I have seen that happen several times, the most interesting of which occured on the land neighboring our grass. We saw the neighbor group hunting the 80 next to ours, and they were on the opposite side. We happened to see a rooster get up and hear several shots, but no bird fall. The bird flew our way and was about 100 yds from our property when it rose high into the air and locked up and fell straight down. The other guys didn't see it fall, so I left my gun and walked over to get it for them. As I bend down to pick up the bird, the neighbor peels out in his truck down the road towards us and pulls up chewing us out for hunting his land. I told him what had happened, handed him the bird and he drove away with his tail between his legs.

I haven't personally witnessed this, but several of my hunting buddies have. They call it the "Death Climb" or "Death Spiral" (apparently once in a while they circle on their way up too). They tell me as soon as they see the climb start they know the bird will be dead in a very short time. They also are guessing a heart shot....

This is funny someone brought this up. I've seen it a few times, but last week in SD my future brother-in-law shot at a bird and I saw he hit it for sure the first shot, and probably again the 2nd shot, but it was out there by then.

We watched the obviously injured bird fly erratically up over a cut corn field and at about 200 yards or so it folded up stone dead- or so I thought. I saw exactly where it fell so I said I'll get it.

I ran over to the exact spot and it wasn't there- I looked to my right and it was running over the hill! I ran it down and gave him the neck-tie trick.

I thought for sure he was dead and we were lucky to get him-

michael

We hunt in Kansas and have seen it happen several times. We were told it was a head shot.

I had this happen last week-end on a trip to NoDak, I shot at a rooster, my pump jammed, I didn't pay attention to the bird but when we walked up to the truck, my friend asked if I found the rooster, he flew about 100' straight up after I shot, then came straight down stone dead. I walked back the 200 yards and picked him up! Later I picked-up one that committed suicide by breaking his neck flying into a telephone wire! Weird to see!

Read this post a couple days ago and was thinking I never saw this happen before. Sure enough I was out today and it happend!! Weirdest thing I have ever seen.

Ironically they are always dead in my experience as well. Typically not flying that high however.

Thats a HEART shot me boy. Good job finding it. Even if you thought you missed keep watching a bit. It happens more than you think.

Seen it it Canada geese plenty of times .It was a heart shot that results in delayed kill

I've seen it happen several times in the past and once this year where they start flying straight up. The one this year instead of dropping like a rock actually set his wings and glided down, but almost vertically. He was dead when the dog brought him back.

Don't always assume you missed. Twice in the last week I've followed the direction that the bird flew after a 'missed' shot and within 100 yards my dogs pulled a rooster out of the grass. Both times during the autopsy I found fresh shot in them.

Reading this reminds me of a bird that got ridiculously high way up there and dropped just deader than a door nail, it was quite a sight.

was sitting on the porch and my dog ran out into the crp kicked up a rooster as I watched him fly about 200yds then drop dead out of the air. He flew into the power lines down in the ditch. got on the 4wheeler and picked him up out of the ditch. Crazy to watch.

We had a poster on a drive who had never seen huns before. He heard us yell "huns" but thought we were saying "hens" so he didn't shoot. He was standing under the telephone wires and two of them flew straight into the wires and fell at his feet. Hans

Has anyone had a bird come back to life? 2 weeks ago in SD we had our limit of birds and stopped at the gas station on the way back to the hotel. I opened the tailgate on the truck and the thing stood up, jumped out of the truck, and started running around the parking lot. I'm guessing the locals had some fun telling their friends about the crazy Minnesotans chasing a ringneck around downtown.

I know for sure it had it's neck wrung, and there was no movement when we put him in the truck, but he didn't appear to have anything wrong besides a broken wing as we were trying to run him down.

We had this happen in ND a couple years ago. I could have sworn the things was dead but it apparently was not. Opened the back of the truck after driving to another location to find the bird moving around and get up if I remember correctly.