The dog caught a pheasant

B

Bob Peters

Well-known member
Went with a buddy today in MN where the state doesn't release birds. Chumps hunting here aren't guaranteed a limit.

Buddy whistles in his dog at end of field, really thick bluestem, and pup has a lively rooster in his chops. I told him that's a cripple from opener. Many hours later back at his house he filets it on the tailgate and we can't find any pellet holes in it. Wings seemed OK. Maybe had a birth defect where he couldn't fly. Strange.
 
It's not impossible he caught a healthy, wild rooster. Just more likely either a flare nare or had "something" wrong with it. In 24 seasons hunting (a lot) with some awfully aggressive, experienced flushers (that try to catch each & every bird they encounter), in lots of conditions you'd think a dog might be at a distinct advantage, my dogs have only caught one rooster that I firmly believe was completely healthy. Many hens. One rooster. It was blowing 40+ mph that day in some VERY thick grass.
 
Bob Peters said:
Went with a buddy today in MN where the state doesn't release birds. Chumps hunting here aren't guaranteed a limit.

Buddy whistles in his dog at end of field, really thick bluestem, and pup has a lively rooster in his chops. I told him that's a cripple from opener. Many hours later back at his house he filets it on the tailgate and we can't find any pellet holes in it. Wings seemed OK. Maybe had a birth defect where he couldn't fly. Strange.
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possibly ill - maybe from bird flu.
 
Bob Peters said:
Went with a buddy today in MN where the state doesn't release birds. Chumps hunting here aren't guaranteed a limit.

Buddy whistles in his dog at end of field, really thick bluestem, and pup has a lively rooster in his chops. I told him that's a cripple from opener. Many hours later back at his house he filets it on the tailgate and we can't find any pellet holes in it. Wings seemed OK. Maybe had a birth defect where he couldn't fly. Strange.
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Not necessarily, I've had the same thing happen, especially with a young dog who didn't hold. I've seen roosters tailfeathers inches from a point. I've also come in in front of a dog pointing and seen a rooster turn away from me, flush and get caught in the air. I bet the flushing dog guys have seen it plenty of times.
 
A5 Sweet 16 said:
It's not impossible he caught a healthy, wild rooster. Just more likely either a flare nare or had "something" wrong with it. In 24 seasons hunting (a lot) with some awfully aggressive, experienced flushers (that try to catch each & every bird they encounter), in lots of conditions you'd think a dog might be at a distinct advantage, my dogs have only caught one rooster that I firmly believe was completely healthy. Many hens. One rooster. It was blowing 40+ mph that day in some VERY thick grass.
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You primarily hunt public land that is pressured. I would imagine you to have a smaller catch rate than a private ground hunter.

The last black Lab I had was very aggressive in his flush and he caught at least 3or 4 roosters and a few hens. He probably would have caught more but I got to where I knew when he had one trapped and was going in so I would stop him so he wouldn’t get a hen as he might put a kill shot on them if he got pissed.
 
Not that uncommon to catch a wild (healthy) rooster if you are running a lively flusher. I would say maybe one out of a hundred or couple hundred birds when no snow on the ground - just personal experience/estimation, have not kept stats. Much more common in deep snow. Unfortunately they are usually hens (try to prevent when we can), but roosters also in deep snow & cat tails. My best boy (RIP) brought me a plump wild SD rooster on his last hunt when he was 12 (deep snow with a crusty ice top layer). A couple of the guys have noodled them by hand when hunting in snow storms.

One of our guys had the same thing as described by the OP last weekend in MN. Opening field so not previously shot (also confirmed when cleaning) his lab caught a rooster. Happens occasionally in SD as well. And just to head off the conspiracy theorists before it is suggested: None of these were pen-raised. In 20 years I have shot (or cleaned from the group) one flare-nare from public ground (MN & SD). And it had a labeled band on it that won me a $25 gas station gift card.
 
You all just missed the pellet. Likely an injured bird from this weekend.

On several occasions, I have picked up roosters in from of my dog's points ... most are injured birds, but a few I have let go and they flew away. Absolutely wild birds.
 
BRITTMAN said:
You all just missed the pellet. Likely an injured bird from this weekend.

On several occasions, I have picked up roosters in from of my dog's points ... most are injured birds, but a few I have let go and they flew away. Absolutely wild birds.
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Did not run the bird through a metal detector but if the one from this weekend had a pellet, someone was out hunting before opening day.
 
A5 Sweet 16 said:
It's not impossible he caught a healthy, wild rooster. Just more likely either a flare nare or had "something" wrong with it. In 24 seasons hunting (a lot) with some awfully aggressive, experienced flushers (that try to catch each & every bird they encounter), in lots of conditions you'd think a dog might be at a distinct advantage, my dogs have only caught one rooster that I firmly believe was completely healthy. Many hens. One rooster. It was blowing 40+ mph that day in some VERY thick grass.
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BRITTMAN said:
You all just missed the pellet. Likely an injured bird from this weekend.
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I'm gonna defer to these posts as having the most truth in the matter, with the exception being it was not a flare nare. The state doesn't release them, and this spot has no private pheasant ground anywhere near it.

Third day of season so very likely he caught a pellet somewhere we didn't find. Grass was very wet from rain as well.
 
carptom1 said:
You primarily hunt public land that is pressured. I would imagine you to have a smaller catch rate than a private ground hunter.
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True. But I'm out there early season quite a bit, coming across some very young pheasants sometimes. And my dogs aren't catching those either; not the roosters anyway. Maybe my dogs just aren't as aggressive as I think.
 
I caught a cock pheasant that I know was wild. Was buried in a clump of thick grass and I could see it's tail feathers peaking out. Dog was on vapor lock so I thought what the hell! I went down it it like it was Raquel Welch. Buddy thought I had a heart attack or something but I came up with a very mad bird.
 
We watched a rooster fly across a field and land near a drainage ditch with very thick cattails/weeds and run in to the cover. We walked over to where he had landed to flush him out for a shot and the dog came out with him in her mouth. We figure the cover was so thick he couldn't flush and the dog pinned him before he could run out. MN bird also, we watched him fly in and run to cover so was clearly not wounded.
 
I had a lab when I was in high school that caught wild birds all the time. Usually after a heavy snow but she was on them. One wet afternoon, I was limited out and had not fired a shot. None of the birds had any previous damage. How do I know ? Because if she brought me a hen I could let it go and it would fly away.
I run shorthairs now, but two years ago in ND my dog was on point and couldn’t flush the bird, saw the tail feathers sticking out of a clump of grass and grabbed it with my hand. Couple of the members in the group said it had to be wounded. So we did an “autopsy” on it and found nothing. It happens….
 
I've had 2 labs over the past 15 years. My first one caught 1 hen and 1 rooster in 12 hunting seasons. My current lab has caught 2 roosters so far in her first 3 years. The last one was actually this summer while we were out exercising. I would walk the full perimeter of a 160 acre CRP field early in the morning and just let her "hunt". She was about 100 yards out in the grass when Isaw her go on point. This is a pretty regular occurrence during these exercise trips, so I kept walking, I walked about 10 more steps and looked back to make sure she wasn't still "pointing", and she was coming back to me carrying something. I was nervous because the last thing i was expecting was a pheasant. Sure enough, it was a mature rooster pheasant with plenty of life left in it when she brought it all the way back to me. About 5 feet away she dropped it, it took off running, but couldn't fly, and she caught it again. Not sure if it couldn't fly before and that's why she caught it, or if she broke a wing initially. The other was in heavy grass cover during hunting season, and she caught it out of the air during his flush. Hard to be mad as much as shells cost these days! 😜
 
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Had something similar happen a couple of years ago. The dog jumped in a tall thicket and an injured bird flew up but only made it about 7ft high, then it would run, the dog would catch up and it would fly up again but only about 6ft high. This went on for about 30 seconds and I could never get a shot off because the bird was just over the dog, it was something out of looney tunes. Eventually the bird got tired and the dog pinned it, only pheasant I have ever killed without firing a round.
 
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