Vanishing Cripples

[SnowDog]

Was out yesterday evening and winged a drake mallard hard. It went down about 100 yards away with a big slash and I could see exactly where it hit. My dog marked it on the shot and was half way to the bird before it hit. Another 5 seconds and he was at the exact spot it went down, but no bird. I let him search for about 5 minutes with no luck and figured I'd give it a rest and came back 30 minutes later. Still no bird. The place it hit was close to a brushline, but not that extensive and the dog covered every inch of it.

Other than "duck magic" any ideas where it may have gone or what I can do to improve my recovery efforts?

Cheers!
SD

[lokidog]

I've heard they dive down and grab stuff.  You'd be surprised how long they can stay and how quick they can move underwater.  I dropped a woodie into a small pond years ago, it dove before I could follow up.  I sat there watching for at least a half hour and saw nothing.  This pond had very little growth to the bank.  I ended up swatting that thing in the snow in February while I was there rabbit hunting.  The pond was frozen over and just a trickle of a stream was still open.

[singleshot12]

It seems to be just bred in some ducks to dive down and hold onto some grass and drown still holding on. Other ducks will immediately dive under and swim off into the cattails eluding the dog for good. Nothing you can really do but hope your dog see's the bubbles of the duck under water.

[Goldeneye]

How deep was the water?  Had ducks go under latch onto to a bottom plants and stay there.  My guess is that's what could have happened...

I'll usually walk through the area kicking my feet on the bottom to break them loose.  Usually works if that's what happened.

[huntingfool7]

Milfoil.  Some areas have a lot of underwater vegetation.  Duck dives and gets hung up in it or holds onto it, never to surface.

[gaddy]

on the fence as far as holding on to vegitation goes. would an air breathing creature intentionally drown itself? i do know that a crip can swim under water for great distances & with great speed. easily distancing a dog only pop up 50 yds down river with nothing but a head bump above water.
when i was dogless i found my self chasing a crip or two with my boat only to have them dive. most times if i just stood in the boat with my binos id see em if the water was calm enough.

[Goldeneye]

on the fence as far as holding on to vegitation goes. would an air breathing creature intentionally drown itself? i do know that a crip can swim under water for great distances & with great speed. easily distancing a dog only pop up 50 yds down river with nothing but a head bump above water.
when i was dogless i found my self chasing a crip or two with my boat only to have them dive. most times if i just stood in the boat with my binos id see em if the water was calm enough.

Yes, they will drown themselves.  Basically lock onto vegetation and die more from the shot than drowning I imagine.  Either way they are still locked onto the vegetation.  Sometimes when I kicked them up they are alive other times dead.

[WSU]

I'm not sure if they will drown themselves, but I have seen it happen.  One particular duck I could see under water.  It was still very alive when I reached underwater and grabbed it.

[NW-GSP]

I had the same thing happen last week, hen and drake mallard come into my setup and I dropped both, went after the drake and hen was no where to be found even though she hit the water thirty yards from me.

[gaddy]

i understand them tangleing in the vegitation, seen it my self & i know they will hold onto things underwater & die from wounds, but if not tangled, dead ducks float.
just saying its been my experience that they can & will pop up way away from where you think they will with no more showing than that of a turtle head & if you are not watching for it you will miss them.
iv'e had them dive on my dogs, blow right past them(underwater) & come up well behind & out of sight & smell of the dog & if i hadn't been watching for it i would have lost them.
geese do the same thing. i call it turtilling. i also take a small pair of bino's with me & watch the parimiter.

[elkaholic33]

I had a duck dive.  I walked out into the area and kicked at the grasses under the water for 15 minutes.  Nothing.  I turn around to walk out of the area, take a couple steps, buddy says something so I turn around to look at him and there is the duck.  Body floating at the top of the water, but head still underwater still gripping the grass.  I think the duck thought it was still underwater.  Grabbed the duck which was definitely still alive.

[Fishnclifff]

i understand them tangleing in the vegitation, seen it my self & i know they will hold onto things underwater & die from wounds, but if not tangled, dead ducks float.
just saying its been my experience that they can & will pop up way away from where you think they will with no more showing than that of a turtle head & if you are not watching for it you will miss them.
I've had them dive on my dogs, blow right past them(underwater) & come up well behind & out of sight & smell of the dog & if i hadn't been watching for it i would have lost them.
geese do the same thing. i call it turtilling. i also take a small pair of bino's with me & watch the perimeter.

Bingo.
 I've seen this a lot But I have lost a few.
Sat. at Ridge, I dropped a Gadwall/ Dog was half way to it and we never found it.

[Stilly bay]

if the bird's head is still up when it hits the water...double tap!

most of my hunting is on the river so a wounded duck can get away from a dog really fast and there is no catching up. my chocolate lab learned early on he can avoid a lot of messing around by just diving after the wounded duck.

[h2ofowlr]

The bird will dive as soon as the dog gets to it usually and then grab onto the bottom or submarine and make it to another location.  If the dog was out their for 5 minutes it could have made it out another 100 yards as well.  They are good at escaping at times.

[lokidog]

Lost my first canvasback when it dove after hitting the water, I'm sure, as a diver, it swam a looong ways away.  My lab would not quit looking and I had to actually go after him in the ice lined water to get him to give up.

[h2ofowlr]

Lost my first canvasback when it dove after hitting the water, I'm sure, as a diver, it swam a looong ways away.  My lab would not quit looking and I had to actually go after him in the ice lined water to get him to give up.

This is when a shock collar or a well trained retriever comes into play as I have witnessed two different dogs over the years drown.  It's something you will never forget.

[Oldguy]

I don't know how they do it, but they can swim completely underwater with just the tip of their bill above the surface. The bill just leaves a small "V" wake like a submarine periscope. If there is any ripple on the water, you won't see it.

[Special T]

 
I have seen that lots of times... A good dog will always recover more birds... BUT the birds will do what ever they can to get away... Had my last chessy chase a diving  widgon for 1.5 hrs before...

[ghosthunter]

Yeah I hunt some shallow ponds and they dive and sub under the surface. They can run a dog ragged. I sometimes help the dog by forcing the duk to the bank . Once on the ground they are no match for the dog.

[Roperfive88]

Last weekend my buddy shot a mallard and put it in the brush. It came back to life and got back in to the pond we were hunting. I dove under the water and was gone. 30 minutes late the duck comes up and trys to fly off and my buddy shots it again andi dives under again. Two minutes later the duck comes up again 30 yards and around a corner from where it dove under and we get it. I was impressed with how far that wounded duck swam under the water. So maybe the duck swam a ways from where it hit.

[270Shooter]

I shot one pretty far the other day, broke a wing and he went down on the ice. I broke ice all the way to him, he walked over and got in the water around some short cattails. I chased him around in circles for 5 minutes because i didnt want to shoot him being so close. Finally he got tired and dove. I lost him for a minute or two but i saw his green head barely above the water. He dove again  but the water wasnt deep and i just reached down and grabbed him by the butt. Never been so happy to ring a ducks neck in my life. I was almost late to work because of him haha.

[Kola16]

I shot one pretty far the other day, broke a wing and he went down on the ice. I broke ice all the way to him, he walked over and got in the water around some short cattails. I chased him around in circles for 5 minutes because i didnt want to shoot him being so close. Finally he got tired and dove. I lost him for a minute or two but i saw his green head barely above the water. He dove again  but the water wasnt deep and i just reached down and grabbed him by the butt. Never been so happy to ring a ducks neck in my life. I was almost late to work because of him haha.

Aim for the head  You would be surprised at how easy it is to just blow the head right of at 15 yards and not out holes through any of the other meat 

[PaulM]

Saw this in Montana. The guy I bought my second dog from. He shot a mallard and it hit the pond. Sent his dog out for 4 retrieves and came back empty 4 times. Fifth time sent him back and dog circled pond again. Nosing the cattails this dog knew the bird was down there. She( Coco) dove down and got the bird.  I was very impressed. The dog was a shorthair that had just recovered from having my dog's litter. She threw some great pups as well. Call me Snowdog.

[sakoshooter]

I cannot believe any animal or bird would commit suicide. Everything I've ever witnessed in the wild tells me that ALL wildlife fights for its life untill its last breath. Ducks and geese are no different.

That being said, they can swim a lot further underwater than most folks give them credit for.
Something else waterfowl have seem to adapted to over my tenure of duck/goose hunting is that many of these cripples surface only high enough for their eyes and nose to be above water. I have witnessed this more and more in later years. The reason we do not see them and wonder what happened to them is because they dive, surface just enough to breathe and dive again. Most of the time we're concentrating our vision on the "spot" they were last seen so we miss their tiny lil heads surfacing a few times on the way to a brush line or cut bank etc. I've witnessed this many times and many other times have inspected the cut banks around Nisqually, Skagitt and similar places on the Columbia and most times my dogs have found these birds.
The two current yellow labs I have both dive under the water themselves after a cripple has dove a couple of times. It looks as though they get mad so they go under themselves and have always come up with the duck even after some distance sometimes. Makes me laugh.
Look further from the 'spot' at likely cover. It's natural for any animal to hide in thick cover especially one that's wounded.

[muzbuster]

on the fence as far as holding on to vegitation goes. would an air breathing creature intentionally drown itself? i do know that a crip can swim under water for great distances & with great speed. easily distancing a dog only pop up 50 yds down river with nothing but a head bump above water.
when i was dogless i found my self chasing a crip or two with my boat only to have them dive. most times if i just stood in the boat with my binos id see em if the water was calm enough.

Yes, they will drown themselves.  Basically lock onto vegetation and die more from the shot than drowning I imagine.  Either way they are still locked onto the vegetation.  Sometimes when I kicked them up they are alive other times dead.