Hoodie crows

In the last post I said I was travelling to Scotland. Once there, one of the main jobs (apart from getting some interviews and photos for our next issue) was to sort out the hooded crows. The local farmers hate these things with a passion. It's hard not to, when you've seen them rip a tiny lamb to pieces with those chisel-like beaks.

Well, I spent a bit of time zeroing my .17HMR and, to cut a long story short, I managed to get a couple of crows. This one was shot at about 70 yards off the vehicle's bonnet; the other was a better shot (at about 145 yards off the bipod) but I didn't have the camera with me that time. Hardly the most flattering picture of me ever taken, but it does prove I got one.



The .17 is a remarkable rifle, and has really transformed my crow control - and rabbit shooting for that matter. It's cheap and relatively easy to shoot, amazingly accurate for what is a very inexpensive and fairly basic gun (it's a CZ BRNO), and with a decent moderator it really doesn't cause much disturbance either (certainly not in the very open countryside on this part of the West coast). The only drawback is it can spoil a lot of meat - hardly a problem when you're shooting crows!