The Rare Occurance...

[air rifle hunter]

I was out in the bush with my Benjamin Discovery and heard this crow as it came into sight from behind a thick wall of trees.  I crouched down, trying to hide from the crow's keen eyesight.  For some reason this crow never spotted me and landed on a branch 20 yards away.  I could hardly see the bird though, due to small cedar branches in front of the crow.  I knew that the pellet could make it through the branches and connect with the crow.  The crow was facing me and when the 16gr. Air Arms Diablo Field pellet penetrated it's chest the crow let out a "squawk".  The crow lifted off the branch and flew away out of sight.

However, I didn't get all disapointed when I saw the crow fly off.  Instead I stayed still and listened.............- something falling down through branches.  I walked over to where I heard the crash and spotted the crow lying belly up on the ground.  

After the shot the crow flew roughly 50 yards and dropped to the ground.  The pellet struck the vitals but some of it's energy had been lost when it pushed through the branches on it's way to the crow.  It's a rare occurance around here to catch a crow off it's guard, but this time it ended with a dead crow on the ground.

Benjamin Discovery .22
16gr. Air Arms Diablo Field pellet

Brian

[dk1677]

Nice shooting!

[Furseeker]

Great shooting Brian. Very impressive the way you were able to recover him. I'm still waiting to get my first crow. I left my Discovery with my brother for 2 days and in that short time he killed 2 crows, needless to say I took the gun back and told him to get his own. Great pictures too.

[arnie3981]

Lucky shot must i say because most of the times the pellets would change its line of travel after hitting a few branches and would go totally off the mark.  

Out here, I got 5 crows in a row over a stream at 50 yards with my 177 Disco. The first one was sitting on a wire over the stream and when it went down the other crows all came on the wire to inspect him, BIG MISTAKE!

[TheKnot]

That a big crow and a good looking disco nice shooting and smart to wait for the tumbling down the branches .I enjoy when the crash to the ground after a quick fly off  nice pictures also

[air rifle hunter]

Thanks for the comments guys!

Furseeker -  good luck trying to get your first crow!

arnie3981 -  The branches I shot through were flimsy, little cedar leaf branches that are about 1/32" - 1/16" thick.  The crow was also sitting only a couple feet on the other side of the branches.  The cedar leaf branches aren't really strong enough to redirect a 16gr. pellet traveling at over 900fps - unless you're trying to shoot through a lot of them.  You are correct though, normally stiffer branches will send a pellet off course.  I always like a clear shot without any obstructions.  
That's some good shootin', knocking down 5 crows in a row.

TheKnot -  Shootin' a crow isn't a rare occurance for you is it!!


Brian

[shadow]

Good shooting and pic's bro and you caught him off his game hehehe. Ed

[jake]

nice job on that crow!

[gamo2hammerli]

Excellent shot with your .22 Discovery.  Like threading a needle.....

[JimH]

Great shot and great story!