Hey guys, I've had a lot of requests asking me to do a hunting video in slow-motion.
So, here it is.
...out at the land-owner's house; invited back.
That is their little dog. At least he was a dog until someone put him in the trash compactor.
Young people have no idea what I'm talking about.
If you grew up in the 70's and 80's you know what a trash compactor is.
You do not see them too much anymore... But, I'm getting way off subject here.
This is how I set things up. The Leupold quick-disconnect scope mounts come off; scope slides forward.
Seben DKA2 Camera mounts goes on.
You see a piece of PVC [pipe] there on the ground. I use that as a spacer for the mount
It helps secure it more firmly to the scope.
..and also keeps the scope mount from torquing on the ocular piece, which of course would be HORRIBLE for the scope.
It is a necessary piece that I have found for this particular setup
We are going to hunt pigeons today - or,
I do not need to tell European hunters that these are food.
Most Americans view them as pests, but the can actually be delicious if you know how to prepare them.
And I have a great recipe for pigeon pie passed down by my Polish grandmother to me.
So, let us go get some birds.
This if the first shot of the day, and it is the shot that convinced me to quit taking head shots. From here on out, I take upper chest and neck shots.
And this is why...
Pigeons are in the chicken family (error: pigeons are in Columbidae - the dove family) and they move their head around a lot.
And that guy moved his at the last second, and it saved his life.
That pellet slides right over where his head should have been.
And right about there, I think he realizes the gravity of the situation.
This is the first bird of the day. The wind is going left to right a little bit.
...about a 60 yard shot here. And this bird...
takes a solid hit.
Now he flies off, but the pellet clipped his neck - not his spinal cord, but his wind pipe.
So he flew about 50 yards, and crashed hard. By the time I reached him out in the field, he was completely dead.
...The second bird of the day. This one does not go quiet as far as the last one.
He takes a hard hit - right in the neck.
This pellet did cut his spine.
And here is what is interesting - he takes a step to the left.
It is a very subtle step. But, had he not done that...
This pellet would not have impacted him in the kill zone.
It would have actually played out like this scenario right here...
This is the bird before him... And that just plucked a few feathers off his neck, and this bird goes away unharmed.
That is hunting - it is a game of millimeters.
I'm sorry about the fuzzy cross hairs on this one. But, this is actually a very interesting scenario.
The wind is picking up a little bit. You can see his feathers blowing around. Watch the shot right here...
It looks like it barely clipped his shoulder, but he went down like a ton of bricks. Now this is why...
The shot enters the upper-left shoulder. And as you can see, it exited out his back.
This is significant because if we look at pigeon anatomy...
Their spinal cords twists upward against their back, along with all their vital organs.
So it is high - not low (in the area where their flight muscles are located).
So, the pellet his this bird right in the "clock work", and he went down hard. By the time I reached him, he was dead.
This is the profile I prefer to see when hunting. The front profile offers a better kill zone on the bird.
Again, I am trying to shoot above the breast meat.
The pellet impacted pretty much where I wanted it, and he died almost instantly.
Actually, "she" died instantly - it is a female bird. Her "boyfriend" is there behind her. He gets away this day.
You can see the wings do not even come up. No effort is made to fly away.
She just tips over and expires - almost immediately.
These starlings come by, and I admit I have NO love for these birds. I'll take whatever shot they present. They are very skittish.
They are a very crafty bird..... And that pellet JUST misses this guy's head.
I'm not completely concentrating on a clean kill, I admit that some hunters may dislike this.
[as we watch this bird....duck under this pellet] [Groan] Darn starlings! I will take them down any way I can.
They are not welcome in our area (Europen invasive species). They do considerable damage to our native birds.
And when one flies, they all fly. So I actually rush this shot.
I give him a good story to tell. But, this bird does not come down.
If you watch closely, you can see how lucky he is. The pellet almost hits his flight feather, but instead hits the twig he is standing on.
Which deflects the pellet down enough to remove only a few feathers from the center of his wing.
Had he lost his flight feathers, he would have came down instantly, and I would have finished him with a 2nd shot.
And you can see right HERE, that just his center wing feathers were removed.
.....lucky bird.
And that is the end of this video, guys. We got 10 birds in total. They all went in the pie.
You got to see 3 or 4 of them. Thank you for watching.