Oh what a glorious morning this was. I was awakened around 6:35am by crows as usual. I got my son ready for school and on the bus at 7:25 and grabbed the 350 to see what's going on as my wife went back to bed.
I see about 20 of them in the back at the border of my property on top fo the hill. They are all eating bread and/or chansing other crows that had huge pieces of bread in the beaks. It seemed some of the subordinate crows were on the trees above my property but still kind of close to the neighbor's property. All of a sudden a new wave of crows flies in out of nowhere and land on the trees on my property closer to me, about 30yds out. I go to the enclosed porch upstairs which is at the other end of the house on the left and watching the crows way in the back to the right from behind the blinds. They have no idea I 'm there. Normally they would have flown away by now. I normally don't go after them from the porch so I hoped I might take them my surprise. I set my eyes on the one closest one, about 29-30yds out. I open the heavy storm door quickly and hold it open with my foot. More than half the crows took off. I can't see the bird's entire body, only the upper half due to all the branches in the way. I lean my left arm on the door frame, aim the 350. 22's iron sights at the bottom of the neck and squeeze the trigger. I hear a little crack right after the loud report and Immediately I see the crow fall to the snow lifeless. The crows all take off. I reload quickly and to my surprise some of the crows are now returning flying over the dead one and making low passes making a lot of noise. One of them lands on the branch where the other one was sitting secs ago about 30ft above where it fell. I take aim again and shoot quickly as soon as the crow is on my iron sights. The CP struck another homerun and the crow falls straight down just like the other one with wings closed. It lands only inches from the first one. I couldnt' believe my eyes. These crows had eluded me for weeks and months and I had only been able to get 1 of them this season. Now 2 in under 15secs? Wow. I was in shock. I reloaded again still in disbelief. The crows kept making passes over their fallen comrades for another 30-40 secs and then disappeared. One of them even came within 12-15ft of me looking at me as it flew by with its head turned towards me. They all took a good look at me and the 350 so now it will be even harder to get close to them, but it was worth it. What a great way to end the season.
Here's a pic after I came down to take a look at them. This is where they fell and I had not moved them or anything yet. They are about 17-18yds out when I took this pic and still look small. I was at the other end of the house about 60ft to the left and about 7yds back from where I took the pic. It was a good thing I practiced a lot yesterday with a new batch of CP's that just arrived. I shot about 200 of them at 20yd targets and made a couple of adjustements to the rear sight until it was shooting the way I wanted it. The first crow which is at least 30% bigger than the 2nd, got hit in the head right behind the eye. POI was higher which I had actually hoped for because the 350 continues to shoot high (when I sight in at 20yds) until 35yds or so before dropping. The 2nd/smaller one got hit in the chest but had to finish it off with a head shot (got it in the eye) from a few yards away because it was still breathing when I got up close. Tough birds. Still very rewarding shooting on open sights. I find shooting my other guns with a scope now a little boring and mechanical, not as exciting. I 'm still having reservations about mounting a scope on the 350. BTW, yesterday after I got through 100 Cp's or so, there was no more torquing on my stock 350! The gun stopped turning in my hand after a shot. It then shot the next 100 CP's more accurately! I 'm so happy that the gun doesn't twist in my palm anymore. It was doing it less and less but I never thought it would go away almost completely. I guess this proves the 350 needs at least 2,500 shots to be broken in which is about what I put through her so far.
