Work has been rather hectic lately and so my grand trip to Scotland has had to be postponed.

Seeking to cast the net a bit wider and at the same time closer to home I hooked up with my mate Mark and decided to try my hand a bit of crow shooting over decoys.



Mark is a bit of a dab hand at this type of shooting and with instructions to meet at 3 am on Saturday morning in deepest, darkest Kent with a shotgun, cammo and a saw.

This game is apparently all about observation and doing your reconnaissance, which Mark had already taken care of the day before.

We were set up by quarter to four and the first shots were fired a few minute just after.

I'm not much good with a shotgun but between us we shot 90 crows, 30 to my own gun, even managing to elicit a word of two of praise from the farmer afterwards.

The farmer is as good as gold actually, at about a ten past four a bloke came down the lane shouting "pack it in you noisy *%%^£$s!!!", to which out comes the farmer is his night shirt with a counter-offer of "They're shooting the crows so you can have a bit of peace and quiet!, Now get 'orf my land!!!"

Good fun and helping me get better with a shotgun, I can see a new niche opening up for me...

Thanks to Kiri for the loan of his Ulrika, since I've had her I've given her a good servicing and this has slicked up her action no end. She's been round the block but I have to give it to her, she's turning in sterling work in my hands.

sorry, no photos as we were far too knackered by 7am to do anything other than retire to the nearest greasy spoon to eat and nap.

Very impressive !
Of course tomorrow those crows will fly around that property !

That's the problem with hunting crows, each set up and location only works once.

Do you have to use steel shot or was that just coincidence that you filmed grabbing from steel packets?

Very nice footage - thanks for posting.

Enjoyed the show, nice!

quote:

Originally posted by mete:
Very impressive !
Of course tomorrow those crows will fly around that property !

quote:

Originally posted by Fjold:
That's the problem with hunting crows, each set up and location only works once.

Thanks lads, that is kinda the plan!

Crows are shot entirely as a service to the farmer ( I've tried rook pie but suffice to say unless there's considerably more Pigeon, rabbit, bacon and other gubbins than there is rook you're in for quite a disappointment...) and whether dead or elsewhere, Giles is happy if they're simply not on his farm.

Mark has literally tens of thousands of acres of crow shooting in the South and so we can move on from one farm to the next as needs be.

It depends to a great extent on what they are doing, crows pulling up new crops for leatherjackets are a much greater priority than ones just scratching about the muck heap.

A fair amount of the art is in the siting of the hide and the layout of the decoys, I'm greedily absorbing all the information I can.

quote:

Originally posted by muzza:
Do you have to use steel shot or was that just coincidence that you filmed grabbing from steel packets?

Very nice footage - thanks for posting.

Thanks for the kind words Muzza, Mark tends to use whatever he has for crows, steel, lead, anything that's cheap and to hand.

I personally used my own "lucky dip" collection of random shells but note that whilst not a large bird tend to be shot at some distance so that heavier charges of smaller shot seem to be the way forward.

I had best success with 30 grams of no6 through an Improved choke in the semi, though the 32 grams of No. 5 steel seemed to knock them out the sky with almost as much alacrity.

We ran out of ammo at one point a few weeks ago and after a night of scrounging met up to go shooting with the first job being to wire-wool the corrosion off all the cartridges we have pulled from underneath car seats, the bottom of roe sacks etc...

Yuk!

quote:

Originally posted by Dom:
Enjoyed the show, nice!

Waidmansdanke Dom, I might be in one when I'm good enough!

Great show, mate! Really great

How do you build the YouTube-video into the post, btw?

quote:

Originally posted by Anders:
How do you build the YouTube-video into the post, btw?

I tried to do it in your post but the uploader needs to enable "Old upload code" on his options so that when you quick share you get the option of the "old" upload markup code.

If you quote the post above you will see the sort of length of code you need.

So for example I can embed this video from your channel:



but not the more recent ones.


It must be an option somewhere to enable "Use old embed code "

http://support.google.com/yout...OldEmbedCode#oldcode

quote:

Originally posted by Ghubert:

quote:

Originally posted by Anders:
How do you build the YouTube-video into the post, btw?

I tried to do it in your post but the uploader needs to enable "Old upload code" on his options so that when you quick share you get the option of the "old" upload markup code.

If you quote the post above you will see the sort of length of code you need.

Thanks! I tried, but was left more confused than ever

Try harder!

It's got to be something if some of your videos can embed and some can't.

Thanks for sharing!

What type of call was used?

quote:

Originally posted by Ghubert:

quote:

Originally posted by Dom:
Enjoyed the show, nice!

Waidmansdanke Dom, I might be in one when I'm good enough!

Amir,

Stop teaching that gun bad habits or I'll have to take it back from you!!

K

quote:

Originally posted by Fallow Buck:

quote:

Originally posted by Ghubert:

quote:

Originally posted by Dom:
Enjoyed the show, nice!

Waidmansdanke Dom, I might be in one when I'm good enough!

Amir,

Stop teaching that gun bad habits or I'll have to take it back from you!!

K

Me teach Ulrika bad habits?

I've been a light in her existence. Since the good servicing I gave her when she first came through my hands, she'll now swallow anything you care to feed her and go for hours without needing a re-lube.

quote:

Originally posted by Easyman05:
Thanks for sharing!

What type of call was used?

Thank you for the kind words Roman.

They used various calls, I'm not exactly sure which particular one this was but I will find out.

Calling is an area I need to learn more about, from what I can see they take a while to master but when used well they bring results.

To be 100% fair, Mark and I shot 80, and could have doubled that number, without calls or decoys last week so it seems to be a matter of icing on the cake rather than the killer advantage.

Wow,

Mark Gilchrist of Fieldsports Britain Fame! That is like shooting with a movie star!

Looks like a blast! Thanks for sharing. Do you hang out with Roy Lupton as well?

Somebody teach that boy muzzle awareness before he shoots himself in the face.

I was thinkg the same - scary to have a loaded shotgun with the muzzle so close to his face & fingers!

Great fun shooting like that thought!

quote:

Originally posted by Small Bore:
Somebody teach that boy muzzle awareness before he shoots himself in the face.

quote:

Originally posted by Small Bore:
Somebody teach that boy muzzle awareness before he shoots himself in the face.

He is a bloody good shot and keeping the shotgun hugging the body is the only way to get these pigeons

They are just too dam smart

quote:

Originally posted by londonhunter:

quote:

Originally posted by Small Bore:
Somebody teach that boy muzzle awareness before he shoots himself in the face.

He is a bloody good shot and keeping the shotgun hugging the body is the only way to get these pigeons

They are just too dam smart

Ben,

His shooting is indeed good but there is never an excuse for dangerous gun handling. A mutual friend of ours has had to appear as expert witness in court case in the past for exactly these kind of situations that have ended with someone dead or injured.

Holding a gun by the muzzle is an accident waiting to happen especially in a tight hide. it happened to me once and the split second It took me to look to my right and make sure my partner was ok was an eternity.

Rgds
K

I'm not sure it was a lack of muzzle awareness - I think it was more likely to be the fact that he'd had to spend 4 hours in a small hide with Amir correcting his technique and regaling him with tales of derring-do. Clearly the poor chap was weighing up whether he was going to get to the end of the session with his sanity intact or if it would just be quicker to bite on the barrel and end it quickly...

Adam.

On reflection I retract my comment.

Dennie is still talking of the lesson in tracking wounded impala he received from the guru.


K

quote:

Originally posted by Fallow Buck:
Adam.

On reflection I retract my comment.

Dennie is still talking of the lesson in tracking wounded impala he received from the guru.


K

Impressive shooting, but I don't think I would like to share a hide with him!

BTW Amir, is ULRIKA a pet name for your URIKA semi auto or did you just make a typo?

Great shooting and thanks for posting the vid Amir.

Those crows are not easy and the young man doing the shooting is a dab hand by the looks of things.

quote:

Originally posted by Adam.270:
I'm not sure it was a lack of muzzle awareness - I think it was more likely to be the fact that he'd had to spend 4 hours in a small hide with Amir correcting his technique and regaling him with tales of derring-do. Clearly the poor chap was weighing up whether he was going to get to the end of the session with his sanity intact or if it would just be quicker to bite on the barrel and end it quickly...

In your company, I have to.

There is only so much provincial Radio 4 regurgitation a man can take before being obliged to commandeer the conversation....

quote:

Originally posted by Fallow Buck:
Adam.

On reflection I retract my comment.

Dennie is still talking of the lesson in tracking wounded impala he received from the guru.


K

So he should!

"Don't be on your mobile when tracking wounded impala Mr. PH" is advice I stand by. :d

quote:

Originally posted by Jon2:
Great shooting and thanks for posting the vid Amir.

Those crows are not easy and the young man doing the shooting is a dab hand by the looks of things.

Thanks Jon, let me know when you're around this way and we'll hook up for something like it if you like.

Long overdue mate.

Would be great Amir. Thank you and yes will do.

Best

Jon

Oops! Someone's leg is going to get pulled over this:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...ml?ito=feeds-newsxml

We use full camo face masks and gloves seems to work a lot better. but 90 crows at one sitting is good. the most we have shot in one shoot is 147.

Amir so this is how you honed your fine shotgun skills for dealing with those flighty featherd rodents of the outback.