Tough old bird!

[Harold Pickens]

Took these 2 roosters over Willie on Friday. She did a great job and even retrieved the birds, which she had not been doing. Shot them with the little 30" hammer 20. Both birds flew hard.
When cleaning the birds I made a strange discovery. When I pulled the skin/ feathers off the second bird it looked like this. At first I thought it was imbedded wood/tree branch, but when I pulled them out it was discolored, imbedded large bone fragments. The breast bone keel had apparently been shattered at some point. Dont know how it was even able to fly. They were imbedded in the breast and easily pulled out. Needless to say , I decided not to eat this bird. It seemed healthy & flew well. A testament to the hardiness of these birds. Pics to follow.

[Harold Pickens]

Pics

[mobirdhunter]

Interesting bird, Harold, but a nice brace with a sweet little gun. I shot a grouse once that had a stick penetrating its chest. The stick had grown into the bird. Amazing what they can deal with.

[charlie cleveland]

wow....charlie

[Jeff S.]

Did it get hit by a car????

[Chris Pope]

Years ago my wife struck and killed a tom turkey with her Ford Explorer. The bird cleaned up great with only some bruising around the neck. We ate it a few days later. At the table two of us removed at least 5 - #6 shot from the breast. Some birds can handle lot of trauma.