Me too when I used to do a lot of picking up- the moment you suddenly twig that you have heard nothing for a bit is always worrying.
My favourite story was when out rough shooting with a group of about six of us on a murky misty morning. My friend hit a cock bird that planed over the river and off into the distance a very long way - as a proper rough shooter he set of for the long walk and the rest of us decided to have a cup of coffee whilst we waited. He was gone a very long time which was no great surprise but was slightly sheepish on his return. Apparently he got confused as to where he was and joined a bunch of guns walking another wood. He had walked half the wood with them when he realised he did not know any of them, he made his profuse apologies and found his way back to us.He has never been allowed to forget that morning
Yes why?
Last season, I was given a box of RC 4 cartridges - 36gms 4's a lot heavier that I usually use. First bird I shot, I took its head clean off! I carried that to the cart by the feet.
Ron our old keeper always told me that you should never carry game by its feet because wherever you have reared game congregating around feeders and the like, then you have rats. I never pick a bird up by its feet for that reason, their feet will undoubtedly have been in rat urine or contaminated water of some sort so I do always carry them by the wing if they are headless... I also carry antibacterial wipes or gel in my pocket which I use after unloading my game at the cart, whilst walking back to my truck...
If the bacteria (I guess he was talking about Leptospira which can cause Weil's disease) are on their feet they are also on their on their wings, backs, heads, necks and anywhere else you care to think of. When they were developing the Lepto vaccs for dogs titre testing unvaccinated healthy dogs showed around 25% had antibodies - i.e. had been infected and would have shed the bacteria without their owners knowledge.
I think its to do with the probably perforated guts, if the bird is carried and hung by the head all the cr*p lies down at the bottom in the bit we tend to remove or not eat, carried by the feet the bugs and dross lie on the breast bone, the part everyone eats.
In life, it is important to know when to stop arguing with people and simply let them be wrong.
