In the Spring issue, No. 82, of The Varmint Hunter magazine, there appears an article that I wrote, titled "Hitting is Understandable, Missing is Mysterious" beginning on page 86.
In the writing, I try to explain why it is so hard to kill flying birds, about one pound in weight, at distances over 40 yds. with a shotgun. I used an actual size crow silhouette, made from one that I killed and singed the feathers off, as the example bird for the testing.
There is a typographical error on page 88 at the top of the center column, refering to image No. 8. Where it reads, "The seven "asteroids" have no more than three.....but it should read twelve asteroids, as image No. 8 does have 12 asteroids draw on it.
Image No. 4 is a good image for study.
Hope you enjoy reading it. And maybe it will give you something to think about the next time you try to kill a crow at 60 plus yards!
As long as the bird is flying in a straight line at a constant speed 60 yard plus shots are very doable. However one must be equipped with a shotgun choked tight and throwing an adequate payload for that range and a heavier pellet is needed for tighter groups and adequate downrange energy. A 10 gauge shines on such shots and is a blast to shoot.
It's fun dropping nosebleed high crows but the secret to putting a real bunch on the ground is getting those crows in as tight as possible.
Ted
Actually the secret is to hone one's skill and use a gun capable of adding a bunch of crows flying with an oxygen mask to the pile of exploded dead ones that committed to the decoys. When you get the hang of it the tall ones are not that hard to hit and kill.
We build pretty darn good blinds and kill a lot of close birds but not every bird commits and there are also birds that are exiting after the first shot. I'd much rather have the big ten and know that my chances at 50 yards+ are much better than not of a kill then to be holding a small bore and not shoot.
-- Edited by nhcrowshooter on Monday 30th of April 2012 09:27:52 PM
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Just funning ya SD
