It is often said it is better to be lucky than good, but my dog Gus is not lucky, he is good and for that I'm grateful (and, perhaps, lucky).

Yesterday, he and I covered a bit more than 10 miles of heavy cover and came home with only one bird. Interestingly, it had not a single pellet in the body, head, neck or legs. But we got it. I thought the pictures might be interesting you guys.

We were in heavy Indian and Reed Canary grass when 2-3 birds flushed a bit out in front. One was a rooster for sure, but a bit of a distance. I thought I might pull it off but before I broke the trigger, another bird went up much closer and I switched from the long shot to a much shorter shot. That bird was flying left to right and I sent him cartwheeling into the weeds with the first shot. I pulled my empty and was surprised to see that I had used the left barrel for some reason. Maybe because I was anticipating the first bird, but I don't recall doing that. Anyway, Gus was fast on the spot but the bird was not there. And for a while, he couldn't find him, although Gus remained convinced he was near by. A couple more minutes and suddenly the bird porpoises above the reed canary and Gus is porpoising a few inches behind him. Some more thrashing, jumping, porpoising and suddenly we have him. AWESOME dog work, yet again. I was surprised that it was such a battle since I'd obviously hit him hard and close - 20 yds? I was worried about hamburger.

But last night, I was cleaning the bird in my shop and discovered a very strange thing - at least to me. Look at the photos, linked below (they are large - I can't reduce them on this computer). Apparently, I shot below the bird and the shot charge stayed VERY dense and blew away the primaries on BOTH wings without a single pellet touching the bird elsewhere. No wonder he ran so well. Anyway, I just find it interesting that this is event possible. The second photo attempts to show both wings as they must have been positioned when the shot arrived, just below the breast.
Belly view
Profile view

FWIW, the load was a 12 gauge Kent Bismuth #6. I am not doing well with this ammo. Not well at all. Probably just me. The choke was a Briley Full choke (I think) in my Merkel Model 8.

Anyway, Gus earned his keep - as he does everyday, but especially yesterday.

Possibly your Merkel is throwing that Kent Bismuth payload lower than normal. Sounds to me like that shotgun doesn't like those shells.

Next step pattern board.

That's a hard way to wing clip a bird. I amputated the right wing off a teal one year. Bird land within five yards of the blind. Swam around like it was just confused. Tried to take off with only one wing. Other wing was floating a few feet away. Kind of a weird sight.

It's a tribute to how good your dog is to have recovered that bird. Sometimes the dog knows more than we do when he wants to go where his nose tells him and we want to send him where our eyes tell us that bird must still be. Hard to listen to a dog for some of us.

The first wild bird I shot over my Springer pup Tucker this year was a Sharptail that flushed way out and I made a poor shot. I knew I hit it though as it almost touched the ground before gain some altitude and finally setting in a plumb bush about 400 yards away. Pup never saw the flush or it land but I marked it well. Brought the young guy to the plumb and released him down wind from where I though the bird was. All hell broke loose and out came one very proud puppy. Upon cleaning the bird I only found a single pellet in a wing and the bone was not broken. Tucker is going to work out just fine and that bird was all him.

One of my most memorable shots at a ringneck pheasant happened when I was a senior in high school. I was hunting with a bunch of my friends, and we were walking across a field of corn stubble on a very windy late season day. We were spread out about 20 yards apart, and I was at the extreme east end of the line of 7 hunters. The guy at the other end had a ringneck flush far ahead of him, and the bird caught the stiff tailwind and very quickly sailed across the line.

I was carrying my very tightly choked single shot Stevens model 220 20 gauge, and everyone else had repeaters including pumps, semi's, and one old L.C. Smith double. One by one, everyone emptied their guns without touching a feather, firing a total of 17 shots. By the time the bird got over to my end of the field, he was far out and riding the jet stream at high speed. I hesitated, but my teenage mind decided to fling a Hail Mary shot. I swung far ahead of him and pulled the trigger. Everyone was surprised when the pheasant tumbled to the ground. I counted paces over to where he dropped, and it was over 70 yards. The bird was still very much alive when I got to him, and I had to wring his neck to finish him. When I cleaned him, I found only two pellets had hit him. One broke a wing, and the other broke the opposite leg, so he couldn't fly or run. I'd consider a shot at that range to be pretty unethical today, but I think about it whenever someone says a 20 gauge is too small to hunt pheasants. I've never had a gun that threw tighter patterns than that 20 ga. Model 220.

Given the battle, those wings also look a lot like a dog bite. Certainly mirrored but....


I have a 28ga 220. Throws a very nice and Tight pattern!

Shot a running 8 point buck at 150 yards with my .348 Win. one year. The deer did a complete flip. We never found the bullet hole anywhere.

What made it even more strange, the deer jumped out of a fence line and after the chinese fire drill of my friend, his boy and I getting out of the truck I could only jack in one shell as the little buck was sailing across the stubble. I raised the rifle to fire and there was a fuzzball from the gun case on the front sight. There was no time for removing it, so I just shot. Only a shotgunner could pull that off.

Although pheasants are more vulnerable on crossing vs going away shots, we do tend to forget about the wing offering some protection to the bird's vitals. In this case, obviously a lot of protection.

One of my very favorite photos of my late shorthair Dasher caught her going airborne to grab an escaping rooster that was only wingbusted. That bird was the second of a double I shot. The first one came down dead, and of course that's the one Dash went to retrieve--giving the crip with two good legs a significant head start. We were hunting an abandoned railroad. Dash tracked that bird for maybe 200 yards to where the cover ran out at a gravel road crossing. She pointed, dove in, and the pheasant did his best attempt at flying with a busted wing. Like an infielder going after a low line drive, Dash made a great leap and catch on that bird.

keith, are you sure it was a Stevens and not a Savage 220? Savage and Stevens were interwined in ownership, but not sure if Stevens had a 220. I've got Savages in .410, 20 and 16 and all are 220 but with a different letter behind the 220 which I can never keep straight. Gil

Larry,
I thought about the possibility of Gus biting through the feathers, but I don't think that would happen. Certainly not with front incisors and canines. And besides, there were feathers in the air when I shot it.

There are always those great moments when your dog does something that is totally above and beyond the call. That's why we hunt with them. I'll forget a thousand great (or lucky) shots I have made on birds. Well maybe not a thousand, but a few dozen for sure. However, I'll always remember all of those incredible retrieves.

Yes Gil, you are correct. It was the old hammerless Savage 220, and I still have it. I'll have to get it out to see if there is a letter after the 220. It does get confusing because Savage also makes a bolt action model 220. It was my first shotgun, which I bought with my paper route earnings. It is choked so tight that solid hits inside of 25 yards shredded game. It would consistently put at least two or three pellets into a pop can at a full 100 yards, so to only put two pellets into that pheasant probably meant that I caught him with the outer fringe of the pattern.

I saw a really nice one in 16 ga. at a gun show last year, and set it down after examining it while I thought about buying it. The guy next to me immediately picked it up and bought it. I don't see them very often, and most are well used.

OK, I got my old single shot 20 ga. out this evening, and it is a Savage model 220A. I haven't used it in years, and was surprised at the amount of fiddleback grain in the buttstock, considering it is just a plain Jane single shot. The barrel blue and action case colors are still pretty good, but the finish on the stock is worn in the grip area. I think the wood deserves a little makeover. And I left it out so I can run a few shells through it for old time's sake. It killed a lot of pheasants, rabbits, and squirrels before I bought my first repeater. It helped me learn to make the first shot count. I also have a Savage single shot model 94C that I leave out in the garage. The little 220A is a much nicer gun, and I wonder why Savage stopped making them.

Probably a once in a lifetime event. Many years ago in
England a friend shot at a crossing cock pheasant at about
twenty yards. The shot was heard to hit but the bird flew
on for about fifty yards or so where it was found dead.
On dressing it had no less than fifteen pellet strikes
but all but two had little or no penetration. Two in the
neck had killed the bird and there was bleeding.
Shell was short of powder or it did not all burn.
That one was down to cartridge failure.
Very rare but can happen.