# Mistakes



## Dick Monson (Aug 12, 2002)

We hear about the successes but seldom about the mistakes guys make pheasant hunting. Mine are legion. Yesterday was pretty warm and I was hunting thick cattails. It was hard work for pup and I knew he was warmer than he should be. The cover was very dry and full of cattail fuzz. When he hit birds I shot a double, good hits, but there were so many rising, I took my eyes off the spots were they went down, because a third rooster blasted out right beside my foot. Winged him, pup was on him in a bare field and yet the rooster made it to grass and evaporated. Sickening.
I lost them all, more birds than I lost in the last two years combined.

I should not have shot the double, just marked the first one down and helped pup recover it. Never should have moved my eyes. # 3 should have been a bye also. They would be there some other time. Should have slowed the hunt down and gotten control of it instead of letting it run me. That won't happen again.


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## muskat (Mar 5, 2002)

This is one thing that I used to be guilty of in past years. Letting the birds get the better of me and not hunting at my own pace.

With a lot of patience and will power, I have changed my ways over the years, and have found that lost birds are almost non-existent. It is a sickening feeling losing a downed bird.


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## Rick Davis (Oct 7, 2002)

Tell me about it!! On Saturday I had an albino rooster jump on me, I winged him and watched him sail. I went to the spot and looked for an hour and no luck.Went back to the truck and felt sick. After a while when the boys all got back we went back to look 4 guys three dogs. When I got back to the spot, I jumped him and tried to chase him, I didn't want to blow up my mount. My gsp got on a trail and got on point, I thought I found him,but dog was pointing a hen. The bird must have vanished. I went back on sun and looked again. I still feel sick


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## Drixmein (Jan 25, 2003)

The dry conditions have sure made it EXTREMELY difficult for my pooch. He usually NEVER loses a bird, and I watched him walk right over a rooster I could see that was down and he didn't even notice it. Spoke to others and found they are having the problem too, so its not just my dogs nose going haywire  . This makes marking where your birds go down even more important.


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## Austin Bachmeier (Feb 27, 2002)

Also noticing that it's tough for the dogs to find the downed birds. Lost probaly 3 roosters already this year, and I decided not another. Friday I knocked down a nice rooster and spent 45 minutes looking for it, we walked over him a good 4 or 5 times I'll bet, he burrowed down in thick grass, but the coolest thing was finally my buddies young black lab pointed him, and there he was. One of the coolest little dogs, been pointing more and more often since the opener. My goal for the rest of the year is to make sure to find the first bird before worrying about any more.


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## KEN W (Feb 22, 2002)

We had the same problems this past weekend.Hot and dry.Took a lot of water to keep the dogs going.We dropped some birds that the dogs had a tough time finding.But by giving them water at that time,it seemed to make it easier and My GWP found a couple we would have ordinarily lost.He actually caught 2 hens that sat so tight they wouldn't get up.


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## Bobm (Aug 26, 2003)

We lost 8 birds Saturday looked hard for everyone of them with two good dogs down every time, it must have been scenting conditions we didn't lose another bird the next 4 days had a great hunt but still feel bad about losing cripples. Thats more cripples than I've lost in the last 5 years. The dogs would work the area the birds fell in with no indication of finding any scent whatsoever. There sure are a lot of pheasants this year. We limited out in 4 days and got 4 sharptails. Missed some huns and had a great time.


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## Field Hunter (Mar 4, 2002)

Just out of couriosity....how many guys count the cripples in their limit for the day....I know I've been guilty in the past of shooting the amount of cripples but shouldn't they count.

We lost 2 birds this weekend that the dogs couldn't find.....did end up with 22 for two days...two short of limit for 4 guys. There were two in the ditch on the way home that we just passed up and could have shot...but we were just two worn out from the HOT weather.


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## DJRooster (Nov 4, 2002)

Just like an athlete in the "heat" of competition on warm days if you don't water your dog early and often during a walk your dog will quickly become fatigued and tired!. If you wait to water your dog until after a walk I think your are making a mistake. Walk a few 100 yds and take a break, another 100 yds and take a break. While you were walking that 100 yds your dog probably ran 400 yds or more. If you don't carry a squirt water bottle for your dog and give him a squirt on those short breaks you are making a big mistake. It is just like bottle feeding a calf, they can't get enough. It is very dry and dusty and just think how much of that dust is going right in the old smeller and that smeller is your bread and butter. When you squirt his mouth you usually will squirt the smeller and give it a cleaning, too. Sounds a little weird but common sense goes a long ways. I like to treat him like the champion athlete he is!


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## Bobm (Aug 26, 2003)

I'll be honest I don't count them unless they're in the bag. I do spend a lot of time and energy looking for them though and I've found (actually my dogs have found) lots of cripples over the years which I do utilize and count as my limit so I like to think it balances out. I find many more cripples others lose than I leave. I don't know why my dogs couldn't find them on saturday it was wierd. They found two of the birds we lost Saturday on Sunday which I picked up and cleaned. Finding lost pheasants without dogs is nearly impossible. I don't know how the guys I see without dogs do it. I tell them when I talk to them in the field that any breed of dog will find them with a little encouragement so its a good idea to take your dog even if its a german shepard.


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## gandergrinder (Mar 10, 2002)

You can find birds without a dog you just have to take a straight line right to the fall and don't take your eyes off the spot. On sunday I was walking to post a tree row and the other two had the dog with them. A rooster got up in front of me so I shot him and he landed in some really heavy cattails. I was kind of disgusted with myself for shooting it over the cattails but I kept my line and as I walked about 20 birds got up with about 5 roosters in easy range but I didn't shoot because I was afraid I would lose my line. I ended up finding the bird by some miracle.

I walked to the spot to post and a rooster came out the end and I missed him the first shot and thought about a second but then I realized he was over the cattails so I didn't shoot again.

It is extremely hard to discipline yourself not to shoot in those situations but I was happy afterword that I didn't shoot one and lose it. It took me losing a few roosters before I finally realized it was stupid to shoot them in those situations where the odds of retrieval are very low.


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## Dick Monson (Aug 12, 2002)

Very good posts --all. Scent is a difficult sense for people to understand. I was watering my pup the day I lost the three, he had just swam a waterhole before I shot. And in the last six seasons he has retreived a pile of birds. He is very good on cripples. 
Gg is right not to take your eye off the fall. I always try to mark on a distant object, but if you take your eye off it, that's it. I did count those three for the limit.

Bob, nice to see you back here. Fill us in on your trip.


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## Dan Bueide (Jul 1, 2002)

Let me add another mistake that I had to learn the hard way and seems to be more problematic for roosters, but ducks too sometimes over water. I never assume a fairly hit bird will be a retievable bird anymore. Even if clipped decently and headed towards reasonable cover, I never assume it will be a findable bird until it's folded. Unless it's clearly wheeled or folded, I'll follow with shots where hunter/dog safety permits and until its dipped into cover (or I run out of bullets  ).

Falling birds are hard shots, but so is finding a clipped rooster in an area where 50 others have run through in the last 3 minutes or a greenie that goes to periscope depth (you know what I mean if you've seen it) in bigger or choppy water, even with the best of dogs. With a duck, if it's coming down pretty hard but with neck extended or the head violating the laws of gravity, I try to finish before it hits the water. And if I miss a nicked duck on the way down, I become a proud and diligent water-swatter, right away while they're still in reasonable range and b/4 the retrieving dog prevents further shots.

Our dogs all amaze us at times, but the deader-the-better for them too.


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## Bigdog (Aug 13, 2003)

Not really on this topic but when you do have to swat a cipple on the water I found smaller steel works better than larger. I carry a couple #6's just for swatting cripples.


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## Dick Monson (Aug 12, 2002)

Well. I pulled another boner today. Came out of a slough, put my gun on top of the topper, watered the dog and kenneled him when a farmer drove up. We visited for a bit and then both drove off. You guessed it. The gun rode 8 miles before it fell off. It's been a tough week.


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## gandergrinder (Mar 10, 2002)

I have seen that happen more than once. Luckily it was never my gun. Hang in there. Bad things always happen to me in threes it seems. I'm sure your streak is over.


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## Field Hunter (Mar 4, 2002)

How about the time a friend and I were pheasant huntng around Ashley. We had pulled over beside the highway to have lunch and figure out where to go next. My friend leaned his new Browning up against a fence post within easy site of the highway. We traveled 10 miles or so one way and stopped to hunt.....amazingly enough, the gun was still standing there when we returned. That was 20 years ago and I still remember it every time I go by that spot.....in fact just told my son the story 2 weeks ago as we passed by the fence post. Amazing what you will remember forever, while out hunting.


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## MSG Rude (Oct 6, 2003)

I too am guilty of not finding the crip's and moving on to fill my limit. i have gotten better at keeping my eye on them and moving to them before engauging another one. It really takes some discipline but after a while you get in the grove and you fell a hell of a lot better for not leaving cri[p's behind. But remember, if you loose a crip it will serve a purpose one way or another. :sniper:


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## Bobm (Aug 26, 2003)

Dick, my feelings on cripples is that they are an inevitable part of pheasant hunting. Pheasants are tough to kill cleanly. I've done my best to train my dogs to find cripples and sometimes the scenting conditions, numbers of other birds in the area ect. make it very hard to find them. Anyone who hunts anything is ocasionally going to lose an animal. Its a sad fact but almost 40 years of hunting makes me certain of it. I wouldn't worry about it, every time your dog picks up someone elses cripple you're making up for it. I am going to go to much stouter loads for pheasants, I've been hunting with 1 1/8-1 1/4 oz loads of lead 5s and I'm going to 1 3/8oz - 1 1/2 oz loads of lead 4s. I keep a journal of every bird I shoot and I've noticed that the birds I shoot with fours are usaually dead or so badly hurt they don't run as much. I think the relatively recent event of switchgrass covered CRP makes it tough for retrieves which is precisely why its such good cover from the pheasants point of view. Was your gun damaged when it fell off? I did the same thing 33 years ago on a 66 impala and got lucky the gun snagged on a ski rack and rode thirty five miles home. My hunt was great we saw at least 30 shootable roosters a day took 9 each day ( 3 guys) missed a buch of grouse because we kept thinking they were hen pheasants. ended up with 36 pheasants and 4 sharptails. I also stepped ( literally) on a real nice buck,I love North Dakota!


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