Typical Utah spring weather has the wind blowing again today with on and off rain showers. It’s been that way all week and the weather forecast calls for more of the same weather through the entire weekend. But none of that stopped me from getting out again today. I was able to leave work a few hours early and stopped by the house only long enough to grab some essential hunting gear and head back down to the dairy. Because I’ve been using the 350 Feuerkraft so much lately I decided to take a few different rifles down there today. But the only one that saw any action today was the B28, AKA the Asian Beast.
Upon arriving I was greeted by one of the squirrels that hang out around the tire pile. I parked in the usual spot and gave him a few minutes to calm down before slowly getting out of the truck. I probably didn’t give him as much time as he needed because when I got out he ran down the side of the silage pit. He did stop again and was keeping an eye on me, but the range was right at 50 yards and I did have him in the crosshairs but with the wind blowing as hard as it was I decided that today he was safe, unless he would come a little closer, which he never did. I placed the dove decoys in the same general area as yesterday and went back to the truck. Today most of the birds wanted to be across the street in one of the many cow pens, probably because they had just recently filled all the feeders with silage. Cows and birds eating right next to each other really didn’t offer many shooting opportunities. So today I reverted back to my old habits of just walking around the farm and trying to stock close enough to get a few shots in. There were literally hundreds of Cowbirds down there today and they are aptly named. Those suckers would land in right under the cows, nestled in between the cow’s feet and would not provide a shot. But I took up a position near one of the feeders and just waited. Every now and then a late comer would land on the fence before dropping to the ground to join the others and these were the birds I was able to get a few shots at. When I was on my way out I noticed a large flock had retreated to some trees so I walked over to gate and took air at one of the Yellow head males in the very top of the tree, with the crosshairs steady on his body I pressed the trigger and heard the solid smack of a well placed shot. He tumbled out of the tree and landed in the ditch next to the dirt road. On my way over to retrieve my prize I noticed two pigeons feeding in the corner of the adjoining field. I made my way the corner of that field and rested the B28 on sturdy fence post. I had barely missed one from about the same location and distance earlier in the day so I knew exactly what the sight picture should be this time. They had spotted my approach and were hurriedly feeding directly away from me. I quickly decided to take the one that seemed to be walking the straightest line. At the shot he just fell forward and didn’t even flap a wing. After the shot I grabbed the range finder and it confirmed the distance to be 56 yards.
I did have a few fly offs, which still tells me it must all be about shot placement. I can hit a bird at 30 yards, get all sorts of feathers out him and and watch him fly off for as far the eye can see, then turn around and stone cold a pigeon at almost twice that distance. Enjoy the pics.
