I'll spend as long as I can trying to find a cripple if I think I still have a reasonable chance of finding it. I've even gone back through areas where a bird went down later in the day to see if we can come back across it again. It works every so often. Last year we were hunting a thick tree grove and I opted to leave the dog in the truck. A guy hit a bird and all three of us searched for a good while and never found him. We got back to the truck and we drove to where we downed the bird and I let the dog go search, this was an hour later. She squeezes under the thickest tangle of brush she could find and out she comes with the crippled rooster. I believe it is on us as sportsmen and ethical people to do a few things. One, hone our craft of shotgunning to where we would rarely wound birds. That's simple, it just takes practice. Two, to make every effort possible to take ethical and in range shots. Not just a poke and a prayer. Three, do everything possible to find our downed prey once it has been hit. A fifty percent loss rate is never an acceptable rate in my book, and should not be in anyone's in my opinion. If I were running an operation I would get a little mad that twice the birds are being shot to obtain a limit due to poor shooting, poor dog work, or lazy attitudes. I've been on hunts with people like this. I politely decline to attend these anymore because of the way some people operate with their lazy views on finding birds and their poor shooting.