As some of you may know, for many years we had an annual event in the Aiken, SC-Augusta, GA area that centered around hunting with the famed crow guide, Jerry Tomlin, God rest his soul. Each Fall, we hunted with him for two weeks...once in October, then again in November. Since his death a couple years ago, our crow hunting world was turned Topsy-Turvy and our "Crow Week" stopped. This year, we secured only one orchard in that region so I decided to do a one day hunt, but added the other amenities that we enjoyed.
Those activities included good food, wine, nice restaurants, sporting clays, fishing and great stories between good friends. We named this 2½ day hunting trip "The Shadow of Crow Week" and it started off with a toast of bubbly in memory of Jerry's good and faithful work with us. This was a very successful outing, and while the hunting was not stellar, we did have some highlights that will be remembered.
Our hunt was in a good pecan orchard, but it was impacted by the weather...an early fog, followed by mist and rain from the outer bands of Hurricane Delta moving to our West. Not bad, but the birds hunkered down so we only got 17 crows. There was, however, one awesome high point that will be remembered forever...the downing of a single crow.
That crow was in a small group of incomers that we shot and brought some down. One crow, however, managed to sneak away and was escaping by flying low to the ground well away from our blind. I took a shot and missed, then nailed him with my second shot. Everyone cheered, so I decided to pick him up to see what the distance was. Pacing it off, I didn't believe the distance so I confirmed it with a laser...95 yards! Longest shot on any game bird I have ever made. Jerry would have been very pleased!
Already looking forward to our next Shadow of Crow Week event!
FINE shot sir!!! Sorry your TBC was less than expected but I have been many times and bagged less than 17!!! You use 1 1/8 oz loads for crows vs. 1 oz loads for clays? Me too! Not sure it makes any difference but it helps my weak mind's confidence!!
It sure would be interesting see a pattern in a 30" circle at 95 yards with that gun and load. I'll bet the % is pretty thin.
Pete,
As a hobby, I love shooting shotguns at extreme ranges and have done it with clay pigeons for the past 18 years. At those extreme distances, there are a lot of variables, so it's rare that you make multiple breaks in a row. Point is, there is some luck involved and taking down a crow at 95 yards was definitely part luck.
Relative to the patterns at extreme distances, when a load of pellets leaves the barrel, it will start to spread out but only to a point. After that point (maybe 75 yds.?) the shot stream stabilizes and remains pretty much the same diameter until it hits the ground.
Interestingly, tight chokes and heavy loads don't help much...and can even hurt your pattern at the extreme distances. Tight choke restrictions will deform the outer pellets before leaving the barrel and those deformed/flattened "flyers" fall away from the shot stream. Likewise, the heavier a load you shoot, the more deformed pellets you will have on the bottom of the shot column when the powder ignites. Because of these factors, you can be very effective breaking 100 yard clay targets with 1 oz. loads and improved cylinder chokes. BTW, my crow shot was made with 1 1/8 oz. of # 6 and Modified choke.
It sounds counter-intuitive, but it works... It took a few years to get him to come, but we made a believer out of Skip last year:
Skip wrote:
Now some further comments/observations on shooting clay birds with 1 oz. of 7.5 shot, 12 ga. at 60, 70, 80, 90 and 100 yards (in my case) using light modified choke!! Demi was dead on when he said I was an "non-believer" remotely considering hitting a fast moving clay bird at such ranges! I just did not believe there was sufficient "pattern density" to break, must less consistently break a relatively small target regardlessof choke or shot. Demi told me I was wrong years ago.. and I was! Old folks..me.. are often resistant to change!
It was my 3rd shot at 100 yards when I saw the clay break! Heck, I had to wait (seemed like it) several seconds for the shot to reach the bird.. but it broke nicely! Wow.. double wow! Please excuse my excitement a month later!! Now add this remarkable shot... the gentlemen standing beside me was using a 28 gauge. I do not know what choke.. but the shot charge was typical 28 gauge..3/4 oz. If he was using 7.5 shot like me he had only 258 pellets vs. my 345!! As mentioned, it took me 3 shots but Mr. 28 ga broke (smashed) the bird on the first shot! Cannot say for sure, but most of uf were shooting 1200 or 1250 fps ammo...nothing faster and no loads heavier than 1 oz.
Is there a lesson here? Yep, several, and one is a big one. Suspect many will not believe this but it is true...choke and pellet count are not nearly as important as most of us have believed all our shotgun lives me included. Demi can correct me on this but to hit that crossing, relatively fast clay it required something like 25-33 feet of lead... and slight "hold over" as the pellets were dropping in on the target at that range! Indirect fire using a shotgun! What!! Another lesson: am expanding my "killing envelope" for crows from 50 yards to 60-65 yards. If I can break a clay at 100.. crows are dead at 60+ and it ain't "sky busting". Lastly, never doubt a world class clay bird assassin like Demi Howard!
Skip
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Hope this helps.
Demi
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The man who thinks he can, and the man who thinks he can’t are both right.
Thanks for sharing your fun couple of days. There may have been luck involved in your long shot, but a certain amount of skill is needed as well. Nicely done.
