Let's just assume that the world is perfect one morning and everyone is spaced out 3-400 yards apart on a public lake. Everyone is having a great hunt that morning and you are 1 duck shy of a limit.

A group of Cans fly over the corner of your spread, and head across the slough toward the group 3-400 yards across from you. They circle their spread twice then commit. You watch them drop 2 and then a cripple sails toward you and crashes down in the middle of your spread.

You can tell that the bird's wing is broken badly, and see it swimming toward a bunch of thick marsh grass. You know that if it reaches the grass, it would be next to impossible to recover without a dog, which none of yall have.

What is the right thing to do? Do you finish it off for the other group? Do you shoot it and keep it? Do you laugh at the other group while they chase the injured bird through your spread?

Bear in mind that you are 1 duck shy of your limit. If you do finish it off, does that count against your limit, even though you allow the other group, that dropped it in the first place, to claim it? What if you notice a band after you shoot it? Please advise.

Shoot it and keep it. I'll take a Can to finish my limit.

If I saw someone shoot my cripple, I would be thankful and wouldn't hike 300 yards to say,"hey, give me my bird."

Do everyone and the duck a favor and take it out even if it was a spoony.

Well, Id say tag it so you can give it to the man who downed it first. Just this weekend I had two pintails I nailed do the tuck and glide about 150 yards away from me...of course it is marshy as all get out so it takes some time to get there. I spot the bird about 100 yards or so out and I see another group pick it up and bag em in his jacket. Bare in mind this group hadnt shot all morning...guy claims it was his and argued with me like a 10 year old.

If you can't be courteous and be a proper hunter then you don'
t belong in the field and should just stay home. My father taught me that to be a true hunter means also being a gentlemen in the field. Polite enough to help a fellow hunter out who might be feeding his family off his kills. Kind enought to help a stranger if in trouble. A man enough to not take what isnt yours.

Just my two cents. Not all see eye to eye but a true hunter never takes whats not his and is courteous in field.

Shoot it and keep it. The rule of capture literally governs. The first person to capture a natural resource owns that natural resource.

EDIT: Would you feel differently if you heard shooting 1,000 yards away and a moment later an obviously crippled canvasback sailed into your spread? Same thing.

C'mon kdub - you know you wouldn't.

I say finish it and give it to them - they hit it first, so it's their bird.

Beside, your kind act might be infectious and they let you take all the shots at the next group after you explain you need one more for a limit.

No I think I would. Unless they walked the 300 yards to get it from me..

HAHAHAHAHA

It belongs to the one that killed it, not the one that crippled it.

Now if that hunter came by and told me he read on the interwebs that blackened Canvasback was the bomb and he wanted to try it for the first time, I'd probably hand it over.

Or if that hunter came by all puffed up demanding his duck, I'd tell him to pound sand.

^^^^

Lots of what it's here. What if it [censored] golden eggs?

Who really cares if you have one more duck, plenty to go around.
The best thing to do is to cut off one leg and on the way out as your drving by their spread in your boat throw the duck in their spread and tell them your delivering their cripple.
They will be happy until they see the leg removed thinking you took their band. Works every time.

My dad and grandfather were the same way. Courtesy and respect go a long way. I like your answer.

On the other hand, I like kdub's answer as well. It will count against your daily bag AND it's a banded Can.

this is my plan if this scenario happens this weekend

I cant imagine how pissed they would get getting a cripple back missing a leg! I am going to do that to some guys in the club if I ever get a chance. It would be hilarious if you knew them.

I've done it. Shot a cripple that the guys down the shoreline originally hit. After we were done and we met up at the trucks I offered their bird back. It wouldn't of put them over a limit but they said I should keep it because I was the one that killed it. They just slowed it down for me.

I'm with KDUB, I would shoot it and throw it in the boat. If they walked 300 yards to get it I would hand it over to them.

Come on, kdub, you ain't foolin' me. If that guys walked over looking for a Canvasback the only thing he'd hear is, "what duck?"

You killed it. Legally your not suppose to give it without signing it over to them.at witch time it is part of your limit and your done.
BUT really if they want to walk 3/400 yrds I'd give to them.I would not take it to them

Im going public manana. So stay 1 mile away from me pleazze

This, and what is this perfect world you speak of?

Personally I would just send my dog after it and let her burn some energy....if they other group comes over for it, I would give it them without a problem. If no dog (which should never happen to me), I would shot it and if they came for it, they could have it.

But, they better beat me back to the truck because my limit is full now and I can no longer hunt.

That answer makes the most sense of all! Thank you, Sir! You helped me work through it! I'm gettin a dog!

No doubt shoot it. No need for it to suffer and go to waste. If they walk over and ask for it, no problem. I'd they don't, you've got an extra bird and can go home

I'd shoot it to finish it off.

If the other group wanted it, banded or not, they're more than welcome to it. After all, they did shoot it first.

If they didn't want to claim it, keep it.