Years ago I was hunting wild quail on my farm. As they often can do, they flushed in stages. Most erupt at once and then a delay until a few stragglers get up. I went for a big cock bird on the flush only to have a second bird cross into my shot stream about ten yards closer than the bird I was shooting. He just about exploded as a feather ball. My intended bird flew off unscratched. About five seconds later a single straggler erupts and the exact same thing happened. A second bird crosses right in the way and takes the entire load. My intended bird simply flew away unscratched. So I had a dead pair and a double miss at the same time. I killed two birds that I was not aiming to shoot and cleanly missed both birds I wanted to shoot.
My friend congratulated me on the pair but I had to explain those were two of the unluckiest quail that I hit by mistake and two luckiest quail had escaped because I missed when a second bird got in the way. He made some remark about stepping in crap and coming out smelling like a rose.
