Last day of Ohio crow season.

[Glen]

I got 15 total for the AM. I shot 14 in the 1st 3 hours then changed locations to get the 15th. Here's the carnage.

[steve]

looks like it was raining crows nice shooting!

[Rick in Oregon]

Flying rats......I love it! Good job Glen.

We have a feed lot near home that has an estimated two million starlings! We take our 20ga O/U's and a case of shells each. The shooting lasts about three or four hours, then we're black and blue, and out of ammo. About as much fun as you can have with your clothes on! Who needs to go to Argentina or Venuezeula for doves when we can abuse ourselves right here at home!

[Glen]

Actually it was more like scattered showers Steve.

That would be a total blast Rick!! You have no idea what kind of plans I'm making right now to head out your way on Memorial weekend!! I got into some young dumb ones there. One was just dumb enough to make a 3rd flyby. Only this time it decided to take a closer look at what was on the ground. BIIIIIIIIG mistake!! 15 "GOOD" crows is a nice shoot for me.

[Fred_C_Dobbs]

I got 15 total for the AM. I shot 14 in the 1st 3 hours then changed locations to get the 15th. Here's the carnage.

Glen, I'm going to put my ignorance on display and ask if you're shooting them with a scattergun or blasting them with a rifle gun (as Alvin York would say). I have friends who are fanatical crow hunters but I dunno how they do it in Ohio.

After I read your post, I checked Tennessee's regs. Turns out we have a crow season here, too. Whooda thunkit? More to the point, who cares?

...We have a feed lot near home that has an estimated two million starlings! We take our 20ga O/U's and a case of shells each. The shooting lasts about three or four hours, then we're black and blue, and out of ammo. About as much fun as you can have with your clothes on! Who needs to go to Argentina or Venuezeula for doves when we can abuse ourselves right here at home!

DO NOT go to Argentina. You're too busy doing god's work here. The doves are supposed to be in South America. The European Starlings ARE NOT supposed to be here. They are a blight on the landscape and have decimated many of our native species. If it weren't for the lame-brained bunny huggers, we'd have sprayed them with a detergent decades ago that would wash the waterproofing off their feathers and they'd have died from hypothermia the next time it rained. Problem solved.

Wonder what we can spray on the bunny huggers to solve their problem?

[Glen]

Hi Fred. There's no ignorance in that question. I use a 20ga 870 & shoot em on the wing. I have sniped a few with the 204 & 17HMR when out groundhoggin tho.

[Fred_C_Dobbs]

Hi Fred. There's no ignorance in that question. I use a 20ga 870 & shoot em on the wing. I have sniped a few with the 204 & 17HMR when out groundhoggin tho.

My buds mostly use 220 Swifts and .22-250s. I just love the SPLASH of black feathers when a 50-grain pill clocking more than half a mile a second meets an airborne rat (perched on a tree limb, of course).

I've done a bit of pig hunting with my .204 and would like to bust a few crows, too, but there aren't so many places close by where I could launch a bullet at that elevation and not be worried about who Mr. Nosler might land on (if I miss). My buddies live up on the more sparsely populated Highland Rim region. They cruise the roads in some very rural areas where there's nothing two-legged to catch the bullet if it should fall to earth (which it rarely does).

I've shot two in my yard this past month with a .20 Beeman R9. Either I'm missing the boiler room or the .20 lacks the penetration that that target needs because both of them were "hop-offs." The second one fell out of the tree and played possum for a while. I musta just cold-cocked it because when I looked out a few minutes later, he was hopping around and holding one wing funny. I'm shooting a fairly heavy round-nosed target pellet, maybe I need to switch to something pointy ...or heavier ...or heavier and pointy.

[Rick in Oregon]

Fred: For those flying rats with your Beeman R9, try either the pointed Silver Ace for breast penetration, or even better, the Silver Bear HP. Hit 'em in the head or neck with those, and they expand intstantly for a good feathered flop.

My local starlings have learned to stay way clear of my .20 cal R10 with Beeman 2-7X and those Silver Bears. (I couldn't even count how many pigeons that rig has downed.)

[Glen]

I've shot quite a few with the 17HMR but only 2 stand out. They were both on the ground & I was above them about 25'. The shots were in the 75-85yr range. Both times I was shooting the 20gr XTP offerings with the Hornady label. 1 was shot & it just hopped away about 5 or 6 hops then just stood there. After a few seconds & just before I drilled him again he fell over in the scope. The other one just stood there. I swore I hit him but he didn't move!! So I leveled down on him again & just before the next launch he just fell over too.

Depending on the range I'm betting your getting the penetration you need. I'm wondering how well the pellet is performing.

[Fred_C_Dobbs]

Fred: For those flying rats with your Beeman R9, try either the pointed Silver Ace for breast penetration, or even better, the Silver Bear HP. Hit 'em in the head or neck with those, and they expand intstantly for a good feathered flop....

I'm sure the pellet I'm using now would do the trick if I were getting head shots. I usually only get crow shots at ~40 yards and up, and the head of a crow is just too small a target for me and that rifle -- especially offhand -- to consider that a high percentage shot.

I've shot quite a few with the 17HMR but only 2 stand out. They were both on the ground & I was above them about 25'...

..Depending on the range I'm betting your getting the penetration you need. I'm wondering how well the pellet is performing.

I have a Marlin .17 M2 that's threaded to wear my YHM Mite suppressor. That's my "close-in" varmint gun and what I usually carry when I go for casual drives through the countryside looking for targets of opportunity. I'm sure it would have dispatched this crow but that was at my Mom's place, and she lives inside the city limits. Even suppressed, the supersonic crack of the .17-grain pill probably would have had the neighbors in a panic.

Good point about the pellet performance, though. If that had occurred to me, I'd have tracked down that second crow, finished him off and done a necropsy. I let him hop off because I figured the neighborhood cats could use the entertainment and exercise.

Judging from their responses, in both cases I probably shot them through a wing and I think their wing feathers are very stiff and strong and sucked up a lot of the pellet's energy before it entered the body cavity ...if it entered the body cavity.