No, I've never seen that. Interesting. 🤔
Of course, I've seen the heart/lung shot birds fly & eventually drop many, many times. But usually they just fall, & if they've done the tower thing, they usually do a death flutter. Never seen an intentional dive bomb...but I'd like to.
 
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died in flight, i would guess. the folded wings, i think, are just their default position
 
Pretty common, I have seen them fly 1/4 mile, start flying straight up them crash and burn, if you mark the line well you can find them, I have had many good pointing dogs step right over a dead dive bomber, labs will usually find them. Key point, mark the line, spot and walk straight to it.
 
Over the years I've seen body hit birds that showed no sign of being hit fold in flight as well as the "death climb" thing (had one do this two weekends back). More often than not they are quite aways out when they go down. After all, how far can a rooster with it's afterburners lit fly in a few seconds? A long ways...

I don't know if there's any correlation between this type of hit and a dog's ability to find it, other than the difficulty of marking a bird that falls in heavy cover several hundred yards away. As a kid, long before my dog owning days (hell, for quite a number of years, I WAS the dog) I was taught to lock my eyes on the spot of the fall and walk directly to it, NEVER taking my eyes off the spot. To help out the Crew, I still do this on the long falls in cover, then handle them in & downwind as I get close enough.

That being said, we lose a couple birds every year that I feel they should have found but didn't...
 
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Labs said:
Over the years I've seen body hit birds that showed no sign of being hit fold in flight as well as the "death climb" thing (had one do this two weekends back). More often than not they are quite aways out when they go down. After all, how far can a rooster with it's afterburners lit fly in a few seconds? A long ways...

I don't know if there's any correlation between this type of hit and a dog's ability to find it, other than the difficulty of marking a bird that falls in heavy cover several hundred yards away. as a kid, long before my dog owning days (hell, for quite a number of years, I WAS the dog) I was taught to lock my eyes on the spot of the fall and walk directly to it, NEVER taking my eyes off the spot. To help out the Crew, I still do this on the long falls in cover, then handle them in & downwind as I get close enough.

That being said, we lose a couple birds every year that I feel they should have found but didn't...
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That's what we always called it. The death climb. I always figured it was the lungs filling up with blood.
 
Guessing a hit with a single or few pellets, but any major artrey hit will cause this...blood pumps out, and he is finished, no matter where he is. That full speed glide was the part of the story that I thought made it unusual.
 
I've probably had that happen 3-4 times over the years. Every time the bird was right where it went down with it's tail sticking straight up in the air. The one closest to home landed in 3 inch tall grass and several dogs jumped over the bird numerous times without smelling it. I had to go pick it up myself. I have had several other experience with "air washed" birds. Be persistent and even hunt for awhile more then come back to the spot. Shot a rooster in the snow once and had 3 dogs hunt dead for quite awhile. Went on and hunted around the half of the patch we hadn't gotten to yet and came back to the spot. Rooster had crawled out of his hiding spot and died in the wide open. This one hadn't towered. I've dropped quail on a sand bar by the river and had dogs step on the bird and still not smell it. Also saw a covey fly across the road into the grass we had just hunted. Went over there with 8 men and 5 dogs and stood on top of the spot they landed for maybe 20 minutes before the birds began to flush on their own. Dogs still couldn't come up with any of them.
 
I think it could have been a live bird that was never hit. I've seen them fly at top speed straight into deep grass or more often, snow. Have watched pheasants and quail do this after being flushed.

Last pheasant I killed in Illinois a couple weeks ago, I knew I had nicked him and watched him clear a little rise then disappear from my sight line. A hunting partner had seen it make a left turn and head for a distant patch of switch grass about 1/3rd -1/2 mile away. He thought it might have gone down but he's older and doesn't see real well.

Between the two spots was a cut bean field. So I took the dog and found it dead. Didn't find a single pellet hole after cleaning it. I think I had one #5 go right up it's arse!
 
Bob Peters said:
I was hunting with a buddy in NW Iowa and after trying all types of cover, we finally flushed a woods rooster. He flew along the edge of the trees and we each let loose 2 shells on him. He didn't appear to be hit, flew over a few trees and I saw him tuck his wings and dive bomb almost like a hawk into a canary grass field. We went over that way with the dog (who is very experienced) and looked for the bird never found him or got any scent. Thursday I was hunting alone and I shot a few shells at one that flew away over a large slough, gained in elevation and then tucked his wings and dove straight into the cattails. This one was way out there and no retrieve attempt was possible. I've missed a lot of pheasants over the last 3 years and never seen any act like this. From the books I've read, I don't think this is towering. I'm not even sure if the birds were hit at all.
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It could be the tempatures. If it was cold there will be very little scent. I've own beagles for years and there are times if the temapture is cold and dry they can't run a jumped rabbit after it gets out of sight. They lose the track within minutes. Yet a warm damp days they can run the same rabbit for hours.
 
Wise12375 said:
Could these birds have been heart shot? or perhaps an artery cut? Over the years I have shot several that I really didn't think I hit very hard, or almost at all only to have them fly 150 to 300 yards and drop stone dead.
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This happened to me a couple weeks ago. Clearly hit a quartering away bird and it gradually gained altitude until it was about 400 yards away and then fell stone dead to the ground. I saw it all unfold and it was laying on the shoulder of a county highway.

I’ve also had it happen year ago when I shot at a wood duck. I knew I hit it but watched it fly away a long ways until it just falls out of the sky. Found it later in an open field dead.
 
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