Whats the odds?

J

John Van Houten

Active member
I was hunting Lake Okeechobee, Fl. the last week of theseason when a Mottle duck came in at about 40yards. After 2 shots the duck starts climbing and is out of range. I was using 3" number 3s. As always I watch the duck as he is climbing and flying away. At 300 yards the duck falls dead, straight down. I get a good mark on him, about 15 feet inside the weeds. Upon retrieving the Mottle I find him impaled
on a tree branch. I removed the stick after getting home, it went straight to the backbone. Of course I had to do an autopsy and found only one BB that was in the ducks heart.


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John, the odds were against you, but you did one remarkable thing. You didn't give up on that bird. Not only did you do a great job on marking it when it fell, but then you had to go into the deep stuff to find it. Well done. I enjoyed the read. I have seen way too many "so called hunters" never even go search for a downed duck like that.
Al
 
Glad you got him.I shot a pheasant once that the dog flushed at the edge of some woods.Dog went into to retrieve and didn't come right back.I walked into the woods and the bird had fallen into the crotch of a tree about 6 feet off the ground.
 
Neat story John. I hope the rest of your season went well. It was nice talking with you out in nodak. Keep in touch, maybe we will meet up someday.. mark
 
Glad you got him.I shot a pheasant once that the dog flushed at the edge of some woods.Dog went into to retrieve and didn't come right back.I walked into the woods and the bird had fallen into the crotch of a tree about 6 feet off the ground.
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I've had this happen twice on pheasants, never on waterfowl. My second labrador used to "yip" when she put a grouse up that just jumped up to a tree branch-apparently pretty common occurence to avoid coyotes. This was always my signal to go into "spot and stalk mode" to get into a better postion for the eventual flush.
 
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When a giant Canada falls dead on a beaver chewed sapling, straight through the breast, you loose lots of meat. More than once I have had to climb trees, or find long branches, to get at ducks and upland birds, and don't even get me started about Squirrels. The more you hunt, and the longer you live, the more you "See" that most folks never ever consider. To them it's odd, to us, it's all part of the experience.

When you never give up on finding what you have shot, what you do find sometimes is very surprising. Good Work!
 
Great follow thru. I always watch the birds going out. Sometimes you can tell that they are hurt. I have had three memories of watching them leave which has paid off. 1) I was hunting pheasants with my father years ago and the pheasants all flushed out of range and flew to another farmer's property. Except one rooster. He went left and actually started gaining altitude higher than most pheasants fly and broke his neck on a power line.
2) We shot at a single Canada goose and everyone said we missed even though I was pretty sure I hit it. I watched it fly for about a 1/4 mile or more and land on the water. I watched it for about an hour thru binoculars and I took the boat to it's area after the hunt and found him floating dead along the weeds.
3) My youngest son shot at his first goose last year when a pair came in. Everyone in the blind tried to cheer him up after the shots as we watched the two geese fly away. I told them that I think my son might have hit it. They were sure that I was just "supporting my son" but when the geese flew off, one flew lower and I watched it go around a bend and out of site. After about an hour, I took my dog and walked the bank to the area where I thought the bird went down. It was laying dead to yards from the shore line.


Never give up on a bird.
dc
 
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