KEOutdoors
Well-known member
That shot is probably older than i am, it took me a few minutes to find where i had it stashed. I shoot copper 5s for my lead loads
Winged bird
- Thread starter Goosemaster
- Start date
Bob Peters
Well-known member
Have to put it up on the bulletin board at the gun club.
Bob Peters
Well-known member
The dog put one up Sunday. BlamBlamBlam! I saw him flinch, then feathers fly, but away he went into the cattail patch from hell. The dogs found him. Cleaned him and he had a bunch of pellet holes through the ribs and one in the thigh. He landed with complete control. Must have hit the heart or lungs.
Goosemaster
Well-known member
My first yellow lab male was a phenomenal retriever and dog.Athletic,great nose, very dignified.
Carguy2Banker
Active member
I had several boxes of Kent fast lead given to me several years ago. I can't remember exactly what they were, but I know they were over 1400fps, but the shell casing wasn't a high brass. Without researching or shooting them first, I just assumed they wouldn't kick has hard as a high brass shell. My son was ~12 years old when thought he was ready to start shooting a 12 gauge. My bad parenting mistake was giving him my Franchi O/U and throwing a few clay targets to see how he would do with shoulder mount, and recoil thinking these shells would be a good start. His 1st shot was very shocking to him. I explained that a 12 gauge out of an O/U will kick a lot more than a 20 gauge out of his semi-auto. After about the 4th or 5th shot, he was done and said it kicked way too hard. Me, thinking he was being a wimp, shot a couple and they completely "rocked" me. I was in disbelief and felt terrible about not testing these myself before trying to dislocate his young shoulder. I switched to a Federal Field load with #4's and had him try again, and he didn't have a problem absorbing the recoil. After that day, I only shot those out of my Benelli SBE or when shooting in an Annie Oakley through my BT99 Golden Clays with a GraCoil stock just to try and use them up...even I wasn't man enough to shoot those without a recoil dampener. They were fast, and they would bust clays like crazy as the 4th or 5th shooter just before they would hit the ground in an Annie Oakley line and always made for great laughs and some sad people that received an unwanted "hicky"!
Goosemaster
Well-known member
I've been burning up old amo all season.Uve lost ar least 12 birds.i have looked hard.
Chessie 67
Well-known member
Burn it up at the skeet range
KEOutdoors
Well-known member
How? I dont think ive lost 12 roosters in my life, and i hunted without a dog for 10 years
Goosemaster
Well-known member
We hunt thick coveron the canadian.it isn't like sodak
Goosemaster
Well-known member
It isn't skeet amo.magnum loads
Chessie 67
Well-known member
Doesn’t sound like it’s very good pheasant killing ammo, either
KEOutdoors
Well-known member
So your dogs cant sniff them out or what? Cant hit them? Cant get close enough to take good shots? Whats the cause of losing 12+ birds a season?? There has to be a reason, and the cover being thick aint it. Ive hunted in the thickest crap youve ever seen, from solid briar timbers to over head high bluestem where i cant see the dog at my feet. Its so extremely rare to lose a bird for us that i cannot comprehend how you can lose dozen(s) of birds in Montana
wingsnfins
Well-known member
I'd rather have it thick cover if ya need to locate a cripple.....cause they are going to bail into it and not leave.....makes the dog(s) job easier instead of one that is going to run a tactical maze for hundreds of yards crossing up other birds and fresh scent.
If you are shooting in thick cover, anticipate the openings before the flush and don't take the shot just cause. I've let more than 1 bird fly off without a shot in thick willows and cedars cause I don't want to just wing one or drop a leg, especially if I or the dog can't mark it down because of how thick it is.
My lab is also a duck dog, so I can handle him on blind retrieves if I get a mark on the bird.....doesn't mean I'll take a iffy shot though.
Again your the worlds best shot, frickin obliterate everything you shoot at, or your full of dumped mud. If you hunted 10 years without dog & hardly lost any then you didn't drop many. Or they was pen birds that got up close & have no survival instincts after there shot.
KEOutdoors
Well-known member
Or, and hear me out here... They flush at your damn feet when you dont have dogs running around so all the shots were sub 30 yards. If you cant kill a pheasant stone dead sub 30 yards you shouldn't be hunting. From there just watch it fall and walk up and grab it where all the feathers are. If you have a 15 foot mark on where it fell you will find it with enough time.
If you cant shoot worth a crap and ass shooting every bird and relying on dogs to chase them down you may not have a lot of success. From the sounds of it, gooses issue is birds are a long ways out.
I haven't hunted much this year, some family illness and other things have gotten in the way. But im 100% again. The last one wasnt very edible because i didn't let him get past 25 yards with the TSS in a 18-20mph wind. It will be a good one to fry, should be nice and crispy with all the holes for breading. Like ive said a million times, get in range and pheasants are about the easiest game bird to hit out of everything ive ever hunted. They look like flying blimps with long tails compared to ducks, snipe, doves, quail. Have a couple more days i should be able to hunt before the season is over Friday, then i will have to pay for birds or something because i definitely didnt get my fill this year.
Carguy2Banker
Active member
This!!! I think most of our lost birds this year had a lot to do with losing track of the down birds scent because there is so much scent out there. It gets difficult to determine if the dog is hot on a cripple, or if they are tracking a different healthy bird. Never want to call them off of a runner, but hate to screw up the rest of the hunt on out of range flushes...but it occasionally happens!
Shouldn't be hunting????Bruh that just not how pheasant hunting works. Everyone can stone a roody at 30 yrads but doing it every time is not realistical. I seen your 1 & only phez video on you tube, you shot at 3 roosters, looked like all about 30 yds tops, last 1 maybe a tad longer. 1 clearly missed, other 2 you shot at AFTER your buddy already hit the bird & didn't look like you even hit them either. So maybe you ain't qualified to talk trash about nobody elses' shooting.
A5 Sweet 16
Well-known member
Interesting thread. I'm far from a dog expert. I've only owned 3. I haven't done anything special, but all 3 ended up being very good at recovering wounded pheasants. For what it's worth (right or wrong), I do have thoughts on the subject:
1. One dog will never teach another dog how to hunt pheasants, recover them, or retrieve them. In fact, if an experienced dog dominates in the field, it can be a detriment to a younger dog, or at least slow its progress.
2. Experience is everything. I hunt quite a bit, so my dogs get what I'd call a lot of experience with wild pheasants. When they're quite young, they have to learn that finding a wounded pheasant is their job (when you say fetch, dead, find it, or whatever) & that it makes you immensely happy when they DO find it. If you make a huge deal out of finding a bird, I think they'll grow to love it & work harder at it.
3. Even the best pheasant dog will lose a bird now & then, & it's rarely, if ever, their fault. But in the case of my 3 dogs, if I'm patient, he'll recovery the bird much more often than not. Patience isn't always easy. You're frustrated by a poor shot maybe. You hate losing birds. It's taking time. And allowing a dog to search 5-10 minutes can feel like 30 minutes. I've been there many times. My guess is some people & dogs would benefit from more patience. Just stand there as long as it takes to figure it out. Then lay on the praise ultra heavy when they find it.
Just yesterday I made a miserable shot & scratched down a rooster in some cattails. Cows had been in there, so there were tons of beaten paths for running. There'd also been other pheasants in there, so I'm guessing there was plenty of scent to contend with. Ace raced around for awhile, but eventually acted like he was starting to figure things out, exactly where the bird had fallen, & which path he took from there. He came up with the bird maybe 40-50 yards away on about the 3rd time he basically took the same route "over that direction". As I stood there, waiting, it felt like about a half hour, but probably was no more than 5 minutes. What I do know is I had zero clue where that bird had gone, so I was no help. And Ace looked awfully proud of himself bringing that rooster to me, so once again, I let him know beyond doubt that the magic he'd just performed made me EXTREMELY happy.
1. One dog will never teach another dog how to hunt pheasants, recover them, or retrieve them. In fact, if an experienced dog dominates in the field, it can be a detriment to a younger dog, or at least slow its progress.
2. Experience is everything. I hunt quite a bit, so my dogs get what I'd call a lot of experience with wild pheasants. When they're quite young, they have to learn that finding a wounded pheasant is their job (when you say fetch, dead, find it, or whatever) & that it makes you immensely happy when they DO find it. If you make a huge deal out of finding a bird, I think they'll grow to love it & work harder at it.
3. Even the best pheasant dog will lose a bird now & then, & it's rarely, if ever, their fault. But in the case of my 3 dogs, if I'm patient, he'll recovery the bird much more often than not. Patience isn't always easy. You're frustrated by a poor shot maybe. You hate losing birds. It's taking time. And allowing a dog to search 5-10 minutes can feel like 30 minutes. I've been there many times. My guess is some people & dogs would benefit from more patience. Just stand there as long as it takes to figure it out. Then lay on the praise ultra heavy when they find it.
Just yesterday I made a miserable shot & scratched down a rooster in some cattails. Cows had been in there, so there were tons of beaten paths for running. There'd also been other pheasants in there, so I'm guessing there was plenty of scent to contend with. Ace raced around for awhile, but eventually acted like he was starting to figure things out, exactly where the bird had fallen, & which path he took from there. He came up with the bird maybe 40-50 yards away on about the 3rd time he basically took the same route "over that direction". As I stood there, waiting, it felt like about a half hour, but probably was no more than 5 minutes. What I do know is I had zero clue where that bird had gone, so I was no help. And Ace looked awfully proud of himself bringing that rooster to me, so once again, I let him know beyond doubt that the magic he'd just performed made me EXTREMELY happy.
westksbowhunter
Well-known member
When I had my male dog Fred that passed in 2019, I might have lost 1 or 2 birds a year. So that is a dozen or so during his lifetime. From 2008-2012, we averaged about 125 pheasants divided between my son and I. 2012-2019 were not near as good of years and shot considerably less but did shoot a lot of ducks. I would consider myself a better shot than most everyone and might miss one or two birds for every dozen shot. But that dog could track any bird that hit the ground.
A5 Sweet 16
Well-known member
1 more thought. A pheasant obviously doesn't need to be piss pounded in order to be recovered by a dog. When I got my first springer in 2002, I wasn't as good a shot as I am now. Walt got to chase LOTS of runners. Consequently, he was probably my best dog in terms of recovering wounded birds that are really on the move. He rarely, rarely lost one. I'm a considerably better shot now, so those really lively cripples don't happen as often. Consequently Ace hasn't learned as quickly to figure them out. It's all about experience.