Sand Hill Crane help . . .
 

I've decided to go after some this fall and know little or nothing about taking them. Here's my situation. I will be basically spot & stalk them as I have no decoys. I have watched them last year on some Antelope property I hunt and they were "grazing" in groups of 50 - 100 birds!. There will be large bails strewn throughout the property for some cover.
Here in Wyoming, you have to use shotgun. This is where I get fuzzy. My shotgun is a mid 50's Winchester Model 97 with a fixed FULL choke and 2 3/4" chamber. I've been told to use only lead which will be legal. But I am unsure which shot to use. Again, I will be trying to stalk them so I will probly be reaching out 50 yards +.

Don't be shooting at 50 yards. The way to hunt Sandhills is when they are flying not ground swatting them. Go buy some decoys and do it right rather than wounding a bunch of them shooting at ridiculous ranges. If you can't but decoys, scout the fields where they are using and hide in the field and shoot them when they pass over if low enough. We have a bunch of clowns here that like to sneak up on flocks of Snow geese and ground swat them as they feed, they leave as many or more dead or dying in the fields as they take home.

I would say that at a minimum you should take out you shotgun and shoot it at various ranges to see what type of pattern you get. I know a number of guys using TSS handloads that are shooting and killing coyotes at crazy ranges with the stuff. So test your gun to see exactly how far you can shoot and keep a killing pattern !
Check out this video pretty cool and the guys appears to have home made decoys that look easy to make up and an easy straw hide if you decide to go that way !

Ain`t nothing like shooting a 4ft tall bird. Good eats though.

Ron

Cranes
 

That was a great video and basically how I hunt them. Between the roost and feeding fields I pass shoot them. I hunt Montana and were allowed 3 a day. But being there when they are is most important. They may be there for a week or a day and then gone. Were steel only over there and patterning your gun and load at different ranges is a must. I use a range finder to mark my distances, For steel I use 1s and BB's,.And they can harm a dog if crippled , I learned the hard way with my chessies.,