Congratulations, KG - great story.
My own worst/best shot was at a pheasant. My brother and I had a string of consecutive hits that ran over a couple years. That says more for his shooting than mine, as I was behind a good pointer and he set himself up for the more difficult swing shots. With the dog on point and subsequent flush, I stepped forward for an easy shot right into a knee-deep hole. As the shot rang out I was off the bird by at least a couple feet. The bird veered almost straight up as I'm now on my elbows watching helplessly. After rising about 100 feet, the pheasant was apparently touched by God and fell dead. I couldn't find the hint of a pellet strike anywhere on that bird. Chalk him up, and the string continued.
I have seen that same response on several species of upland birds where they suddenly fly straight up until they die and fall straight down. All had at least one pellet in the heart.
Yes, indeed. I recall my father telling me about the towering flight of dead-on-its-wings-heartshot-pheasant when I was a lad, but for some odd reason never actually witnessed it myself til I was near 40 years old, with hundreds of dead waterfowl and upland birds in the bag.
As it happened, I was hunting with my fine old Springer, Brit, near Brooks, AB. The cock pheasant flushed right in front of Brit's nose, a scant 10 yards out, and gave he an easy rising straightaway shot. I hit the bird with a single pellet (I'm not a great wingshot, I must admit) and he towered in an upward spiral to perhaps 50 yards, but carried away from us by a typical howling southern Alberta 40-mph breeze. Brit never lost sight of the rooster, and danced out into the stubble like a center-fielder, positioned perfectly to make the catch when the pheasant inevitably fell straight down. I'd swear my dog nearly caught the pheasant in mid-air, but nobody would believe me and I'm not sure I believe myself 30 years later.
I didn't gut the bird until I had him home later that day, and carefully dissected him... I had hit his heart with a single pellet, and his pericardium was full of blood. Classic cardiac tamponade. Physiologically fascinating, I must say.
