undead pigeons?

[aaronpigeonplucker 32]

hi all,

the weirdest thing ever happened to me today. there was a pigeon on the ground about 30yrds away from me. i shot it in the neck and it went down straight away wings spread out, in other words a perfect kill. walked up to it and made the stupid mistake of grabbing the tail feathers which i still do every now and again, but usually there dead so it dosent matter if there missing a few tail feathers. of course half of them came out and the pigeon sprang back to life and flew off. what the hell happened? i feel pretty guilty now of wounding an animal. i went back to the point i was sitting at before and took exactly the same shot on a leaf and my zero was spot on.

any ideas?

 

A deeply disturbed Aaron....

[Phantom 631]

Easy Aaron,

 

You simply MISSED the spot

 

Easily done when shooting a bird from behind a couple of mill either side of the spinal column and the bird will go down, but highly likely to get back up again.

All it takes is for the woodie to move its head/neck and you know how they just hate to stay still for more than a second or so.

 

Don't beat yourself up about it Aaron, its a wounding that at that precise moment you could not have done any thing about

As Homer Simpson says "DOH - Stupid Bird!"

 

Phantom

[aaronpigeonplucker 32]

it just looked so dead face down in the grass wings spread, completely motionless.

[Phantom 631]

They do Aaron,

 

Stunned but as soon as the adrenaline kicks in they wake up ruddy fast

 

I remember a few bunnies that have gone down, leg waving g'nite then all of a sudden, up and off

 

If you are going to do a spinal shot, its gotta be precise to sever the nerves that drive the beathing and motor functions.

Not easy on a bunny, it helps using a .22 in that scenario a .177 as you know is smaller, therefore the margin of error increases if it moves or wind takes it half a mm off.

 

If I were to shoot a bird from behind, I'd aim between its wings or the back of the head.

 

Phantom

Edited July 2, 2010 by Phantom

[chimp 299]

you get them like that decoying , just watch them go to a tree and you will find it at the end of the day dead

 

 

 

or in someones garden

Edited July 2, 2010 by chimp

[garfield 23]

dont worry i watched one fly off the guy thought he'd missed it but it fell out of the sky after 20m upon inspection it had a head shot :headshot::

[stealthy1 3,964]

I had one like that a month ago, shot in the head, I saw the feathers where the pellet hit, but off it went, ten seconds later it crashed through the branches behind me, I think it was just to stupid to know it was dead

[aaronpigeonplucker 32]

i watched this one fly over the horizon.

[nasher1 258]

As I was walking back to the van a couple of weeks ago I noticed a three quater grown rabbit sat right in front of it with its back to me, I shot it straight through the back of the head and the pellet came out of one of its eyes, it toppled over without a twitch so I left it there while I put the gun and gamebag into the back of the van, when I went to get the rabbit it was sat upright facing me at first I thought it was another one then it ran around in circles a couple of times and just dropped again it sort of freaked me out as upon inspection it was deffo dead on the shot. atb nasher

[badgerboy 3]

dont feel to guilty mate it happens to the best of us from time to time

things like this happen often it just reminds us to keep on the ball all of the time

atb

[rabbit.slayer.no.1 3]

i got a pheasant in the side of the head from 30yds i seen the pellet go out the other side , by the time i got over the fence and over to it , it was up and away across the feild it droped about 90yds up the feild but ive always said there bodys dont now when there brains are dead. so next time just have a walk see if you can spot it up the feild mate

[Ron Weasley 83]

It does happen from time to time. Last week, I shot a jackdaw. I cursed myself as it flew off, obviously hit my .22 Accupell, but I didn't take my eye off it, and it dropped into a neighbouring sugar beet field about 70 yards away. I walked out and found it stone dead, I'd hit it square in the think-box!

 

Several years ago, I shot a rook off some power lines. It was facing away from me, and I shot it in the back, between the wings. It froze for a second, and then swung down, hung upside down on the power line for about 5 or 6 seconds, and then started falling to the ground. About 4 feet from the ground, it just seemed to wake up and fly off. That one has puzzled me for years. Around the same time I dropped a rat with a shot behind the ear. It was still kicking when I got to it, so I put another one in it's head a point blank, and just to make sure (in my 14year old exuberance) a third. After the third, it got up and tried to make a run for it underneath the shed. I managed to kick it away, and it finally only stopped kicking when I shot it in the heart at point blank.

 

I know that I could shoot the same rat in the same spot 100 times again, and it wouldn't flinch.

 

Sometimes it happens. Don't beat yourself up Aaron. I'm quite confident that that particular woody will have dropped stone dead soon after.

[rossy08 33]

these thing are hear to test us mate.

 

mate of myn james shot on in the back at about 15 yards, hoped around from branch to branch for a min or to then dropped in to my waiting hands for a quick neck pull just to make shure.

 

was lucky in this case that it dident decide to fly off,and make me chase it half way across the farm..

 

it happens tho pal have seen many an animal do many amasing things that you would never exspect.

 

Andy.

[matt_hooks 188]

Rabbit slayer, the pheasant is no surprise, they're bigger and all together a tougher prospect, hence why they're not on the legal quarry list for air rifle in the uk!

[Ron Weasley 83]

Rabbit slayer, the pheasant is no surprise, they're bigger and all together a tougher prospect, hence why they're not on the legal quarry list for air rifle in the uk!

 

That's not strictly true matt. You can shoot pheasants with an air rifle in the UK as long as they are in season, and you have permission from the land owner to shoot them.

 

It's not generally the done thing, but it's not illegal.