I got my membership # and password the other day and started reading and watching. There is a lot of great info in the members only section of the Crow Busters Website.
I read one article that told how to tell which direction you are missing birds. I hunted for an hour or so yesterday and killed 17 with several misses(pics in another post.) While observing birds after the misses, I quickly realized I was consistantly missing low. Then it dawned on me, when I shoot my kids 20 ga 870 Rem compact (2" shorter trigger pull that a standard stock) I smoke targets. I break targets with my 12 ga with a standard stock but smoke more that not with the little 20.
I took their gun and shot it on the pattern board and as I suspected, It is 100% point of impact (POI) over point of aim (POA) as I can not get the tiny thing up to my eye and it forces me to shot high. I patterned my gun and it was 50/50 POI. I then went back to the Crow Busters site and dug around till I found the article on adjusting POI that I had seen the other day while reading. I followed the instructions on how to alter the comb and Wallah!!!! POI is now 90/10 and to say the clays are dust is an understatement.
I haven't had a chance to stretch it out yet as we were doing this in the back yard but a clay in the center of a full choke pattern at 15 yards should still be in the center at 40 yards.
Awesome tutorial articles in the website and if you want to be a better crow hunter, I highly recommend everyone join the site. For $5 there is a lot of info the first time hunter to the old pro can use.
The scary thing is how many birds I have killed over the years with the top half of the pattern. I hope this cleans up some of the cripples I am prone to shoot.
BTW, I was not ask to promote the site or compensated in any way for doing so, I just like to share usefull info when I find a good source, and this is a great source.
Thanks again, Crow Buster.
__________________
"If money can fix it, it ain't broke" The great theologian and my crow hunting partner AW.
Hey 8 you should have seen the info that was lost when this site was revamped I will admit the site is ten times better but there was soooooo!!! much knowledge that was lost. It will eventually get back up close , but there is no way that it will ever have as much info as it did,,,,,oh well so goes progress. It would take Bob A the rest of his life to put on this site all the knowledge he had on it. Its lost forever in cyber space
Took the kiddos out for a little hand thrown clay practice this afternoon. I like what the change in comb did for me. The clays I use to miss, I know chip, the chips are now shatter, and the shatters are now smokes. It is awesome. We were in an open field throwing form top of a ridge into or across a 15-20 MPH wind. Those things were bouncing all over the place, and with my kids throwing, it was anyone's guess where they were headed. I missed 2 out of 2 and a half boxes of shells. Toward the end, I was able to predict whether it would be a solid hit, smoke, or chip based on where the bead was when the trigger would break. I have never been able to do that. If it was not a smoke, I could tell which way I was off. I think I may raise the POA a little more but will wait till I can try it on some live targets before I make further adjustments. All this was with a full choke, I normally shoot a I/C when shooting hand thrown clays as it offers a larger pattern. With a full choke, I would have several misses out of 2 1/2 boxes. Again, thanks Crow Busters.
__________________
"If money can fix it, it ain't broke" The great theologian and my crow hunting partner AW.
Very good, now stick with the full choke to use the same explanation on crows as you did with the clays I will say this, with a full choke they puff and fall down and when they hit the ground they may flop from their belly to their back. With a turkey choke they pooofff!!! instead of puff and they never roll cause they hit the ground and stop. They are much lighter than they were due to the dense pattern relieving them of extra breast meat and wing feathers
Got a chance to try out the adjustments this weekend. I shot very well. I made contact with most of the birds I shot at. Very few clean misses. I put quite a few bird in the center of the pattern. That used to not happen for me very often. This weekend, it happened quite frequently. Nothing like a bird in the center of a hot load of 7 1/2's through a full choke. This morning I had two HIGH birds that would not come down. Took a chance on them and got feathers both times. One I got quite a few feathers. The both birds were out of reach of the 7 1/2's but on at least one of these, I am certain I had him in the center of the pattern.
Knowing where the pattern is going is an incredible thing. It increased my kill ratio quite a bit. Friday morning I had 12 birds down with 19 shot fired. The shooting got a little crazy then and I lost count after this. This was in a wind of 15-20 mph with gust around 30.
Long and the short of it is I have shot for years without knowing exactly where the pattern was flying. That is a lot of wasted shells that could have counted. But I know where they are going now.
__________________
"If money can fix it, it ain't broke" The great theologian and my crow hunting partner AW.
Very good, now stick with the full choke to use the same explanation on crows as you did with the clays I will say this, with a full choke they puff and fall down and when they hit the ground they may flop from their belly to their back. With a turkey choke they pooofff!!! instead of puff and they never roll cause they hit the ground and stop. They are much lighter than they were due to the dense pattern relieving them of extra breast meat and wing feathers
After doing a little more searching, a turkey choke is listed the same as the extra full with a constriction of .040 or more inches and patterns at 75% in a 30' circle at 40 yards. The improved modified in my Benelli patterns at 73 - 74% with good quality trap loads.
How much tighter that this is your turkey tube?
__________________
"If money can fix it, it ain't broke" The great theologian and my crow hunting partner AW.
I will admit the site is ten times better but there was soooooo!!! much knowledge that was lost. It will eventually get back up close , but there is no way that it will ever have as much info as it did,,,,,oh well so goes progress. It would take Bob A the rest of his life to put on this site all the knowledge he had on it. Its lost forever in cyber space
That is a lot of wasted shells that could have counted. But I know where they are going now.