I'll admit I've never shot a crow in my life...I've always wanted a 223 but never figured out what the heck I would do with it. I knew I didn't want a black rifle or mini 14, nothing against those guys, I'm not Jim Zumbo and I've heard some of them are very accurate. I have friends that literally have dozens of fine ass eotech laden DPMS and Bushys and the like.
I had quite a bit of redundancy in my safe and sold a bunch of rifles that were duplicates in some way or another, but mostly the big and medium bore stuff went but I kept a 444, 300 Wby, my first rifle a 30-06, 30-30, 7mm-08, 260. I really feel like my shooting improved scaling down and I appreciated what I had left a bit more. I only got my first "small bore" a while back, a plain jane savage 110 in .243. the action is herky jerky and the rifle developed surface rust quickly. while hunting one day I looked down at the rifle in my lap and said to myself, holy crap this trigger guard is plastic. a small slice with my pocket knife confirmed it. that or the blade on my little case is very hard.. but the rifle will shoot. that is the truth. and I load 80 gr speers that move out.
so back to the 223, it was a stupid title for a thread but I reckon some crows will die. there will be a good backstop. I have one stand in a clear cut and they land out there and make a bunch of racket. I also have another stand in a thicket with a feeder (I have been feeding for over a year trying to get some hogs in). there are a bunch of raccoons eating all of my corn and I may blast em though I feel sorry for em. I am also going to try to start coyote hunting. bottom line, I don't want my hunting to end when deer season is over jan 16. I've got a lot to learn, trust me.
As far as the little FN goes I'll let you know how it works out. It was an expensive little bastard but it has a nice trigger, I'll say that. I was just plain 700'd out though there was a nice XCR tactical with a 26" tube here for sale locally that I came close to jumping on. If the FN turns out to be a overpriced turd I will admit it. It has a 1 in9 twist and it remains to be seen what projectile this rifle is going to fall in love with.
I put a scope on the rifle a few days ago, a (gasp) Nikon 1.75? x 4.5 that came off one of my 45/70s that I sold. I shot it yesterday with some monarch brass 55 gr breaking the barrel in and sighting in. looking at dies and components now. I've been reloading for twenty years and have never held a small rifle primer in my hand. the whole microtechnology of loading such a small cartridge is intimidating. so sorry to ramble, merry christmas guys.
