I was looking for a part on the Web this a.m., when I ran across this 1959 GUNS magazine issue. An article (p. 16) written by Bert Popowski caught my eye. No crow shooting, but a wingshooting with dogs article. This entire issue brought back lots of memories as I felt taken back to the time I was 11 and just beginning shooting; I read through all of the gun magazines I could with great relish, just like Ralphie in Christmas Story (the movie). Another interesting and frustrating twist on "then" and "now" is the Civil Defense article (p. 38) when our government--with the memories of two wars still fresh along with the Commies lurking about--actually encouraged the civil militia concept (remember the CMP?). My, how times change compared with the current "gruberment."
Don't you wish you'd used all of your paper route $$ to have dad sock away all of those ole WWII arms and other stuff for sale for now...
http://www.gunsmagazine.com/1959issues/G0459.pdf
Anyway, something to read while taking a break from gearing up for the coming season (1 AUG). Enjoy.
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"Arms are the only true badges of liberty. The possession of arms is the distinction of a free man from a slave." -- Andrew Fletcher 1698
Bert Popowski the father of crow shooting!! To be fair if you got the numbers you'll do well and better but the one thing he said about New England bothered me; something about 15 was the best one could do in New England!
Well yes after the birds move on but in his time we had many more farms than today. I find it difficult to believe all he could get or others in general was only 15 crows in New England. The only reason I'd do that was I was a lousy shot! The amount of crows I used to see likely rivaled the east of this state but this -at the time-was every time I went! I was only getting about 15 in the 70s but anyone better than me which would me practically someone like Bert would have gotten or should have gotten 50-100 birds each time out. What was weird about those days was after the duck and goose hunters left the fields typical flocks of crows in November was anywheres up to a hundred whereas in october the flights were much smaller usually around a dozen to twenty but steadily arriving!
I have a theory as to why that changed too. The old dumps were cleaned up and oddly no other types of hunting was taking place or very little. Today even less land is accessible and despite the food availability for large amounts oddly the whole area dried up anyways so posted signs meant nothing...
Popowski's book "Crow Shooting" was instrumental in getting me involved with shooting the "sable villains"! I discovered the book in my fathers library when I was a young boy... read it cover to cover many times. The rest is history...
Ted
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Life's tough... It's even tougher if you're stupid. John Wayne
