# Getting Game without taking a shot



## moonwolf (Sep 20, 2004)

How many times have you been lucky to get some free game your way (not including road kill) without taking a shot. 

Recently, a prairie chicken I found on the deck with a broken wing. My dog apparently got hold of it in the snow. She nonchalantly laid close to it until I came out to take it. Pretty generous, I should say. :clap:

I've also 'taken' some grouse in the past that flew into the door or window and saved ammo doing so. 

Another time, my terrier came on an early fall walk/hunt and she got to slinking around in the tall grass before surprising a group of young ruffed grouse and pounced upon one to shake by the neck and brought to me for the pot. 

got any good stories about 'accidental' game for your pot?


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## MelonBar (Dec 27, 2012)

Just watched Jeremiah Johnson last night. Love the seen where his new bride stops him from shooting at some game birds but creeps up and takes one out with a thrown rock.


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## farmerDale (Jan 8, 2011)

I have a weird accuracy with my throwing arm. I have killed squirrels in trees with my arm and a decent sized rock. I have eaten several grouse that have flown into house windows, hit a few on the road. Hungarian partridge are hard to avoid with the vehicle if there is a large covey. A few times, ducks wandered into my muskrat/beaver traps when I was actively trapping.

An old school bachelorette nearby got charged for snaring deer a few years back. Up north, when conserving ammo, trappers in the 1930's frequently snared moose, caribou and other game to eat.

For economy, make sure when you hit something with your vehicle, it does no damage, and make sure the grouse that hits your window does not smash it. I have eaten grouse valued at 400 dollars a pound out of spite and revenge, after shattering house windows...lol


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## MelonBar (Dec 27, 2012)

FarmerDale you just brought back a memories from my childhood. Three of use would hunt squirrels. My friend used a Ruger 10/22. I used a Marlin Model 60 and the other friend used a Coke bottle. I had heard of that kid missing before but I never saw it myself. He'd crack those bushy tails in the head every time even if they where 60 feet up.


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## Pops2 (Jan 27, 2003)

moonwolf said:


> How many times have you been lucky to get some free game your way (not including road kill) without taking a shot.
> 
> Recently, a prairie chicken I found on the deck with a broken wing. My dog apparently got hold of it in the snow. She nonchalantly laid close to it until I came out to take it. Pretty generous, I should say. :clap:
> 
> ...


Not accidental, but I hunt w/dogs & a knife as much as possible. My greyhoundX has caught everything from squirrel up to deer & boar. He's getting a little old & because of the school I was in for the last year a bit fat, but he can still catch slow stuff like *****, deer & boar.


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## Chuck R. (Apr 24, 2008)

The last time I got âfreeâ game without firing a shot was the opener for the 2004 KS Pheasant season. 


While heading out to the first field, I got a nice little buck by using my brand new F150 with 200 miles on it. Game warden drove by and tagged it for me, very little meat damage since I hit it in the head for the most part. BTW, plastic body molding doesnât stand up well to antlers.


Chuck


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## Nimrod (Jun 8, 2010)

I watched a hawk pounce on a covy of Hungarian partridge, then walked up and took the one he killed.

A pheasant got up right in front of me. It was 6 inches off the end of the barrell when I shot. There was not a bit of blood or any kind of wound on it. I think the concussion knocked it out and I rung it's neck before it woke up.

My brother had a dog that sometimes would jump up and pull a flushing pheasant out of the air. He was not too good at differentiating hens and roosters though.


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

When I was 14, there was a time when we had 27 live cottontail rabbits in the chicken brooder house. I was selling them to several neighbors who would have wild game feasts with their friends. Best day I had was when I brought home 13 rabbits with 8 of them being alive. Weapon was a broomstick. I'd find where a rabbit was sitting in a hayfield and keep circling around it until I was close enough to whop it in the back of the head with the stick. If the rabbit bolted, no place to run to except rock piles. Most of the time I could reach into the holes and pull them out. If not, start moving rocks. One time I was doing that and a guy hollered at me to give the rabbit a chance. I asked if he had a gun and he said yes. I said that I didn't and went right back to moving rocks!

Got lots of things with stones. Best was a gray fox in a tree when I was 11. Knocked the fox out of the tree and fox, dog, and myself rolled down a hill together until I came out on top. 

Martin


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## vicker (Jul 11, 2003)

Some friends and I were playing some game when I was a kid. I was chasing one and heard a really strange sounding, "boooiiiiinnnngg", right before I was hit in the chest by a dead bob white. It had flown into a power line I was running under v


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## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

This is road kill but I'm going to tell it anyway because it's funny.

My wife is deaf and a bit of a townie, but has adapted well to the life. One day she came home from town very agitated and pulled me outside. She was talking very rapidly and I couldn't understand her. She finally just gestured to the back seat of her Bronco. In the back seat was a very much alive rooster pheasant. It had flown into the side of her rig and knocked itself silly. In my mind I was asking myself what she wanted me to do with it. Did she want me to fix it? Did she want me to build a pen and keep it? I gave her the "what the heck you want me to do" sign and she blurted out "Kill it and clean it so we can eat it!".

In retrospect that was the moment I knew I had a keeper..............


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

Having game hit a person reminds me of one rabbit. Dog was chasing it on a road through a hayfield and reversed directions when the dog got too close. I was standing in the same wheel track that the rabbit was in and it must have saw me as a tree with 2 trunks and was going to go between them. At the last second, I dropped down and closed my legs. Rabbit banged into my knee with its head and never moved. Opted for suicide rather than let the dog catch it! 

Martin


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## vicker (Jul 11, 2003)

Martin, I was driving home through the country late one night. All of a sudden there was a rabbit darted out of the ditch, and close on his tail was a bobcat. They were both running all out and the rabbit darted in front of me. The last I saw was the bobcat trying to slam on the brakes. I braced myself to run over him, but it must have stopped in time. That tickled me pretty good. Nice move, mr. Rabbit.


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## WildBillTN (Feb 1, 2006)

A few years ago a friend called me and told me there was a deer with it's leg hung up in a neighbor's chain link fence. By the time I got there it had thrashed around and broke it's neck. Yup, we ate it up.


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## Silvercreek Farmer (Oct 13, 2005)

I shut the shed door on a squirrel. Into the pot it went...


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## big rockpile (Feb 24, 2003)

As kids we didn't have weapons but had to get game,I could catch Squirrels,Rabbits and Quail.One day us kids caught 32 Rabbits.

At night we would ride on Pickup Fenders catch Possums,***** and Skunks.

We did well with Homemade Traps and Snares.

big rockpile


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## bowdonkey (Oct 6, 2007)

Over thanksgiving my nephew and I snared 17 rabbits one evening. 6 were destroyed by owls and various 4 legged varmints though.


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## CajunSunshine (Apr 24, 2007)

A friend of mine recently passed a wounded deer laying on the side of the road. It was a young doe that had been stunned and crippled by a glancing blow from a truck travelling just ahead of my friend's truck. My friend turned around to check on the deer. She was still alive but too crippled to survive, so he decided to end her suffering. All he had handy was a short length of heavy pipe...and after a bit of rummaging around (and cussing the fact that he accidentally left his pocketknife at home), found a sharp bladed boxcutter... he knocked her out with the pipe then cut the jugular vein with the boxcutter. He shared most of the meat with me. I returned the favor by giving him half of it back in the form of many delicious meals, prepackaged and frozen, along with written reheating instructions.

It was the tenderest venison we've ever had, and what has to be the freshest 'roadkill' ever, lol.


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## pheasantplucker (Feb 20, 2007)

Couple of years ago, I was driving my kill home when I came upon a big doe that looked like she just died. Exit wound, and she was still warm to the touch. I left her, because I thought someone would be tracking her and recover her. Turns out I should have taken her as well, as a few days later I saw her in the same spot.


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## wildcat6 (Apr 5, 2011)

Not counting deer that I have hit with my truck, I can only say this happened once. Few years back I was called up to do some wildland firefighting in Idaho. I found some prarie chickens and hit one with a rock and ate it that night. Could not believe how stupid those chickens was.


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## gunseller (Feb 20, 2010)

I used to have a **** dog that was the best close range flush dog I ever seen. He would catch game birds as they flushed. One time while deer hunting I saw a mink in a tree. It let me climb the tree until I was within 2 feet of him. Hit him in the head with the back side of my ax. Easy $20.
Steve


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## farmerDale (Jan 8, 2011)

Ha Ha, gunseller. Reminds me once fishing with dad. A mink was out for a swim in the middle of the lake, course 40-80 bucks being what it was in the 80's, dad had to try and catch it. The mink kept diving, and finally dad got it in the boat but it screamed and hissed at us, jumped overboard, and disappeared under a stump. 

I was with him when he got several muskrats with his bare hands, and a couple beaver who were waddling too far from water... He sold a lot of fur those days, and prices were high. There was a reward. Most folks woulda done the same back then. Not anymore.


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## animalfarmer (Feb 14, 2006)

Going down the highway one morning just at daybreak, I saw the moving head of a deer just behind a snow bank.I pulled over and to my surprise there was a nice young doe unable to move. She must have just been hit by a vehicle and had some sort of damage but could still move her neck and head. I got the knife then approached her from behind and calmly pulled her head back then slit her throat. When she was done bleeding I loaded her up and took her home. She dressed very nicely,just a little bruising by her shoulders. Very tender venison.


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## gunseller (Feb 20, 2010)

I just made some very tender venison. Will see the price per pound my insurance company is going to pay. It looks to me to be around $2000 total.
Steve


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## Pops2 (Jan 27, 2003)

Folks with the prairie chickens might want to edit your posts unless you had the appropriate license & permit.


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## vicker (Jul 11, 2003)

You're talking about hunting, we're talking about grocery shopping.


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## Pops2 (Jan 27, 2003)

vicker said:


> You're talking about hunting, we're talking about grocery shopping.


I don't think the game wardens will appreciate the difference.


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## notbutanapron (Jun 30, 2011)

Not only is this thread hilarious - I know what resourceful people to take with me during TEOTWAWKI.


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

Although it does involve a shot, I've told this story before and will tell it again for those who never saw it. From 1976 onward, the only meat in our freezers was venison. November 1982 deer season was worse possible conditions and all I got was a buck fawn. The last of him eaten mid-May 1983. I bought a pound of hamburger at the local supermarket and made a nice goulash. It was just my son and I at home and we sat on opposite ends of the table. After a few minutes of eating, he said: "Dad, we need to get some venison." That's not an easy thing on 21 May and deer season 6 months away.

Next day, son had some final exams at the University of Wisconsin. He'd ride to end of the line in Madison and then I'd drive in and pick him up. When I got just to the edge of this town, there was a city police car at the side of the road and a deer on the shoulder just as if she decided to lay down right there. I continued on into Madison to pick and then back home. Where the police car had been was now 3 state patrol cars and 4 officers and the deer was still there. Law states that if the person who hits a deer doesn't want it, it's given to the next person who asks. No other citizen around so we stop. 

The reason for the 4 officers is that one was a sergeant and the other three had just completed their course and first time out. I saw that the deer was a big doe and she indeed was alive and well and looked like she had simply laid down. The officers were waiting for call back from the DNR as to what to do with this very live deer. Report came back that the warden was already investigating 5 downed deer and best thing is to just shoot her. And it was also OK that the citizen, me, could have her.

Then the fun part came in. One of the trainees decided that he was willing to do the dirty work. Since the deer was on the gravel portion, my son wisely suggested that we pull her off onto the grass. The one to do the shooting said no and it would be OK. Sergeant just looked at my son and I and the three of us turned our backs to it. When the shot went off, we were showered with gravel and blood and I even had some brains in my hand. Sergeant just shook his head and said that that's 4 dry-cleaning bills!

Had it been legal and I was quick enough with a knife, there would have been twin fawns. After skinning, all we found was a slight bruise on her shoulder. Combining that with the fact that she was going to drop those fawns that night was just enough to put her into shock. 

Martin


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## Oldcountryboy (Feb 23, 2008)

I go to a popular place in the spring time to fish for Sandbss and Crappie when they're spawning, (Badger knows the place) and sometimes I get lucky by standing near someone who is keeping Crappie only. Everytime they catch a sandbass they'll give it to me to put on my stringer. Sometime I go home with more fish given to me then what I caught myself. I love that place!


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