"Why are those crows so hard to hit?"
by Staff Advisor Dick Mermon

Crows are by far one of the most maneuverable birds on this planet. When swinging onto a crow that has its eyesight on a specific group of decoys on the ground, or a single deceiver in a tree and not see a hunter, remember that it still has the frame of mind to watch for danger in the area. Should the camouflaged hunter misjudge the bird’s distance, or flight speed at first sight and shot, that crow will take advantage of this human error along with missed shot and begin its maneuverability, not only in flight pattern, or speed, but in size and shape as well.

Such is the time and place to take notice of that crow’s ability to change its shape from a puffed out bird to a tight, smaller in size black ball of feathers. Thus, it now will produce an image that can be taken by a shooter as further off than it actually is and even a second shot will be misjudged for not only distance, but size, speed and finesse of that crow.

Should a bird sort of stop short and fly upwards after the shot is fired, it will mean the shooter misjudged that crow’s speed and distance, whereby the massive shot pattern was in front of the crow. If the bird takes to flight in a forceful speed, the shot has passed behind. Should that crow dive instantly in a downward forceful manor, it was not that it got hit, but an “above the bird” shot. One of the most difficult of all shots that I have found, is when a crow glides in directly overhead and seems to be an easy target, when thought to be range, spread wing and feathers. Nine times out of ten a shooter will underestimate this crow’s flight speed and shoot behind the bird. Slow down and take the proper swing and better still, watch a crow’s technique in outsmarting a human again.