Corvid stalk
32 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE
T
he .410 is a noble tool. In
the hands of a child the
.410 can feel like Excalibur,
transforming them into
the latest Hemingway, Selous or
Karamojo Bell. And the first time
a rabbit or a pigeon is felled by that
shotgun’s mighty clatter? Well, that
is a red-letter day beyond the
reckoning of mortal man.
My father gave me a very battered
second-hand, single-barrelled
.410 almost 20 years ago. It was the
crowning joy of my young life. Up
until that moment I had been fixated
on air rifles and the rich pleasure
of stalking rabbits. But now I was
a grown-up and could carry my
gun under my arm like an adult.
And I was not creeping through the
undergrowth like a boy; now I was
striding through it and challenging
my quarry to bolt.Creeping up on a crow
Patrick Laurie accepts our challenge of trying to stalk a crow with
his childhood .410 — a task that separates the men from the boys
D. IRELAND / GETTY IMAGES
My father explained that shotgun
shooting was all about movement; the
swing and the intuitive connection.
He said it called for new skills and
that it was unsporting to fire on a
stationary rabbit if I had the chance
of bolting it and giving the beast
a chance to scarper. Together we
walked through the gorse bushes and
came at last upon a grazing bunny.Unsporting spectacle
The old doe looked up at us and the
shotgun came to my shoulder. My
father steadied me and said: “Wait
for her to move.” I swallowed my
tongue. And when she did move, it
was simply to sit up and take a better
look at us. But that was enough for
me and down she went in a clatter.
It wasn’t exactly what my father
had meant and it made for a pretty
unsporting spectacle.Keeping a low profile is essential when stalking
canny birds such as crows