Shot Down feather plume quail hunting

[CA]

Hi everyone,

Haven't seen this before as we don't get as much action in my part of California:

Went valley quail hunting yesterday and had an encounter where I shot at a quail going uphill and a plume of about 30-40 down feathers floated in the air. However, the quail continued flapping its wings as normal and flew up the hill and out of sight.

Does the plume of feathers mean I just nicked it, and bird isn't going to drop? I looked for a good 30 minutes for the bird and no luck finding it.

 

[Patocazador]

Doves are famous for producing a large puff of feathers with a poor shot and then flying off as if untouched. Quail, not so much. According to the biologists almost all of these "superficially-wounded" birds eventually die .. just not where you can recover them.

 

[CA]

Thank you for the reply, seemed like an odd situation. I guess next time I need to be more on target

 

[oneounceload]

Or have a good bird dog with you......

 

[jmorris]

With the title I thought you had made a bean bag.

 

[CA]

"Good bird dog"

Had a 10 year old Brittany with me, but he couldn't find it either. At his age, he seems more interested in running around exploring than flushing/retrieving birds.

Ha @ bean bag comment

 

[H&Hhunter]

If you feathered him you hit him. Hit birds don't always go down. I've seen it multiple times.

 

[CA]

What is a good search area for a feathered bird that doesn't go down? Success rate?

 

[jmorris]

A bean bag happens when one uses a 12ga and "gets on them" quick, you generally don't have to look for them long but they can look like a dog chewed on them for awhile when you pick them up a few feet away.

Search area, well that depends on how far they fly. Many times, if you keep an eye on them, just walk to where they landed. One reason I am not too greedy hunting birds and let situations where doubles, or even triples, can happen, go when hunting. In some cases even a "DRT" bird can be hard to find if you don't keep your eyes on them. Think, "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush".

Shooting over a plowed field makes it a bit easier but I encounter that more with dove than quail, unless your hunting a fence row between two plowed fields.

 

[Patocazador]

What is a good search area for a feathered bird that doesn't go down? Success rate?

I shot a duck that was too high (poor judgment on my part). He kept flying, apparently not hit, but I kept my eyes on him. About 60 yards down-range his wings locked up and he began what was close to a 200 yard glide path until he hit the water. My dog didn't see him fall so we slogged about 150 yards until I could give a line to my dog. She eventually found it. It had one #4 steel pellet in its heart when I cleaned it.

So the search area can be quite large.

 

[oneounceload]

If he was just winged, he could have easily hit the ground running like a pheasant. Without a good dog, those are hard to locate.

 

[birdshot8's]

Unsure of which shot you were using... I tried using some number nine shot in a 28 gauge once and was getting more feathers than birds. I switched to 7.5s and the birds started falling with the feathers. Since that hunt I have been leaving the 9s for the skeet field.

 

[CA]

20 gauge, #8. Worked for another bird just fine...but not the winged one.