Out for a shoot - Follow on

[markha 99]

So I was out again yesterday with 3 things on my mind:

1/Retrieve the turret cap off my Bushnell scope after I left it on a fence post the other day.

 

2/ Zero my new scope - Hawke SR12 6-18x44, I saw this on fleabay the other day for £79.99 and thought what a bargain!

 

3/Sort out the crows again on my 'nemesis' permission.

 

 

Well the rain cleared on the coastal side of the mountains about 11.30, but the winds will still pretty gusty, the forecast for the mountain tops was 60-70mph, so not a great day in the hills

 

I planned on the main weather front holding up on the windward side of the hills as is the case % off the time. However this was the other 20% time and as I passed to the lee-side of the mountains it was even worse, Gusts at ground level to perhaps 30mph and very fine rain mixed in with it, now this is not what we call bad weather up here in the mountains, its only bad when the winds are 60mph plus and the rain strips the paint off the house and the telephone lines whistle at breaking point, Oh and there are power cuts every few hours, I kid you not. I have seen a half mile section of power line brought down by winds in the valley road on a yearly basis.

I digress>

 

So not bad weather as we know it up here, but bloody shit weather for zeroing a rifle and trying to shoot crows with a shotgun, I stuck with my plan anyway.

 

So parked up and went hunting for the turret cap, 15 seconds and the jobs done.

 

On to zeroing the new scope. I had already centered both the elevation and windage.

 

So to say I was surprised at my first shot at the target at 25m was an understatement, as it was literally only 15mm out to the left on windage and elevation was spot on! So a few clicks and after 30 or so pellets at the 'shoot n c' 2" target I was a happy hunter, It did take a while as the winds were gusting from 5 to 25mph and as you can guess not the greatest for it.

So on to testing at different ranges, I stuck another 2" target on a post 50m away, and from a shot off the bi-pod the drop that chairgun gave me was spot on. 14x magnification and 5 tie bars holdover on the SR12 reticle, plus 2 - 3 windage tie-bars to the right for the 15-20 odd mph gusts at 3/4 value and I have to say the reticle and chairgun info were not far off at all, especially considering the damn wind, so at 50yds I was getting 2" groupings at best with some shots very wide of the mark due to wind.

 

So job number 2 99% complete and a double check of zero in more favorable conditions is needed.

 

On to job number 3, the bloody crows! Now I had a good old search with the bins last week, and did spot a couple of large nests in use, so armed with the shotgun and a couple of 'overkill/nest busters/fox shells of Lyalvale Express 36g AAA I checked for a safe shot and fired one shell in to each nest from about 20m, this had the desired effect of no more nest contents and lots of debris flying in the wind I was happy that I had got at least some part job done on these b*****d nest robbing thieves.

 

Now the wind was picking up as the front moved through and the rain was getting a bit much too, So I decided to cal it a day and after packing the shooting kit I was heading back home when plan B formed...

 

Now I knew where the damn corvids were mainly coming from, about 2 clicks North of my permission, this was where they always headed back to once they spotted any vehicle approaching, so with the bins I had already had a good luck and identified where this was.

So plan B was a detour to the farm where the crows planned their raids from. Well what can I say? I was shocked at how easy this problem is going to be, No longer were they twitchy about vehicles, or even my pink face grinning manically at them They didn't give a ruddy toss! I could have sat there right then with the air rifle and dispatched the lot, Trouble was no written permission

 

I waited for about half an hour, and had already written a short introduction on the back of one of my calling cards when a quad bike turned up, a quick introduction and hand shake and straight to the point " So I bet you want these cleared just as much as the other farmers who's lambs are being taken" Turns out the guy was one of the farm hands and gave me a verbal go ahead right there, I declined however as I wanted to speak to the landowner, he was away until today and he now has my card and contact details.

 

So all in all another possible permission and a chance at last to thin these crows.

 

I counted at least 30 nests and didn't bother to count the crows, lets just say its going to rain black feathers when I get the go ahead

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now this is a tale in 2 parts:

 

Part One - The Task,Three Tackles and a Bonus.

 

The farmer, Glyn, range me the night before and says he has seen my card and meant to ring me sooner, but when can you come over and sort these crows out? Tomorrow I say.

So yesterday, bright and early I made the 45 minute drive, via the Shell garage to pick up food and to stick a Latte in my thermal mug And arrive at the rookery outside his house.

There are crows everywhere, I counted 32 active nests and there must have been around 50 crows gliding around in the extremely gusty conditions. Winds were pretty cruel for a day of roost shooting, but 'hey ho' If The wind blows the pellet off course, its a very big miss, if not then a hit and down the bird will go, its as simple as that!

 

Within a few minutes of me arriving Glyn appears and we meet for the first time and have a chat about where I have been shooting, who do I know etc, the usual thing.

He tells me about some guy he had come to shoot crows a couple of years ago, and how the guy went off like a mad man shooting anything and everything in rapid succession Lets say it scared the hell out of Glyn's wife and also their dogs and livestock.

So we come to an arrangement, Ill only use the air rifle outside his house, and after pointing out to another 'sitting' tree 150m away I ask if its OK to use the shotgun over there? Yep no problem.

 

 

Glyn goes off to work and I go through my normal routine, check the gas is filled to 170 Bar, then set a target out at 25m and 35m, double check it with the range finder and get down prone on the bi-pod for a solid zero session, the zero range was pretty well protected from the bigger gusts of wind I was getting pellet on pellet at 35m.

 

I stand up and underneath the open tailgate of my van, reach out for the thermos mug and take a swig, I feel there is something above me, Looking up through the tailgate glass I see a crow sat happy as Larry in a branch above me at around 15m height Very slowly I reach for the rifle and all in one continuous movement go from reach to aim over a period of about 6 seconds; The scope has a great picture of a crow at 6 times magnification (Hawke 6-18x44 SR12) and as I look up I'm running through what mil-dot to use for this very close distance and also what dot to use for the fact that I'm shooting at near vertical angle

I think it must have been a sudden rush of caffeine because the long first stage and the slightly shorter second stage all went by in a nano-second and the crow had taken flight in the very gusty winds and I thought that was that! The thing was, the shot was perfect and the crow was dead before his wings knew it, flapping in flight and the combination of strong gusts took the bird about 20 feet where it fell with a soft thud on to the bonnet of a Mitsubishi warrior Well I didn't know that Glyn was in his truck on the phone until the truck window came down and Glyn gave me a thumbs up with big smile and up went his window again!

 

Fantastic stuff I thought, I collect the crow and put it out of the way and get another swig of coffee form my mug.

Now I had the element of surprise on my side for a while at least, as these corvids were used to vehicles and humans not bothering them, I was under no illusions that this would not last for ever. Birds are very intelligent and I was about to find this out all too soon, In fact far too soon!

 

I had seen a tree with about 10 active nests in it, I got my collapsible chair out and placed it close to a chest high wall, facing the tree with the nests in, I ranged it with the laser range finder (LRF) and read the distance off as 42m from my lower angle to the higher nest. This should mean that on 14 x magnification I should be using just a touch more than the 3rd line down on the SR12 reticle, I decided to test this out at the expense of possible surprise on the birds.

It was pretty gust winds so I allowed 2 bars windage on the reticle for the wind blowing full value ( thats 90 degrees) from right to left and squeeze the trigger and the pellets away and the follow through is good. I had aimed at a thick branch and saw the pellet hole and heard a crack as it hit. This gave me two vital bits of information: 1 - The holdover was good and 2 - The windage needed to be worked on a little or better still to wait for any lulls in the wind before taking a shot.

 

Now this shot did upset the inhabitants of the tree somewhat, just as I expected, but within a minute OR so they were landing back in the branches again.

 

It was now a waiting game, waiting for a drop in the wind combined with a target that was clearly showing itself with no obstructions from branches, leaves or twigs. This took a while, a lot of the birds were sat in full view but either swaying around all over the place by a good foot! Or they were partially obscured by other bits of tree.

After 10 minutes I settled on watching one bird that was doing a bit of branch hopping, closer and closer it was edging towards a nest and it did seem a bit nervous, and it needed to be, at last the moment appeared, a drop in the wind, the bird profiled and not a twig in the way.

Breath out through the nose, second stage on the trigger is taken up ( thoughts of polishing the sear came to mind) it goes to the breaking point and the pellet is away and a bird screams and the screams are followed by another 30 screams, perhaps 50 screams as the corvid inhabitants of several trees all scream in unison "Fly Away Fly Away Fly Away Danger Danger Danger Danger" and in the midst of the chaos I see one corvid carried away on the wind, not flying but falling, falling down to meet daffodils and leaves, 42m away.

 

---

 

Got to go and get a bit of dinner on the go, even though I can feel my Pen(keyboard) is in the flow, yes I have pictures, but like all the best paperbacks they are in the middle of the story/book and this is by no way the middle of this short story.

More tomorrow.

mark

 

 

 

---

The corvids are now circling around barking out to each other after the last shot taken at one of their own, Its un-nerved them and they are in no way happy about landing; as such the air is clear of the black mob and apart from the noise in the trees from wind there are no more screams to be heard, just the odd bird flying high and gliding stationary like a kite as it scans the ground beneath it looking for a predator.

 

I take the opportunity to go and find the downed corvid as I'm not to sure if this will put the flock off landing or bring them in, so I err on the side of caution and retrieve it.

It wasn't where I thought it would be, under the 42m tree, 40 seconds later I spot a black shape on the ground about 15m further back, I was looking for presence of the abnormal, or basically things that stand out as alien to the environment

(our eyes are very good at being able to do this, once we have trained ourselves to the task, I did a bit of work as search and tracker in the past and you would be surprised how quickly you can learn to look for people, items and signs to generally tune in to your environment).

 

The corvid is lying belly down amidst a bunch of daffodils,there are swathes of random plantings in this part of the permission, which is basically Glyn's front garden, split in half by a centuries old wall running away from the house to the road. Daffodils everywhere, which on a gray blustery day like today brings a small smile to my lips.

I inspect the carrion for shot placement, especially as it was at 42m in very gusty winds, it wasn't a head shot, nowhere near; the entry point was low down and was basically a heart shot hence it falling so rapidly from its windy perch.

 

While I'm in this area I spy an old stone archway standing at the top right corner of the garden, It must have been part of an ornate entrance many years ago, all that was left now though was the arch and 3 derelict walls and a floor littered with old stone, lime mortar and roofing slates, all probably 100years old or so. I make a note of this archway as its 2' thick wall would give some cover if I wanted to snipe from 15m under the nesting trees.

 

I walk back to my van and grab what is now a half thermal mug of tepid coffee. Just then a quad bike comes in to the yard, its Glyn and as he sees another black mobster his eyes twinkle a little and I throw it next to the 1st one shot at not long ago. We have a quick chat and he mentions that its quiet up here, I reply that they have now got very twitchy indeed and have been gone for about 15 minutes, He knew that already as he told me they were all walking around on a grass field some 200m away, and wouldn't it be good if there were two shooters, one here in the trees and one hidden in the field Ill hold that thought

 

Glyn leaves and I take the chance to have another swig of coffee and half a bounty bar. I have already seen my second waiting point to shoot static from, its only 30m from the van and at the intersection of 2 walls forming a T-Junction at the top left hand corner of the tree area. The walls are about 4 1/2' high and in the left hand corner leaf debris has built up a thick soft layer of fallen leaves for me to polish my butt on I also take the opportunity to reach deep into the pile of leaves and pull out large very wet and sticky pads of glued together leaf rot, this is then pasted to my rifle, I stick a load on the Twink MK2 silencer as well as the very reflective air cylinder and barrel of my Air Arms s410, its puzzled me why they made these 2 parts such a high gloss finish perhaps they think there are more target shooters out there who don't need a subdue/matt surface finish on their rifles, ah well, the leaves do their job very well.

I pull my urban-camo pattern beanie hat down to my eyebrows and pull my drab dark green fleece throat warmer over my face and nose, all thats showing is literally my eyes, on top of that I pull the hood on my Harkila over the top as well.

Now I wait.

 

It was a very long wait, the birds were now gliding stationary over the tree tops, but one would bark and scream and set all the others off and away they would fly, only to glide back in again a few seconds later. Eventually the first birds started to land and branch hope towards nests with all manner of things in their beaks, I zoomed to full magnification of 18 times on one crow, who had a couple of small twigs, an earth worm and what appeared to be some kind of grain all jammed in his beak! This was one very efficient gatherer.

 

After about half an hour a shot finally presented itself, it was in close again, this time though at a slightly easier distance of 21m. A medium sized corvid branch hopping and then resting looking straight at me,its twitchy and moving from branch to branch, at one point it cocks its head on one side and stares back through the scope at me, I really did think it had seen me, perhaps it did, but it just didn't know what it was looking at, it knew something wasn't right, just like the rest of the noisy mob knew. Today something was in their midst and they knew it was danger but they didn't quite know where it was coming from.

The medium sized bird flies away, I slowly move may head away from the scope's eye piece and keeping all other parts of my body perfectly still I watch the medium sized bird fly around for 15-30 seconds before landing again and going through the same little branch hopping routine, first this way then that, another short flight around, a bit of back chat and then it lands again, I follow its movements through my scope, I'm watching things unfold at 6x magnification and have a decent field of view, its twitching about, stopping cocking its head and looking all over before finally looking like its about to stop and catch its breath. The moment has come, all this time I have already had the 1st stage taken up and my finger was applying positive pressure to feel the second stage, now the corvid was still, it was side on and still at 21m, this must be its favourite branch, I squeeze and feel the sear release, the crow takes a last look from its favourite perch and blinks, at the same time theres a crack as the pellet hits its mark and then the din of screams in unison from a swathe of black shapes that all depart on-mass and I know I'm going to be in for another long wait till they settle again.

 

I walk back to my van and put my rifle down, I take swig of stone cold coffee from my thermal mug, yes I still have some left as I use the John Wayne method of drinking - to ensure your billy-can always has water, only ever drink half The its through the gate, in and out of more daffodils to find the medium sized crow, perfect head shot, I walk back placing the crow next to his friends.

 

All is quiet in the trees, they have been well and truly spooked now, I grab the 410 and sling it on my back and decide to go for a wander to find a secluded and sensible place to relieve the effects that caffeine has on my bladder these days Job done, as I turn from my sheltered position I see over the wall into one of Glyn's other fields, 1 rabbit and a kit, he has already told me this morning that the rabbits and their young can also be dealt with, so gently and slowly bringing the rifle off my shoulder I spy on them through the scope, its still set at 6 x magnification and they look a little small, so I zoom in to 14 x mag' and things are much better, they are both around 20m and I'm facing head on into the wind which is still gusting around 20mph maximum now, with the odd gust just nudging me to take a more solid stance.

Ducking behind the wall I drop into a crouch and jog leftwards to a 5 bar gate and have a peep round the corner, yes they are both still there, the distance has increased slightly to around 35m and I now have a 3/4 value wind, blowing from 10 o'clock to 4 o'clock, I extend the legs fully on my Edgar Brothers Bi-pod and line up with the rabbit first.

 

14 x mag' and 2 bars holdover on the SR12 reticle with a slightly wavering 1.5 bars for windage to allow for the gusts, the rabbit is also at an oblique angle with its right ear closest to me, I settle in on the scope and bring my breathing rate down to a point where I'm breathing gently in and out through my nose, 4 cycles of this breathing pattern coincides with me getting a feel for the wind, the reticle is placed for hold over and windage, breath out, squeeze, crack, its back legs give a coupe of kicks and then its motionless, by the time this has happened I have pulled the bolt up and back and forwards to put another pellet in the barrel, a very slight reposition of the reticle to the left sees the kit, which is now a bit more aware and I can sense its just on the cusp of bolting, so line up, breath out squeeze, follow through, crack and a bit of a back flip and leg thrash its over shortly.

 

I collect both of the fur and place them with the feather already lying on the ground out of sight.

 

 

Some More to follow later chaps.

Mark

[Stillers 3]

A bloody good read sir!

[Karpman 44]

Good god. Enjoyed every word cheers pal.

 

Karpman

[Manco 16]

An informative write-up. I really enjoyed reading it.

Cheers, Chris