[fabsroman]

Having those wounded birds glide for hundreds of yards sucks. However, there can be a silver lining to that cloud to. My yellow labs first goose retrieve was on just such a bird. He was probably 6 or 7 months old and the goose must have gone 300+ yards in the field. He had to go over a hill to get to it, and I couldn't even see him after he crested the hill. So, I started walking that way. Lo and behold, he appears at the top of the hill, goose in mouth, and he stops there for a second with his tail wagging like crazy. Then he proceeds to bring the goose to me, the entire time with his tail non-stop. I knew I had a pretty good dog at that time. Kind of knew it when he retrieved a dove at 10 weeks and he didn't even flinch to gun fire on that day. Kind of knew it a month or two after that when he made a couple retrieves on ducks. However, that wounded goose put all doubt out of my mind.

Honestly, if I were you I would just keep shooting until both of you had your limit. If you have been hunting enough, you will generally know pretty quickly which bird he is shooting at, so just put a round in it for good measure if it hasn't folded up already. Wounding birds sucks, but that is part of our sport.

Post more pics and stories if you can.