Best Way to Finish Off a Wounded Game Bird?

I bite em. Gun in one hand. Dog floundering into the boat. Take the bird from the dog and drive a canine into the base of the birds skull. Retrieve dog. Get ready to shoot again.
 
cant_rope_the_wind01 said:
wow there is some pretty morbid guys on here
stomping their heads and such LMAO
just ring its neck or get a good small pvc pipe cutter
its compact and
one quick squeeze off with their heads
no need to torcher the bird to death
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Morbid nothing....

I used to snap their necks (grouse)
But after doing this for a while and noticing that it sometimes took longer than I liked for it to be over.
My son and I decided a heel on the head was instantly over for the bird.
if the ground is to soft a .22 to the head works good as well.

I should note that takeing a while is not "The nerve responce"
When the thing it wounded and looking at you...it is very much not dead


I dont like my prey to suffer at all if I can help it.
 
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This may be a bit of a tangent, but I think it is important to acknowledge the fact that an animal can be dead for quite some time before it stops showing "signs of life". Animals can and often will continue to do the "funky chicken" long after brain death. Some hunters continue to "kill" the animal during this stage.

This varies widely with species. A buddy of mine that I hunt with didn't quite get this until a couple seasons ago, and he's been hunting far longer than I have. I shoot a lot of snowshoe hares. Lots and lots and lots. I shoot them in the head with a .22WMR from distances of 5 yards to about 80 or so. On average, about 25-30 yards. A 30 grain .22WMR projectile going 2250fps carries 3x the energy of a typical .22LR projectile. When the .22WMR projectile connects with the head or neck of a snowshoe hare, the damage is emphatic. It would be similar to shooting a mule deer in the head with a .700 Nitro Express. Typically, the head of the hare is so traumatized that it partially falls apart or off the animal. Nevertheless, these animals perform all sorts of unnatural acrobatics, anywhere from 10 to 30 seconds after death. So anyway, my buddy witnessed me shoot a hare one evening, about 65-70 yards away. I shot it in the head and it started its last dance. To my surprise, my buddy started jogging down the road. I asked him what he was doing and he said "it's suffering man, I'm going to kill it". When he arrived at the hare, he stopped and looked confused. He had intended to shoot it in the head, but the head looked like the inside of a pumpkin. The hare was dead within a split second of me pulling the trigger, but to an observer (even a well-seasoned one) it was suffering. Granted, this guy never hunts hares.

Likewise, I can blow the head clean off a grouse with that .22WMR and the bird still take it's time to stop moving. In these situations, I do not continue to "kill" a dead animal.
 
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Agree. Most grouse I shoot end up with no head, (or not much of one,) and they still do that 50 yard flight to safety with their bellies never leaving the ground before silence ensues.
 
Never actually had a wounded grouse, always did instantly, then again I hunt with a 375 h and h, not much left, bit at least it's humane.
 
Thanks for all the feedback, didn't expect to get so many responses and within all those responses there are a lot of different opinions on the best methods for different game. I like the point on the nervous system doing it's own thing for a short while after death and had forgotten about this. The specific example that made me post this was a partridge I shot out of the air with a 20 gauge using #4 birdshot, so to the person suggesting to take a better shot, it's hard to be very specific on where your shot lands when you take a game bird out of the air. Still unsure of what method I would like to adopt, perhaps I'll try several to see what seems the most effective. Feel free to keep posting your preferred method and maybe include why you feel method X is better than method Y.
Sorry for my response being so late, I was on a two week trip and did not get to check the post until now.

Cheers
 
I can illustrate my experience with hares by posting photographs, if anyone wishes. Be warned; the amount of blood in a snowshoe hare might be surprising.
 
One of the birds I took the other day was someone else's cripple. It heard/saw me walking along the trail and was trying to scramble up a small embankment. My first instinct was to just shoot it, but then I figured I could grab it and wring it's neck. After playing ring around the rosy around a small spruce tree for a couple of prickly minutes, I decided to go back to plan A. I stepped back a few feet and aimed at the head and gave the bounder both barrels; one after another and after each shot was amazed to see it remain unscathed(!). The only visible effect was to give the bird pause long enough for me to hurry forward, plow through the branches and grab it. At that point, I initiated plan B...and wrang it's neck with a couple of forceful twists.
 
Someone please post the video of that Sandhill Crane hunt where the guy smacks a cripple with the butt of his shotgun.

I never hunt with a dog so crippled fowl usually get another shot on the water/ground.

I used to hunt with a guy who would drown cripples.

Ironsighter I had a similar reaction the first time I saw someone shoot a deer behind the ear: "why don't you shoot it again?"
 
AtticusXJ said:
For waterfowel I stand or sit on them. Empties their lungs, and no way to take another breath.
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I am just sitting here having my morning coffee reading and had a good chuckle on this one !!
No offence, standing on a bird to get the last breath out , that would be ok , but when I read sitting , I thought of a guy trying to sit on a goose , ummmm they bite hard if not dead and I don't think if I was a guy , that I would want a half dead goose in that area!! :)
 
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