Testing time on the corvids in more ways than one
By Derek Robinson.
AN opportunity to shoot crows on a Norfolk estate was an opportunity not to be missed and I greatly accepted the invitation from Mark Evans. On the day, I took two guns – my ‘go to’ Browning Maxus semi-automatic, and a recently purchased AYA 3-inch magnum side-by-side. The latter was bought mainly as a fowling gun but having tried it on pigeons, I had encountered a few issues.
The gun is cast right-handed and I shoot from the left shoulder. However, as there was hardly any right-hand cast on the stock, I thought I could get away without changing it. The pattern test proved otherwise. At 20 yards the majority of shot went a good six inches off to the right of the point of aim. Little wonder I missed most of the pigeons I shot at when I first took it out for a try.
A trip to my gunsmiths revealed a change in my eyes. I knew I had a cataract on my left eye, but this had progressively worsened to the point that my right eye had taken over as the dominant one. A suggestion was made, close the right eye, or fit an Easy Hit bead.
