The Leg Drop

Golden Hour

Golden Hour

Well-known member
This is more of a conversation starter than me trying to say I've uncovered a mystery about pheasants, so take your grain of salt now.

Over the years, I have seen legs drop after hitting pheasants. This past Friday, I hit a pheasant about as lightly as you can hit anything with a shotgun. It's left leg dropped and it went a hundred yards and landed in the grass with Sage in hot pursuit. No more than two seconds after landing, it jumped up, took off with full force and both legs were tucked up like a plane after liftoff.

I've had this discussion with other hunters, but the more years I get under my belt and the more scenarios I encounter, I have come think that sometimes when a pheasant drops it's leg, it isn't necessarily indicative of the leg being hit. In many circumstances, it does, I won't argue otherwise. But it seems like its an autonomous reaction to getting hit, maybe the way our eyes water when getting punched in the nose. Not sure. Granted, these are the kinds of things that can probably never really be known, but I wanted to toss it out there and see if anyone else had ever put thought into this, as I know we've all seen legs drop on pheasants after hitting them.
 
I've always considered a dropped leg a death knell for the bird, and always do my best to recover the bird, knowing it can't run, etc. Some the dogs have caught, some have flushed, and a few were lying dead. I've never noticed the leg "dropped" when re-flushed, but never paid attention. It always puts a knot in my stomach when one flies off that way, with no chance of retrieval. I can't speak to the possibility you are propositioning.
 
Golden Hour said:
This is more of a conversation starter than me trying to say I've uncovered a mystery about pheasants, so take your grain of salt now.

Over the years, I have seen legs drop after hitting pheasants. This past Friday, I hit a pheasant about as lightly as you can hit anything with a shotgun. It's left leg dropped and it went a hundred yards and landed in the grass with Sage in hot pursuit. No more than two seconds after landing, it jumped up, took off with full force and both legs were tucked up like a plane after liftoff.

I've had this discussion with other hunters, but the more years I get under my belt and the more scenarios I encounter, I have come think that sometimes when a pheasant drops it's leg, it isn't necessarily indicative of the leg being hit. In many circumstances, it does, I won't argue otherwise. But it seems like its an autonomous reaction to getting hit, maybe the way our eyes water when getting punched in the nose. Not sure. Granted, these are the kinds of things that can probably never really be known, but I wanted to toss it out there and see if anyone else had ever put thought into this, as I know we've all seen legs drop on pheasants after hitting them.
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Whereas I believe a dropped leg is sometimes, as you say, an indication of a wounded leg, I don't believe it's ALWAYS an indication of a wounded leg. I've just seen them do so many different things after dropping a leg. I think about it like this. A wild rooster is going to do whatever it takes to live, & his first option after being shot is to somehow continue flying. Think about how many body parts/systems are involved in flying & tucking his legs up underneath while he does it. If he got a pellet in or through some part of him, the damage/pain from which could be alleviated somehow by letting a leg dangle, he's going to let that leg go in order to fly.

Like one time I developed pleurisy from having pneumonia. It hurt like hell around my left lung when I coughed. The doc showed me a trick to alleviate the pain, which was to hold my left upper arm in tight to my side when I coughed. But it hurt too badly to do that too, unless I reached over to pull on my left elbow with my right hand. So it appeared as though I had a stomach ache, along with an elbow or shoulder injury. Nope...trying to prevent stuff inside me on my left side from rubbing together when I cough. Similarly, I think a pheasant sometimes allows a leg to dangle in order to alleviate pain elsewhere. (short story, long)

BrdHntr said:
I've never noticed the leg "dropped" when re-flushed, ...
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I have.
 
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A5 Sweet 16 said:
Whereas I believe a dropped leg is sometimes, as you say, an indication of a wounded leg, I don't believe it's ALWAYS an indication of a wounded leg. I've just seen them do so many different things after dropping a leg. I think about it like this. A wild rooster is going to do whatever it takes to live, & his first option after being shot is to somehow continue flying. Think about how many body parts/systems are involved in flying & tucking his legs up underneath while he does it. If he got a pellet in or through some part of him, the damage/pain from which could be alleviated somehow by letting a leg dangle, he's going to let that leg go in order to fly.

Like one time I developed pleurisy from having pneumonia. It hurt like hell around my left lung when I coughed. The doc showed me a trick to alleviate the pain, which was to hold my left upper arm in tight to my side when I coughed. But it hurt too badly to do that too, unless I reached over to pull on my left elbow with my right hand. So it appeared as though I had a stomach ache, along with an elbow or shoulder injury. Nope...trying to prevent stuff inside me on my left side from rubbing together when I cough. Similarly, I think a pheasant sometimes allows a leg to dangle in order to alleviate pain elsewhere. (short story, long)


I have.
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me to.
 
Part of the reason I bring this up is that I shot a bird on Saturday that had a dangling leg and no tail feathers, prior to me shooting. There is a public spot next door to the private land I was hunting and am confident that pheasant had been hit sometime this season over there. I wasn't able to ascertain if he had an old injury to the leg when I processed him for the freezer, however. I've also shared the story about the pheasant I shot a few years ago that was missing it's left leg from where the feathers stop above the foot and his muscles were atrophied. Probably been wounded the previous fall as the nub was completely healed. I harvested a public land bird this year that had bulges on one leg from what was an old injury. While these don't go directly to the point I was considering in the first post, they are a testament to the strength of this amazing bird.

I feel compelled to add that I don't think it's okay to not put in every effort to locate a pheasant that a guy hits. Nor do I want any animal to suffer in any way. Like many of you, I've lost sleep over bad shots and get that sinking feeling in my stomach when I see a pheasant fly away and it is visibly wounded. But it does happen and I'm always fascinated by the will to survive that a pheasant displays.
 
A moron I seen once told me your supposed to count them in your limit whether you retrieve them or not. If you even just tickle him it counts. Uh no!
 
I found your post on this intriguing GH, and agree with your & A5's comments on the strength and will to survive these birds display. During our late season hunt last year, we found one of the birds had gangrene in one of the breast halves, when cleaning it. we were amazed that bird was still alive! My statement "never noticed the leg drop when reflushed" was in error. Discussed your post with the wife, and she kindly corrected me. 😄
 
I believe leg drops are an indication of the bird being hit "somewhere". It drops a leg because it is hurt, but not necessarily hit in that leg. If you are lucky, it will be a leg hit serious enough to prevent the bird from running. All birds that indicate a "hit", such as dropping a leg, should be retrieved if possible. If a pheasant can't run it likely will try to hide, but I've seen a few fly as the dog gets close, but flying requires some propulsion from the legs to get started so that isn't common if a leg is damaged seriously enough to prevent running. Roosters are survivors and will do amazing things when hit, so I'm never surprised at what they do. My latest was a "hit" that blew what appeared to be about 50% of the feathers off the bird (I'm sure it was less, but it was a bunch). My mind said "bird down", but that ol' boy kept flying without a leg drop or even a flinch. He was just a little lighter.
 
They have a exceptional survivial instict for sure. I posted about my new pup recovered his first bird saturday, after I shot it and saw it running. Here is what I found in that bird when I opened the skin to fillet him...he ran at least 20 yards. I usually don't pay attension to the birds, but this one was a first for my new pup and shot after my first 2 of the day.
20211211_155025.jpg
Someone else here posted about a bird that ran on a broken leg (or legs), Last season, maybe the one prior, I got a rooster up twice, shot 4 times at it, hittting it hard (feathers flying) at least 2 of those shots. The second time it landed, the dog and I went right to where it went down, and found nothing there. The dog made it to the creek tracked around 100 yards and locked-up. He had a rooster, shot to heck. I always had doubts that the bird recovered was even the same bird...I do believe without a doubt it was after seeing that saturday.
 
Golden Hour said:
This is more of a conversation starter than me trying to say I've uncovered a mystery about pheasants, so take your grain of salt now.

Over the years, I have seen legs drop after hitting pheasants. This past Friday, I hit a pheasant about as lightly as you can hit anything with a shotgun. It's left leg dropped and it went a hundred yards and landed in the grass with Sage in hot pursuit. No more than two seconds after landing, it jumped up, took off with full force and both legs were tucked up like a plane after liftoff.

I've had this discussion with other hunters, but the more years I get under my belt and the more scenarios I encounter, I have come think that sometimes when a pheasant drops it's leg, it isn't necessarily indicative of the leg being hit. In many circumstances, it does, I won't argue otherwise. But it seems like its an autonomous reaction to getting hit, maybe the way our eyes water when getting punched in the nose. Not sure. Granted, these are the kinds of things that can probably never really be known, but I wanted to toss it out there and see if anyone else had ever put thought into this, as I know we've all seen legs drop on pheasants after hitting them.
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I shot one yesterday that dropped both legs he flew a hundred and fifty yards over a tree line have no idea how far all total we headed that direction never come across him again my theory on the leg droppers isn’t a hurt leg but a hit to the radiator but not enough to run him out of anti freeze he may survive with steel in his vital area they are tuff it’s not the first leg dropper I’ve seen in 50 years
 
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