"With the heavens vomiting ducks" (which is another great phrase) I'm sure those two fellows were'nt worried with cripples. I hunt with a number of gents who shoot 12's and cripple quite a number of birds but I (we) have good dogs to recover such. They did'nt mention if they had dogs.
They complained of the low limit days but still managed to bag 100 or so birds. Poor guys.