Your Toughest Shot -- Bird and Setting

[mobirdhunter]

We are iced in again, so to avoid going stir crazy, I'm going over my hunting journal notes and calculating my shooting success (er...failure?). I don't note everything about all shots taken, but I do note some details about particularly tough shots, whether I make them or not. My notes span over 30 years. I consistently note the difficulty when trying to shoot bobwhite quail in the timber. I did not calculate the percentages, but it's clear from my notes that when quail flush in the timber, they are pretty darned safe from me.

Grouse in relatively new and thick clearcuts (especially in steep mountain terrain), dove with a 40 mph tail wind, and woodcock in the plum thickets are all tough for me. Then there is the shot I almost always miss when I see the bird on the ground before it flushes (happens more with woodcock and grouse, but always hard for me, no matter the bird).

But in the end, quail in the timber is my toughest shot. Thankfully we don't find them there all that often.

Just curious what my colleagues find to be their toughest bird/setting.