This was my first experience hunting sandhill crane. After what I experienced, I would never think of using a dog to retrieve them. They are very well equipped to defend themselves. They have that long neck & beak along with the long legs & big feet with serious claws. The few cripples we had would lay on their back with their wings spread along the ground for stability and then use their legs, feet & beak to claw & peck at you. They are quite intimidating to get under control as a cripple.
As a disclaimer; the dog in the picture was just a dog at the farm yard close to where we were hunting. He didn't go afield with us.
As far as table fair goes. So far I'm not real impressed. I think it was the way I prepared them. The way I cooked them, they had a fairly strong liver flavor. I'm going to try other ways to prepare them & I'll let you know my thoughts then.
Now I need to come up with a heavy fowler Parker and work up some non-toxic loads for it. I'll be hunting these again next October.
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