The day after Christmas, I made an 8 hour or so drive to Brownfield, TX south of Lubbock to join a few co-workers on a sand hill crane hunt. This was really my first crane hunt, although I had shot at some once before before going after coyotes on another place.
This place was not too far from a saline lake where they they were roosting and the hunt consisted of pass shooting as they were flying over on their way to whatever fields they were going to feed in. I was shooting my Rem. 860 with modified chocks 3inch BBB or BB steel loads.
Friday morning the weather was near perfect early with scattered sprinkles of rain, but got foggy about 10 am stayed that way the rest of morning. I finally got my 3 bird limit, but took me about 2 boxes of shells to do it. I never could figure out the lead, whether they are in front or behind. Sometimes I could hear the pellets hitting, but they didn't fall. A couple were obviously hit, but again didn't fall or least not close by.
After you click on the video link, click on the 3 dots in the lower right had corner of the video and click "full screen"
https://www.flickr.com/video_download.gne?id=49341627662
We ended up with 10 birds for the morning and had a tailgate lunch in the field.
The next morning the weather was clear, but windy. I expected it to be better since they would be flying into the wind, but there was a big exodus of birds in mass early, and they were flying much higher and not as many were passing over head. They were flying a different route and not as many opportunities.
We only managed to get 4 birds that morning. After another tailgate lunch, I made the 8 hour drive back home.
Yesterday after church, I cooked up 4 breast fillets. I weighed on at 8.9 ounces.
Cooked to a medium rare an it really was hard to tell the difference between it and beef ribeye.
This place was not too far from a saline lake where they they were roosting and the hunt consisted of pass shooting as they were flying over on their way to whatever fields they were going to feed in. I was shooting my Rem. 860 with modified chocks 3inch BBB or BB steel loads.
Friday morning the weather was near perfect early with scattered sprinkles of rain, but got foggy about 10 am stayed that way the rest of morning. I finally got my 3 bird limit, but took me about 2 boxes of shells to do it. I never could figure out the lead, whether they are in front or behind. Sometimes I could hear the pellets hitting, but they didn't fall. A couple were obviously hit, but again didn't fall or least not close by.
After you click on the video link, click on the 3 dots in the lower right had corner of the video and click "full screen"
https://www.flickr.com/video_download.gne?id=49341627662
We ended up with 10 birds for the morning and had a tailgate lunch in the field.
The next morning the weather was clear, but windy. I expected it to be better since they would be flying into the wind, but there was a big exodus of birds in mass early, and they were flying much higher and not as many were passing over head. They were flying a different route and not as many opportunities.
We only managed to get 4 birds that morning. After another tailgate lunch, I made the 8 hour drive back home.
Yesterday after church, I cooked up 4 breast fillets. I weighed on at 8.9 ounces.
Cooked to a medium rare an it really was hard to tell the difference between it and beef ribeye.
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