scolopax Posted February 21, 2013 Report Share Posted February 21, 2013 (edited) After my great morning on the 19th I told my mates that was it for me, finish the season on a high, if I go again I'll probably finish the season by losing a goose. Well I did and I did, with a twist. I decided to have one quick evening flight at my closest marsh to see the season out. Looking out to the main estuary I caught sight of movement to my left and glanced upwards to see a low goose coming back on from inland. I only had duck loads in but it was no more than 30 yards away and my first shot dropped it. The goose landed in a thick reedbed 40 yards away and as it went down I saw a broken wing and a head held high, I thought to myself there could be problems with this one as they can run like pheasants and my dog hates reedbeds. I send the dog and decided to follow him in case he has not marked the fall. I had to cross a a wide muddy creek which was thankfully nearly empty of water and by the time I did it was obvious my dog was on the trail. By the sound of him getting further away in the reeds he was dealing with a runner and all I could do was stand and wait. A couple of minutes pass and I hear him getting nearer with the odd snuffling sound indictaing he had his prize and he emerges with the goose looking very happy with himself (the dog not the goose, the bird was not looking particularly happy at this point). I took the greylag from him and it was a heavy old bird with a thick bank of white around it's beak. I had my wading stick and realisng the bird was going to take a good whack to dispatch it I quickly weighed up the distance to the creek, 20 yards, plenty room enough for the dog to catch it again if it did a runner. So placing goose back on ground, briefly let go, raise stick up for a good swing, goose jumps up and ....................flies off!!!! Last time I saw it was clearing the railway line 500 yards away!! I hope the old bird lives a long and productive life, the tough old devil deserves to ! Edited February 21, 2013 by scolopax Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misser Posted February 21, 2013 Report Share Posted February 21, 2013 excellent write up - do you think its wing feathers were 'rearranged 'a bit and the shock stunned it for a short time? - atb - regards Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anser2 Posted February 21, 2013 Report Share Posted February 21, 2013 (edited) I had a similar thing happen with a wigeon a few months back. A mate and I were flighting a small flash on a fresh marsh under the moon. A small pack of wigeon came over my mate who missed and I caught a glimpse of them as they passed under the moon. A quick shot and I half thought it was down ( there was no cloud and the visibility very bad.) Sure enough my dog came back with an apparent dead wigeon which I took off her. As I was standing in a foot of water I waded back 10 yards to my stool and placed the wigeon on the seat belly up along with the spent cartridge. 15 minuets later we decided after a couple more packs of wigeon came into the flash unseen it was time to pack up. But when I got back to my stool there was no sign of my duck. We set the dogs on a search and though they followed a scent trail to a nearby ditch we could not find the bird anywhere , though the empty cartridge case was still there. I can only conclude the bird had been knocked out and was unconscious when the dog retrieved it and I handled it. It had come round unnoticed by me or the dog sitting 10 yards away and walked off to the dyke to swim away. I am sure we would have heard it if it had flown as the night was dead calm. There have been a couple of other birds that have disappeared after being shot in the past. Two were stolen by a fox . I had shot a couple of greylags almost as soon as I set foot on the marsh. I had intended to walk a couple of miles to do the morning flight so rather than lug almost 20 pounds of goose with me I hid the birds under a sueda bush , well out of sight of any crows. When I got back the geese were gone. I sent the dog out to search for them and finally she found one 200 yards away , its flight feathers were bitten off so I can be pretty sure it was a fox. Then there was a winged teal on the Wash which having been in my game bag for a couple of hours flew out and escaped. I had not killed it as it was only lightly winged and a mate wanted a cock teal for his tame hen bird in a collection. And a pink foot that I shot out on the muds , again on the Wash. It lay 3 feet away seeming dead but I did not pick it at once as there were more geese coming. They passed wide and the next thing I heard was a sloshing sound as the pink foot tip toed away. But that one was not lost. Edited February 21, 2013 by anser2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kent Posted February 21, 2013 Report Share Posted February 21, 2013 Your not the first and wont be the last to have this sort of thing happen. I once had a widgeon or teal cannot remember now hit the water among the deeks, it wasn't going anywhere head under water looking like it was dabbling so I left it a good while. A good while later it lifted its head, shook itself and flew off and I watched it pass over the distant horizon. Not half as funny as seeing a stag run off with someone's prized custom knife stuck in it at the start of gralloching though when he tried to bleed a apparently stone dead beast ( I always remember to do a blink test after seeing this, even if the results of the shot look obvious) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Essex Keeper Posted February 21, 2013 Report Share Posted February 21, 2013 Last year we had couple teal put them in the boat and cracked on in the hide! About half hour later there was a mink doing one with my duck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
contrysports Posted February 21, 2013 Report Share Posted February 21, 2013 i had one with a canada it was laid there for a good hour then it just jumps off and starts to swim out onto the estuary but i gave him another shot and was quickly retrieved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fenboy Posted February 21, 2013 Report Share Posted February 21, 2013 Was rough shooting with a mate who shot a nice cock pheasant , put it in the game bag looking as dead as a dead thing , couple of hours or more later back at the farm open the bag to empty the spoils and said pheasant fly's straight out and away Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scolopax Posted February 21, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2013 (edited) excellent write up - do you think its wing feathers were 'rearranged 'a bit and the shock stunned it for a short time? - atb - regards yes, I only had a glimpse of it as it fell and was obviously mistaken about the broken wing, it turned out both were in 100% working order. I am guessing a pellet to the head stunned it. I once had a Grey Partridge that my dog retrieved after it had been shot. They are relatively rare here (it should not have been shot) so I inspected it and could see it was only wing tipped. My idea was to keep it, find a hen and hopefully get some eggs for incubation. Well on putting it into an aviary I noticed it also had a pellet mark either side of its head just below the eyes, the shot had gone in and out. I left it the night to see how it got on, and I am sad to say it did die, but three years later!! LOL. I was thinking, could I add this goose to my seasons bag return, after all it was in hand ? Edited February 21, 2013 by scolopax Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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