This is where I miss birds

[Bob Peters]

I think about pheasant hunting a lot. All aspects of it. For brevity I won't go into dogs, beautiful scenery, struggles mixed with occasional success, the wonders of what wild pheasants can and will do. The subject for my post here is where my shot goes when I whiff on a bird. Firstly I'll get common snafus out of the way. Times a poor gun mount, feet tangled in thatch, failing eyes or what have you make a shot cloud fly awry. If my feet are set, my eyes have clear sight on that rosy cheek patch or white collar, dark blue-green head or even solid back of rooster pheasant in close range, here is where my shot goes when I don't do it right. Either too low on the bird or too far in front. For a going away bird it is usually low. I think it's a subconscious thing where I'm amiss to cover up that beautiful rooster behind my barrels and put him out of sight. I know this is a faux pas, and I'm working on rectification of this folly. I take my shooting serious, because hunting wild roosters is important to me, and making a clean kill is what the bird deserves. On the other place my pellets usually fly, in front of the bird, I'll work on this as well. Every rooster bagged there is the necessary cleaning of said bird, and in doing if you choose, a necropsy. How much you can learn from this. I pay attention and learn best I can. Shooting all my birds with 1 1/4 oz through an I/C or Mod tube, I find many and most of those that have a cross or quarter to their flight from my position are dead or fly away unscathed. The most interesting part is with all those pellets through open chokes they are not shot up, but often have trauma to the head and neck. Many have broken beaks. I tend to lead birds a good bit, and that old saw of "you're behind it" just doesn't hold true for me. I recently took a poke at a long crosser, true 90°, inserted the bead way in front, pulled away lightly, and down he dropped like a ton of bricks. Couldn't find a single pellet in the breast or legs. There have been others like that for me this year and in years past. A buddy once told me, "you get a lot of birds that are good for plucking, they're not all shot up." This isn't to claim I'm an excellent shot, I miss my fair share every year. I'm really not claiming anything here, only my personal experience. In the offseason I might buy a 28 gauge, shoot the hell out of it on the clays course, bring it out for dove hunting, drive to Yankton with it for quail season, then leave it in the safe when pheasant opens and shoot the 12 gauge the rest of the year. I know that'll make the dogs happy. If you've never seen the glacial lakes in South Dakota you need to, Minnesota might have 10,000 lakes, but not many as beautiful as these.
#Lake Poinsett #Skye and Roxy love Brookings and Hamlin County South Dakota

 

[remy3424]

Nice pic. Sounds like you have the birds on the extreme edge of the pattern. I had usually had a very similar history with my shot birds, very few shot in them. But this season, most everything has been peppered pretty well. I am assuming I am getting the birds better centered in the pattern now. This make me think that I might be shooting better now....after over 40 years at this, it seems I am a slow learner. But I am also the guy that doesn't fire a shotgun between the last day for season and the opening day of the next season.
I just had a thought....I surely didn't change out the IC choke for a modified last year? I will check that today, not much else going on here today.

 

[Obi_Wan]

Most of my misses this year were too far in front. I have always hated when someone says, “you’re behind it”. I took that to heart this year and tried to get out in front and was too far out there. I had to reset my mind between walks and rethink my leads. I think I was thinking too much about them and it was screwing me up. I think when all you see is the lead, that’s not good. I also had to adjust my gun with the shims. I’ve always shot guns with a cast off. I tried shooting my A5 with the neutral shims. It looked ok but I changed them after my SD trip and found that it was much better and that was probably throwing my leads off a little.

I’ve been doing lots of reading on shot column, shot string, patterns, optimal loads by gauge, and chokes, and its time for me to rethink some things in those areas. I don’t shoot a 12 much at all and have never hunted pheasants with one. Its always been 20 gauge or 16 gauge. I didn’t even own a 12 gauge for the longest time. I only bought one when my son started trap in high school and everyone said he had to have one and that was the only gauge they provided free shells for. 16 gauge with 1-1/4 oz has been the sweet spot for me. I tried some 3” 20 ga and just felt like I was getting more recoil for no improvement in downing birds. I also think I may be shooting too tight of a choke for the distances I’m shooting.

Thanks for the reflection and the photo.