New 12 ga. Crow load

[dennishoddy]

I spent much of my youth at Ft Cobb shooting crows. Some Mondays I had bruised up right shoulder.
We used to shoot and reload hulls til the crimos got ratty, trim and use a rubber ir cardboard top wad.
We mixed 5 shot and 7 1/2 shot in those

I’ve spent some time shooting crows there in the late 60’s. The county would have dumpsters set up all over the place for carcasses.
Millions upon millions of crows.
I understand it’s not that way now?

 

[GnometownHero]

I’ve spent some time shooting crows there in the late 60’s. The county would have dumpsters set up all over the place for carcasses.
Millions upon millions of crows.
I understand it’s not that way now?

Last time I was there was around 1970
Flyway crows stayed high out of range but calling with an owl decoy in a peanut field got us some fast action

 

[Firpo]

That being the case @Master Carper you might find this a little interesting. I have a pair of Holland & Holland Rook rifles that were made just for that task. Late 1800s-early 1900s in England they would commonly eat juvenile Rook which are very similar to a crow. Ever hear the nursery rhyme Four and Twenty Blackbirds Baked in a Pie? Well “Bob’s your uncle!”They were chambered in very diminutive cartridges as you wouldn’t want to be shooting birds out of trees on the outskirts or in town with anything too powerful. Here’s a picture of a 250 Rook next to a 22LR in case you were curious.

And the rifles if you’re more curiouser.

 

[Master Carper]

I spent much of my youth at Ft Cobb shooting crows. Some Mondays I had bruised up right shoulder.
We used to shoot and reload hulls til the crimos got ratty, trim and use a rubber ir cardboard top wad.
We mixed 5 shot and 7 1/2 shot in those

That sounds like it was a lot of fun for sure!

 

[Master Carper]

I’ve spent some time shooting crows there in the late 60’s. The county would have dumpsters set up all over the place for carcasses.
Millions upon millions of crows.
I understand it’s not that way now?

That would have been a dream place for me!

 

[Master Carper]

Last time I was there was around 1970
Flyway crows stayed high out of range but calling with an owl decoy in a peanut field got us some fast action

That would have made for some great shooting right there!

 

[Master Carper]

That being the case @Master Carper you might find this a little interesting. I have a pair of Holland & Holland Rook rifles that were made just for that task. Late 1800s-early 1900s in England they would commonly eat juvenile Rook which are very similar to a crow. Ever hear the nursery rhyme Four and Twenty Blackbirds Baked in a Pie? Well “Bob’s your uncle!”They were chambered in very diminutive cartridges as you wouldn’t want to be shooting birds out of trees on the outskirts or in town with anything too powerful. Here’s a picture of a 250 Rook next to a 22LR in case you were curious.View attachment 404601
And the rifles if you’re more curiouser.
View attachment 404595View attachment 404596

Oh wow! Those are some beautiful old rifles you've got there.

I have seen several old Rook rifles over the years and thought they were all great rifles in wonderful little cartridges...

 

[Master Carper]

Master Carper, got a question for you.

I’ve loaded a lot of shotgun shells but never with buffer, do you mix the buffer with your shot, pour it over the shot after it’s in the hull, or what?

We are contracted for 100,000 12 ga. steel shot loads this year, and for the first time, ALL loads are the same shot size.

BBB is the most requested shot size, and all loads are buffered. BBB also "stacks" beautifully in a steel shot wad.

When adding buffer to loads like this, when you add the buffer to the loads, it flows down around the pellets just like water.

I have used these loads on more than a few crows with devastating results!

Mallards and large geese, from close decoying shots out to a full 60 yards pass shooting, this is a deadly load!

 

[hunter966]

I’ve spent some time shooting crows there in the late 60’s. The county would have dumpsters set up all over the place for carcasses.
Millions upon millions of crows.
I understand it’s not that way now?

I live 9 miles east of Ft. Cobb Lake, we still have quite a lot of crows but nothing like I hear they had back in the day.

When most of the peanut quota got deleted from the county we lost a lot of the crow activity too.

 

[Master Carper]

I use to hear of the literal millions of crows that use to roost in the Fort Cobb area. What happened to the numbers of crows that use to be in that area?