hedge Posted February 8, 2013 Report Share Posted February 8, 2013 (edited) Went out at the weekend with my friend on our usual dairy farm permission. He has 12 new flocked crow deeks to try and 1 very impressive mapgpie deek. There is a large wood with loads of crows in it and we parked ourselves under a flightline on the end of some stubble. The crows decoyed quite well - we certainly drew some close enough to shoot at and for once I shot well with my Hatsan Semi-Auto and my mate did the usual work with his 20b Silver Pigeon. The only thing he found was that as he had very open chokes in, he hit them with his first barrel but had to use his 2nd to bring them down. They would practically stop in mid air (or dro a few feet), recover and carry on. We all know a 20b can do the job and he was on the money but it just wasn't stopping them. To illustrate the point he borrowed my Hatsan 12b using 32g 6's and very impressively shot 5 for 5 - one shot only each time. I do have a tight choke in it but he was in the same place as the 20b but the killing power was so much better. Maybe the shells helped but it just seemed to hit them so much harder. He is going to put tighter chokes in to try and get more lead in the pattern to see if that helps. I'm not after a debate about chokes. I read that thread yesterday! Anyway - we bagged about 25 and had a really good day. Prior to the crows we walked the yard to clear the barn of some ferals and bagged 5 with the air rifles. My Edgar Bros Mod 60 (.22) has just had a new Titan spring put in it and boy does it make a difference. On a par with my mates HW 97k. I was desperate to bag a rat as well as a few were in the feed barn and my last outing saw me `wind` one as the gun was only pushing 8.5 ft/lb. Now we were at max power I gave 3 of them the bad news at different intervals in the day and they didn't like it one bit. Nice solid kills. 2 head shots and one in the engine room. Can't believe how smug you can feel after shooting just 3 rats. My last ones were in 1989! Anyway - here are some pics. PS - Forgot to say that the biggest learning point for us (having only decoyed pigeons before) was to have a roof on the hide. We did and it allowed us to stay hidden as the crows went right over the top from behind us for half of our kills. Really worked well. Second thing was if you drop a crow in the pattern and it lands on its back, go out and turn it over. We had 2 sets of crows come up the the deeks lovely only to flare off. We went and checked the pattern to find 4 crows on their backs. May as well have stood in the field and waved my arms.... Edited February 8, 2013 by hedge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TIGHTCHOKE Posted February 8, 2013 Report Share Posted February 8, 2013 Well done. You don't need to debate the choke question as you've answered it in your post! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hedge Posted February 8, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 8, 2013 LOL. I'm happy with my `logic` but having seen this I didn't want to open a can of worms! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WelshAndy Posted February 8, 2013 Report Share Posted February 8, 2013 Good shooting can't beat a good day on the crows! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dolman Posted February 9, 2013 Report Share Posted February 9, 2013 Gopod shooting guys! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerSim Posted February 9, 2013 Report Share Posted February 9, 2013 Well done that man!! like the comment about "giving the rats the bad news" !! Made I larff!!! which load is your pal using in his 20G? perhaps he needs a bit more lead in his pattern - I shoot with both 20&12, and am just curious really... ATB Sim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hedge Posted February 9, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2013 Well done that man!! like the comment about "giving the rats the bad news" !! Made I larff!!! which load is your pal using in his 20G? perhaps he needs a bit more lead in his pattern - I shoot with both 20&12, and am just curious really... ATB Sim He usually has Eley VIP's 28g 5's or 6's. They are pretty good cartridges and he used them to good effect on feral pigeons the other week but they were a bit closer so open chokes were fine. Crows were slightly further out and as we know they are quite `robust`! Think a change of choke will help - watch this space! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andysako Posted February 9, 2013 Report Share Posted February 9, 2013 an enjoyable day there m8 well done !! :good: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_b_wales Posted February 9, 2013 Report Share Posted February 9, 2013 Excellent. Well done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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