First crow of the season!

[Master Carper]

I put out a loaf of bread this morning, trying to see if I could get a crow or two to show up.

Before I get back to my blind, I look back behind me, and there is a crow leaving with a whole slice of bread in in it's beak!

I get to my blind, get set up, and as soon as I get my shotgun rested on the sand bags, here comes a crow.

Being overly anxious, as this is my first long-range shotgun crow of the year, I range it at 91 yards, put the bead 2 feet over it's head and squeeze the 36 oz. trigger.

One jump and one flop, my first crow of the year!

 

[retrieverman]

That’s a heck of a shot!!! Glad to see you’re still around. I’ve got some shell loaded up with your recipe, but I haven’t had the opportunity at a crow yet.

 

[Master Carper]

Thank you retrieverman.

We use this same load on sandhill cranes, and it makes for an excellent long range load for them too!

Monday was opening day of our crow season, but Monday and Tuesday found us busy from near daylight to dark welding steel pipe.

Hopefully we can get in a little bit more time to bust some more crows when the weather decides to stay cool longer.

 

[retrieverman]

Thank you retrieverman.

We use this same load on sandhill cranes, and it makes for an excellent long range load for them too!

Monday was opening day of our crow season, but Monday and Tuesday found us busy from near daylight to dark welding steel pipe.

Hopefully we can get in a little bit more time to bust some more crows when the weather decides to stay cool longer.

I never thought about using that load for cranes. They‘ve never landed on my place, but they fly over pretty low. I’m going to have to give them a try.

 

[Master Carper]

I never thought about using that load for cranes. They‘ve never landed on my place, but they fly over pretty low. I’m going to have to give them a try.

Did you buffer your loads?

I know that when I started pressure testing and pattern testing my loads, once patterns started to exceed 60 yards, buffered loads patterned an average of 20+ % better than non buffered loads.

I did lose approximately 150 fps. additional velocity by going to a buffered load, but #2 magnum lead shot still packs a wallop out there quite a ways @ over 1,500 fps..

 

[retrieverman]

Yes sir, they’re buffered.

 

[Master Carper]

I finally did it - I managed to kill my first crow @ 100 yards with a shotgun!!!

100 yards 1 ft. and 3 inches to be exact!

Crows were baited this morning with the caresses of two large rotisserie chickens, with over 20 crows coming in to the bait about 45 minutes after set-up.

After watching the birds for about a minute, one of the crows fly away from the rest of the group by a couple of yards with a piece of chicken in it's beak.

Since I am not going to "flock shoot" and take a chance on wounded birds running or flying off, I decided to try and take out the single bird. Lining up the front and center bead and putting the front bead 4 feet over the top of my chosen target, I squeezed the trigger. A split second later, my intended target made two flop's and played over.

I skinned the bird out after taking a couple of pictures and all I could find was a single magnum #2 lead shot pellet through the eye.

 

[Dorkus]

Goodness, that is a long shot. What choke you using?

 

[Master Carper]

Goodness, that is a long shot. What choke you using?

The longest I have ever made on a crow with a shotgun!

I tested well over 30 choke tubes in trying to find one that would give me my best long range pattern with my loads, and the best choke tube tested was an extended Hastings .675 which also made the overall barrel length 35" in length.

Tighter choke tubes blew the patterns and less choke opened the patterns too much for this kind of long range shotgun shooting.

 

[Master Carper]

I put out a load of bread for the crows this morning, and before I made it back to the blind, there were already 6 crows moved in and flying off with a whole piece of bread in their beak.

I got set up in my blind with my shotgun on the shooting table, on a raised sand bag, and here comes a flock of 20 birds or more.

I watched the crows for about a minute, then they started leaving one by one with a piece of bread in their beaks, till there were just a few birds left.

I picked out a crow on the far right side of the baited area, settled the bead no less than 3 feet over it's head, squeezed the trigger, and I had a dead bird - 95 yards 2 feet from the muzzle!

I have been doing a lot of testing with a new choke tube, and now have a 6" extended .675 tube specifically for my long range crow shooting. At 100 yards, this tube puts an average of 3 more pellets in my crow "target". This won't increase the kill range, but it will decrease the chance of a wounded bird.

Now, overall barrel length with the new .675 choke tube is 40".

Loads are the same and most likely will not change any time soon!