SmallCaliberCentral

Been busy around here plus other things have kept me quiet on the internet for quite some time now. But I haven't fallen completely off the face of the Earth!!

Decided after this past Spring's Turkey fiasco I wanted to bump up to a 12ga. The trusty 870 20ga has performed beyond my expectations & I have even gotten to the 75% hit rate on crows with it. But I think it was time to move up anyhow.

My search was simple. A 12ga semi under $500. I wanted gas op but knew recoil op would be the way for the money. So I found a dealer here that got me a 712 with the 24" barrel for just under my limit. I ordered it back in September & it was here in about 3 days if I remember correctly. She's a good looking rig that I'm becoming familiar with. No jams, stovepipes or failures of any kind after about 250rds on crows & at the range.



1st successful hunt & 1st blood.


4 "good" crows for the day.


Yesterday's dirty dozen. 10 in the pic & 2 in the river right behind me.


I'm near 50% already on crows & hope to continue my upward swing on the learning curve. I know it didn't take long to realize there was less lead with a 12ga than the trusty ol 20ga!!

Glenn that has some nice wood on it. Crow huntn is fun .

Yeah I got lucky Clint!! I can't wait for next weekend to get after them again. Thanks.

How's the 712 after owning for sometime Glen? I had the opportunity to buy a used one, but decided to pass. The seller was asking the priced of a brand new one. I figured I'd just buy a new one then. I'm just waiting to pull the trigger and order one.

I really like it. It fits me well & points nice as a result. It's just heavy enough to tame some of the recoil on the crow loads yet is easy to carry long distances in the turkey woods. The upside is that you get 5 chokes with it. The downside is you don't get a tight enough choke for turkey/coyotes and there is only 3 chokes for turkey/coyotes & one of them is from CZ for $40 & the other 2 IF I remember correctly were $60 & $90. And some people don't want a 12ga unless it chambers 3 1/2" shells. This one will only chamber up to a 3" shell which is plenty for me. I'm happy with it & glad I bought it.

Glen wrote: And some people don't want a 12ga unless it chambers 3 1/2" shells. This one will only chamber up to a 3" shell which is plenty for me. I'm happy with it & glad I bought it.

I had a Weatherby Model 82 once and it was chambered for 3" rounds. darn...I hated pulling the trigger on that thing even with light bird shot 71/2 rounds. It's one that didn't stick around here very long. Nice gun, I found out after the 1st shot it just didn't fit my application at the time.

Jim

Yeah those 3" Turkey loads will rock ya Purdy good. Luckily there isn't much need for those every year. 3 at the very most if I'm lucky. The crow loads are all 1oz of 7 1/2's handloaded so they are rather mild yet murder on crows.

Just walked back in the door!! I went yesterday AM early to look for crows. I found about 100 or so. They were evenly divided between 2 fields about 8 miles apart. Last night on the way home from the store we seen probably 250 crows flying in the general direction of one of those 2 fields to roost. So I decided to setup on the closest field 1st today. Just hoping some would fly South to my location.

Well it didn't quite happen that way but the other 50 or so from yesterday did show up to the same area. I was able to call them from my location & really enjoyed the shooting. I used the CZ712 this AM. The sky rained black feathers for hours!! Well maybe not that much BUT,,,,, 17 crows became a little more mild mannered than when they came in!!

There is 16 in the pile. Ol #17,,, which was actually the 13th crow of the day,,, ended up downstream somewhere. Seems they don't swim all that well when they're full of holes!!



This is my Field of Dreams shot.



You can see the "floater" about 1/3 of the way down the pic. Along the hanging branch on the left.



Sure was a good morning hunt. I had a lot of fun.

Savageboy23-- The CZ712 performed flawlessy again today. Even on a couple of straight overhead shots. No stovepipes or failure to ejects. Altho I did have it completely apart last month for it's annual thorough cleaning & internal parts oiling.

Sounds like that was a great investment Glen.
I still plan to get one in a bit; a man can never have too many guns. I actually ended up getting a great deal on a Benelli super black eagle 2 last fall so the cz got put on hold.

Yeah those are nice shotguns!! Wouldn't mind having one myself but the "cheap old SOB" in me wont approve that kinda $$.

I originally thought it was a recoil operated shotgun as well. Come to find out it's gas operated. So a win/win in my case for the money. When I was researching shotguns I came across this video on the CZ-USA website.

http://www.cz-usa.com/products/view/cz-712-semi-auto/

Glen wrote:Yeah those are nice shotguns!! Wouldn't mind having one myself but the "cheap old SOB" in me wont approve that kinda $$.

I actually found a used "American series" for under $1,000.

21lbs. 9" beard. Twin 1" spurs.
10:15 Friday AM just after the 3rd soaking downpour of the morning. Closed the bolt on the CZ712 this AM & there was still moisture in the action. Got it all apart & cleaned & oiled & put away today. Thanks for looking.

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Beatiful bird Glen! Nice shootin

Thanks savage! Those Spring Toms do have some really cool colors.