scott county vizsla
Member
I shot a rooster today that wasn't flying great, still accelerating and climbing, but he looked a bit off. This happens a few times a year with birds that are recovering from being shot, but this one was a first. Upon skinning I noticed several scarred areas with a tough white surface and no pellet embedded in the flesh. While cutting off the wing meat I thought i found that one of the two bones was broken, then i realized the upper wing (humerus) is only one bone. I found a copper plated #6, with most of the copper gone, burried in the bone structure. It is hard to see in the photo, but there appears to be 1 & 2/3 bones. But it is actually all the shattered pieces that grew back together in kind of a spiral pattern. It appeared to be a first year bird, with small spurs and short tail feathers but no way to know for sure. Talk about a clever bird though, dodging hunters and predators on a public hunting area until its wing can fully heal!
