Checking my Zero on a Crow

[Picher]

I was installing a new front swivel on my old .223 Rem, Tikka 595 and had stood it up against a notch in my workbench. Then, I heard a clicking sound near our ventilation system unit and took a step in that direction. My size 14 shoe clipped the buttstock and the rifle went down sideways and landed hard on the cellar floor.

I picked it up, expecting to see some stock or metal damage, but the old linoleum kept it from being scratched.

Still, after checking the scope and mounts, I decided to check the zero at 50 yards, since I knew where that should be. It was off about an inch horizontally, so it was adjusted and shot a couple in the same hole, 5/8" above POA.

A couple of days later, a crow was feeding on the close-cropped blueberry field, about 100 yards out, and was not close to being in line with my son's house. I got the rifle, grabbed a loaded magazine that had factory Rem UMC FMJs in it, but I'd pulled them all and replaced them with 55 grain Sierra SP BTs.

Sneaking out of the house, I noted the 15 mph +/- wind on a narrow angle, standing, I braced my left hand on the corner of the house and with the Leupold on 9X, placed the fine wires about an inch low of center and held a half-inch left for the wind.

When everything looked perfect, I squeezed off the shot and heard the bang, then, a loud POP as the bullet found it's mark! Feathers were everywhere and blowing around in the wind! I never heard a louder POP at a bullet strike.

After putting things away, I went out to remove the carcass and found three pieces, a small bunch of chest feathers and skin, about 10 yards away, and a wing about 5 yards in the other direction. The main carcass showed extreme damage, with little but skin holding things together. The rifle is certainly well sighted-in.

That's the way to celebrate seeing ground, after such a long Maine winter!!! That will probably keep other crows away from the crops, for a while.

[buck460XVR]

Good shootin'. Been a long winter, it's nice to see the bare ground again.

Crow season is closed here till September and rifles aren't legal for them when it is open. Still, come deer season, you find as many of them layin' dead in the woods as you see gut piles.

[Sure Shot Mc Gee]

Can't target practice on crows in this State for smiles & giggles. Their an eatable game bird.

[jersey joe]

Nice writing as well.

[jimbob86]

Their an eatable game bird.

...

....and here I thought "eating crow" was just an idiom!

[alex0535]

I've heard it taste very much like duck. If I lived in an area with a lot more farmland than roadkill, it might be an eating bird. If I was hungry, sure they look pretty meaty, without any feathers It would look like any other bird.

[LOUD]

Hmmmmmm, around here a crow will eat things a buzzard will turn down! too much of a carnivore to suit my needs.......................LOUD

[Sure Shot Mc Gee]

I've never eaten one. But I would if some other who does would cook one up for me. They must be good eaten otherwise there wouldn't be 3 individual hunting times during a year for 'em. {That's allot of scheduled hunting time for any Game bird or animal up this way since our Fall, Summer, Spring, is a Grand total of 6 or 7 months.}

[Mainah]

Nice shooting, wouldn't expect any less from an Mainah. I've eaten some crow, often fed to me here, and I deserved it.

[Bruce57]

Crows can be very sneaky.

[Art Eatman]

Crows, like starlings were accidentally included (legislative ignorance) in a law protecting migratory birds. It was then decided that crows could be shot if they were committing depredations of crops. (They will do bad things to corn crops, at times.)

Just guessing, then, it's possible that seasons are set for times when the likelihood of some sort of crop damage could occur.

[Sure Shot Mc Gee]

set for times when the likelihood of some sort of crop damage could occur.

Quite possible.

In this State. If their damaging crops. Or seen places where they shouldn't be. Land owners at their discretion are allowed under Law to cull as many as necessary in or out of season.

[zukiphile]

Crows can be very sneaky.

Crows can guess the limits of the effective range of the rifle in your hands with maddening accuracy.

[buck460XVR]

Originally posted by Art Eatman:

Crows, like starlings were accidentally included (legislative ignorance) in a law protecting migratory birds. It was then decided that crows could be shot if they were committing depredations of crops. (They will do bad things to corn crops, at times.)

Here in Wisconsin, a legal season on crows was instituted only a coupla years ago. Up till then, as long as I have been old enough to hunt(40+ years) they were a protected species. The exception was "when they congregate in numbers where they become a nuisance". I asked a warden friend of mine one day what this meant and he smiled and said, "Let's say you were in the woods blowin' on a crow call and you had 4 or 5 crows flyin' around you callin' back. I would consider that "creating a nuisance". But that's my interpretation, and may not be the interpretation of any other warden you may encounter."

I took that to mean, enjoy in moderation. Now with two seasons a year and a 15 bird bag limit, I see little or no increase from folks in the pursuit of them. I assume it has to do with the wanton waste laws here and no desire to consume them.

[Husqvarna]

lets see if there are any Norweigan posters on here, I know that they eat crow quite alot, even served in restaurants.

never bothered to eat the ones I have bagged because general guidelines here is that if they are within a certain distance of a dump you shouldn't, and my land has got a couple of dumps nearby

they sure do hate owls!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUqQSr-bxo0

but I have found them smart, you can't hunt the same place twice in a season

great retrieving training for my labrador

[Picher]

After seeing crows eating stuff on a manure pile and at dumps, I don't want any part of eating one, thank you.

[Unlicensed Dremel]

Crows can guess the limits of the effective range of the rifle in your hands with maddening accuracy.

They're unbelievably smart.

As for eating them, "Four and Twenty Blackbirds, baked in a pie."

Stands to reason on the season coinciding with crop vulnerability stage.

Don't even get me started on federal migratory bird laws. To my mind, for example "Resident Canada Goose Season", which we have, means, *by definition*, that the feds have ZERO jurisdiction here and that the migratory laws are inapplicable. So why do we need a federal waterfowl stamp? It's illegal overstep of authority. I don't buy the federal stamp. And I do hunt the Resident Goose season sometimes. Maybe I'll be the test case for the 10th amendment.

Aside from species which are normally migratory, but also have a resident element (geese, doves, etc.), great-tailed grackles are also protected, which is absurd because they're not only resident in large part, they're a bona fide nuisance. However, the European Starling is about the only one NOT on the federal migratory list, I believe. Shoot them and house sparrows to your heart's content with no fear of the G men.

As for crows, I dunno. I obey the seasons, but don't really hunt them much. I have, and it sure is fun to bring 30 of them in with a crow-owl fight tape and watch, but just don't see much of a point. Though it is challenging due to their incredible intelligence.

[Airman Basic]

My hunting mentor told me: "You need three hunters to walk into the field after crows, then two leave, 'cause crows can only count to two".

[hagar]

In AZ ravens were protected, but crows were not. How do you tell the difference between a crow and a raven? If it's up in the air flying, it is a raven. If it is dead on the ground, it's a crow!

[Picher]

I agree. If it comes in to the decoys when calling; it's a crow...no matter what it looks like.

[jstgsn]

I'd suggest the recipe my father game me for carp, if your going to eat a crow. Find a nice out house with a shingled roof. Throw the critter on the roof and burn the out house down. Then eat the shingles.

[Unlicensed Dremel]

I agree. If it comes in to the decoys when calling; it's a crow...no matter what it looks like.

Ha ha. Reminds me of when I shot at (but missed luckily) a falcon or small hawk of some kind which swooped down by my dove decoys when dove hunting. I reflexively shot as it came out of nowhere and being in the vicinity of the decoys, I naturally initially thought "dove". In hindsight, it was "hunting" the decoys. It wasn't even winged.

[Picher]

I once had a hunting buddy who had come to Maine from the 'Big Cities'. He loved to hunt and shoot, using guns that became his after his dad died.

One day, we were hunting grouse and woodcock and I heard him shoot, so I yelled out, "Did you get it?" And he said "I think so.", so I went over to help. I asked him what kind of bird it was and where it went. He told me it was a woodcock and it flew up and perched in a tree. I told him that woodcocks don't perch in trees and after a bit of looking, I found that he'd shot a small hawk. Later, he shot a Flicker, thinking it was another woodcock. That was the last time he hunted birds with us.

[340 Weatherby]

Pretty hard to eat any crow when you shoot them with a .270

[buck460XVR]

My hunting mentor told me: "You need three hunters to walk into the field after crows, then two leave, 'cause crows can only count to two".

Also works for deer. They can't count at all.

As for misidentifying birds....it goes back to the basic rules of gun safety.....Be sure of your target and what is beyond it. If you aren't sure of your target, you shouldn't even have your finger on the boom switch.