You just blasted this bird out of the sky with 1 1/8 oz. of lead from a 12 ga. Now is not the time to show remorse. Dispatch the bird humanely with a neck wringing and go on. Or on your bigger birds you could bite the head like Phil Robertson does (this works).

You said that you do not bird hunt much. If you bird hunted a lot you would see that downed birds are still alive more than they are graveyard dead, especially with waterfowl. Regardless of shot placement we are still at the mercy of shot patterns. We do not have the luxury of determining exactly where the shot will penetrate. You would not hesitate to shoot a wounded big game animal in the vitals to put it down, just consider a neck wringing the same thing.