The responsible thing

A recent poll on UplandJournal, if taken out of context, would read like a dialogue between Hannibal Lecter and Jason Voorhees:

maybe I am not as good at it as you. Ten seconds seems like an awfully long time to be squeezing the life out of something, which I find an unpleasant task to begin with.

I carry a nail in my vest pocket and stick it in the back of their head and scramble their brains. 

Death grip.  Squeeze the armpits until it expires.  

Of course this deals with birds that have been wounded, but not killed. Make no mistake, the real sentiment of the thread was overwhelmingly one of compassion. There are few who care about the welfare of animals than the true outdoorsmen.  With that, comes the responsibility to minimize suffering as much as possible. I repeat, it's a responsibility. It's just that we don't ever take the time to actually talk about it.



Personally I am not a fan of either wringing or suffocating. I have had less-than consistent results with wringing and I find suffocating is, honestly, disconcerting-no matter how painless. If you only shoot birds, and there is no 'fur' on the list, then the alliteratively entitled "necker" is not too much extra kit to put in the game bag. It's not expensive, and you should only ever need to buy one as I can't see how you could wear one out.

Necker from LionCountry supply.

However, if you shoot behind a gundog, rather than a birddog, then fur is one of the possibilities(in season). So, personally I carry what the Brits call a "priest". A priest will provide the situation for both fur and feather, as will a necker-but it's more difficult with fur. So this is what I go to for rabbit.

Priest:

Not the most technologically advanced of gadgets, the one above is weighted stag-horn. Just like anything else, you can spend serious coin on one if the need strikes (HAH-a pun!).  

Our friends over the sea have the right idea:

...as Bob Preston says in his article on picking-up onshootpics.co.uk, I hate to see the recent 'trend' in swinging wounded birds around by the neck in order to dispatch them.  Inevitably, there will be a bird or two that has been brought down yet is not dead, but why treat it with such apparent disdain?  Killing it quickly, efficiently and humanely is surely paramount.

For further discourse on the need and use of priests, as well as a plethora of options available for purchase, click 'ere: Dispatching pheasants and partridges humanely.

(BTW-ignore the 'priest with marrow spoon' combination. I was initially weirded, but it's purpose seems to be dispatching fish and then investigating the contents of a fish's gut to see what they are currently feeding on) 

No matter what method it's important to plan ahead and have something available or at least a plan. I promise it's not fun scouring the ground in search of a good stick when you need one and anyone who isn't concerned with the quickly dispatching game is not someone I want to be in the field with.