"A Day in the Life of a "Run & Gunner""
by Staff Advisor Skip Woody

Warning: This is not a "pretty" story of killing 200 crows in two hours 14 minutes! Boy, I wish it were. North Carolina does not have a crow migration or population to generate even the possibility! What we do have is lots of relatively small "family" groups of birds plus a few migratory flocks that show up late fall/winter, making "run and gun" the only approach that makes sense that has the potential of producing a high (at least for us) TBC. What follows is a "snapshot" of what I would call a "typical" run and gun day(s) for me/us. My gang consists of one and sometimes three others. The number of birds taken varies, of course, with each outing but our approach/methods stays pretty much the same. We are always, however, looking for new "twists". I don"t contend, by any stretch, this is the only way to do run and gun, just mine.

Run and Gunners don't have the luxury of a comfy blind replete with heater, drinks/food/ammo/stool/electronic caller in place/hand built camouflage, lots of decoys and doing very little walking. I suspect we walk at least a mile each hunt to and from the truck and stand. Successful R&G guys have to adopt more of a trench warfare approach. We move our battle station (stands) about 20 to 25 times a day and our success depends on our skill in locating (not the crows) but "correct" cover for each stand. I also believe our shooting "challenge" is somewhat more difficult than the "open skies" flyway method. If I remember correctly, the only thing between a flyway guy and crows is varying amounts of air. R&G have all sorts of things that get between the target and shooter... like tree trunks, limbs, branches, bushes, leaves, twigs in your facemask and eyeglasses and industrial sized briars. Crows bleed, we bleed. Flyway guys only appear to bleed when spattered with crow parts though we are occasionally "complimented" by near "hand to hand" crow action ourselves!

Now that I have touched on some of the differences between Flyway vs. R&G, I'd like to address the single item I think most separates "us" from "them". We R&G folks do have a "type" of shot; a shooting challenge if you will, that is rarely presented to a flyway hunter. This "shot" is second to none in all of "crowdom", perhaps all of birddom.

Skeet shooting and sporting clay events use the same target (clay birds) but the demands on the shooter are different. One is somewhat harder than the other. R&G guys shoot the same "target" as flyway, but the "nature" of run and gun tends to produce, on average, a more difficult shooting situation and that "shot" separates us from the other methods. Here is how I would describe it.

You can hear them..but cannot see them... not yet... as they are hidden by the leaves/branches/trees..but you can tell by the fervor in their voices they are coming. Their direction, at this point, is only an educated guess. Their cawing grows louder. You catch just a glimpse at first.. not even sure if it was a crow, but then more clearly...it IS a crow .. with his buddies in tow. You can see most of them now, slightly above the tree line, some high ones and some skimming over the tree tops. Then one or three or eight dive beneath the canopy. You feel a surge of excitement because you know the next time you see these "low ones" they are going to be in your face. They are on a search and destroy mission. You lose sight of them again as the low foliage is too thick, but you realize, in just a few seconds, you are in for some close in work. Without thinking, your grip on your weapon tightens.

A wry smile creeps across your face as you make a last check of your equipment. Your trusty scattergun is crammed full of #8's and choked Imp. Cyl. You have the correct "prescription" for the day. You start picking them up more often now, these "stealth" crows. They are just not louder now..they are LOUD and coming fast, head high, navigating/twisting with great precision through the underbrush...even hawk-like. Their aerial agility reminds one of a sophisticated video game but this is not a game. They are looking hard for the source of all that noise. That "crow in distress" call you have been working on is working to perfection... and that source is YOU! All of this and only a scant few seconds or so has elapsed since hearing the first bird respond.

Your ears tell you they must now be inside 50 yards and still coming right at you, but now more from your left. You adjust your position slightly. Their forward-looking radar is set on "attack mode" and their eyes and ears are cranked to full military alert. About a dozen "heads" are swiveling 360 in a frantic search to find the "distressed bird". You have a scant few milliseconds to make a hand full of final adjustments/decisions before they break into the open. They include a final "tweaking" of your shooting position, picking the "order" of targets you intend to engage, calculating distance/lead to target, remembering to "swing" not "snap off" shots, when to spit out your mouth call, wipe the slobber off your chin, safety off, forget "trigger squeeze" as this is the FEBA (forward edge of the battle area), remember to raise you gun slowly at the last possible moment so they won"t flare.... GEEZZ.. they are all over you.. FIRE, FIRE, FIRE!!!

Contrast this to: I see them.. about 500 yards away...they will be here after a while...take a sip of your coke..write your mom... get ready when you get the chance.... Shoot.... Reload.

Flyway guys tend to like wind (20 mph or so) since they generally try to call birds from only one direction: downwind. The wind has a muting effect on muzzle blasts for oncoming birds and it tends to push the birds into more predictable flight areas like draws, river bottoms, etc. where they can get out of the breeze. We like NO or very little wind because half the time we do not know where the crows are when we set up. Therefore, being able to call in all directions.. all points of the compass.. is key. Wind seriously reduces the effectiveness of our calling as only the "downwind" crows can hear us. Plus, the already tough job of shooting through trees and branches at wind-aided birds becomes noticeably more difficult as they can "flare" so quickly out of shooting range.

As we begin each stand, we mouth call until we get an answer. Once we learn their direction and distance we "adjust" our position as to take advantage of that knowledge. If you can face the approaching birds you will be a much more effective shooter vs. having them "surprise" you from some other direction. If we just turned on the electronic caller and let it run, we would not know their direction until they were on top of us. That gives them an advantage and they have enough of those already. So, for what it is worth, try calling intermittently (mouth or electronic) until you "locate" the birds, rearrange your position to fit that direction and you will take better shots.

Once in to our "hunting area" for the day, we will travel about 50/75 miles and make as many stands as possible. As I said, we stop when we see "good cover" vs. seeing birds. When we do see birds, flying over or in a field, we quickly take the best cover (if any is available) we can find before they move out of calling range.

We do not use decoys of any kind, no blinds, no road kill, no owls, but do use a combo of mouth (two of us use mouth calls) and a FoxPro with two basic calls: "Distress" and "Frenzy". We travel light and keep it simple. We all use semi-autos, IC chokes and 7.5 or 8"s. As I said earlier, our success depends on identifying the best place to hide. I cannot stress this important point enough. The trees/bushes/etc have to be the right height, thick enough and big enough (area wise) to hide us from lots of prying eyes. This is hard to explain, but after some experience, you just "know" a good place when you see it. Our success also depends on good shooting. If we kill a lot of birds on the first pass or two vs. missing lots of birds, they are far more likely to keep coming back. Miss the first one, two or three shots..and often the stand is over. We try not to do that. Crows are one trial learners.

For what it is worth, I use (and highly recommend) electronic ear protectors and protecting one's hearing is only part of the story. A great additional benefit of those muffs is the ability to hear crows farther away than without them. There have been times, others in my party reported not hearing any crows respond after several minutes of hard calling and were ready to move to the next stand. With the muffs, I could hear them in the distance and a "no" bird stand was turned into a "dead" bird stand. If everyone in your party wears them, casual conversation can easily be heard between hunters even in a whisper. Better/quieter communication helps TBC. I suggest you add "eavesdropping" muffs to your lists of preparations. If you ever start using them you won"t hunt without them.

Below are the numbers for three great hunts we had in January 2005 that produced some memorable moments, plus a remarkable stand we made February 18th that I describe later in this article. During those three days, we made 25,21 and 25 stands to kill 185 (very good for us), 121 and 131 birds respectively. To R and G guys, each "stand" actually represents a different hunt if you stop and think about it: 25 stands equals 25 different places/attempts for us to adapt to. Anyway, here are the TBC numbers as they occurred each day.

9,2,1,6,11,1,3,4,10,2,33,1,8,6,17,4,1,5,6,4,23,8,5,4,11 = 185

1,9,2,4,3,4,11,4,15,7,2,3,8,13,9,12,2,4,6,1,1 = 121

4,3,3,10,18,2,2,8,4,0,10,1,5,8,1,3,0,1,4,6,6,4,1,2,25 = 131

We had impressive 360-degree action at the 33,23 and 25 bird stands and each went on for 30 to 45 minutes. I love that kind of shooting. Each of these flocks consisted of about 40 to 75 birds and was feeding near several different hog operations. On the 33-bird stand, we found a nice bunch of Pines nearby, parked and slipped into "attack mode" as we entered the woods! From the 33-bird total, the kills per gun were 13,11 and 9. We all got good shooting there but typically; with 3 guns only one or two guys will be in the "hot spot". Consequently, when one of us is getting all the action, we have learned to be on "alert" for the dreaded "grim creepers" as the rest of us do tend to "creep" up to "help out" the guy with the hot barrel. I must say about this stand, as we were walking back to our truck mostly out of ammo, valiant warrior crows littered the ground. It looked like a train wreck. There were no survivors. I dialed 911.

On the third hunt, the best part of the day was the last stand. It had been slow all day. It was five o'clock, we had barely crossed the 100-bird mark and whammo... we got 25 birds! We called it the "25 at 5" stand. Birds dived-bombed us for 30+ minutes and we peeled out as many as we could. That evening they had some serious gaps in their ranks when the finally got to roost. We held a "graveside service" before leaving.

Typically, a stand lasts about 15 to 20 minutes and we kill less than 10 birds; often 1 or 2. Once the birds stop coming (or never come) we leave. We could hang around and continue calling and might get an additional bird or two. But the time spent doing that reduces the total stands we can make that day. Those 4 or 5 additional "new" stands we get to make produce far more KIA's that trying to "milk" previous ones. That"s our belief anyway. We try to visualize a 40-yard no-fly zone over our stands. By confining our shots to this imaginary "bubble" we maximize our kill percentages while discouraging the dreaded "sky-buster" attempts. Unfortunately, we do have a member of the team that has chronic "issues" with depth perception. He will "touch off" a shot at seemingly invisible targets. We think he actually fired at the Russian Space Station in January, as no other objects were visible in the sky at the time. He is currently on probation.

We hunt the same place once, sometimes twice a year. That insures we call mostly virgin birds. To me, calling virgin birds is the single most important variable in killing lots of crows. You can have the greatest cover, best equipment, best caller, great shooters, flawless preparation and plan of attack, but you will be hard pressed to call "educated" birds within gun range and most of the ones you do see will have on oxygen masks! Virgin or "green" birds are the ticket.

Each hunt always produces something... crow antics, unusual shots, large number of kills at one place, doubles, triples, misses...particularly misses that should have been certain kills, that later become part of our "crow lore". However, regardless of how well you hide, how great you thought your calling was and what a fantastic shooting day you had, that"s all really of secondary importance. It's that crafty, beguiling, raucous and evasive bird we pursue that elevates/separates our sport from all others.

With some hunts there are instances (but certainly not enough) where two or more birds are dead in the air at the same time. This is special! That means we all did not shoot the same bird...for a change. Seeing two "hostiles" heading in for a wheels-up landing at the same time is hard to beat. Three birds that way causes changes in under garments. One of the great sounds in nature is the "whump" you hear when the ground interrupts a crow's decent. Two or three "whumps" in a row, produces a certain rhythm that I think just might actually be the "Lost Chord" Beethoven scholars have been searching for the last couple of centuries! It is certainly music to my ears!!

Suddenly, a bird that appeared wounded (he wasn"t) fluttered 10 feet over my head. He was actually trying to attack the FoxPro, got to within 4 feet, and was trying to land when he made eyeball contact with one of us and hit his afterburner. I hate to say it, but he is alive today despite coming under heavy fire from lots of 7.5 and 8's. A crow, in full escape mode, twisting through the underbrush, has the uncanny knack (like a quail in cover) of putting every twig/limb/tree trunk between you and he. How do they know how to do that? The ones I miss, that I should have killed, stay with me longer than any good shot I make. Why is that? Am I alone in feeling this way?

At our "first stand" on the morning of Feb 18th of this year, we saw some birds feeding in a peanut field. We set-up in some nearby pines/brush and prepared to "phone" the birds. At this point, there was nothing "special" about the stand but that feeling would quickly change. A few "toots" from my Turpin, got a dozen or so birds headed our way. Once overhead, the first scout bird broke "radio silence" and instructed his wingman to "cover me, I am going in!" We granted his wish and "covered" him with a cloud of 8"s and then started chewing up the rest of his squadron. A few seconds later a badly shot up "bandit" came wobbling by me yelling, "eject, eject, eject!!" Another hollered, "grab your seat cushions... we are going in". He augured in beak first at near maximum terminal velocity, crashed and burned. Then we intercepted a "garbled" transmission over one of the CEF (Crow Emergency Frequency) channels that said, "Everybody out, I am going to try and land this thing!" His radio went dead when he hammered in 15 yards in front of our picket line. Turning back quickly, I caught the sight of two black objects at 3 o'clock high plummeting right at me. They were not doing well, their flight control surfaces were in "failure mode" and both were out of control and on a direct glide path right at me. With multiple hydraulic "leaks" and system failures on board, I bet their instrument panels were just an array of flashing red lights. Fortunately, with my cat-like reflexes I was able to jump left just in time as they brushed by at Mach 1.3. I could see that quizzical "why me" look on their face. They knew they would not be walking away from this one.

By the time we had dispatched our least senior member back to the truck three times for more ammo, 91 other crows departed this world that morning. It wasn't pretty. But once the "maydays" had quieted down and the feathers cleared, all members of our CDU (Crow Disposal Unit) knew immediately we had just added a chapter to our own history. We recorded the largest number of kills at one stand EVER. A remarkable 92 crows were taken in 2 hours with us standing in the same place. What a team effort! Remember, there is no "I" in team.

Skip (left) with friends Gary Hardison (middle) and John Fox (right), both from Newburn, NC. Note the results of a successful Run & Gun session.

Despite the fun I poke at crows, we all have great respect for the bird. We also take pride, however, in our ability to fool him....every now and then. Speaking of "fooling" our group maximizes the time between stands (from 3 minutes to an hour depending on finding suitable cover/etc.) by re-capping and critiquing our effectiveness at the previous stand. We find it a very enjoyable time. Truth is, what we really do during this time is actively criticize, demean, vilify and belittle the other guys shooting deficiencies and general deportment! It"s priceless.

From January 1st to February 26, 2005, we had 11 hunts in including the three mentioned above. Totals were 173, 185, 121,79, 89, 131, 127, 164, 161, 111 and 123 for 1464 confirmed KIA"s. If you decide to consider using our bare-bones approach of keeping it "light and simple" I predict your goal of a high TBC will not suffer. Plus, you can use all that extra energy to focus on "FUN" while holding this very relevant thought: shoot where the crow is going, not where he is!

Our season was over Feb 26. Thank goodness my doctor has already placed me on Crowzac until next season!!!!