[id10t]

Yeah when I tagged my bird this fall the 8 or so others with him un-azzed the area right quick, some running, some flying horizontally low (6' off ground or so), a few exploded nearly straight up 10 or 12 feet, glided down to ground 20 yards out and started doing their best to join the Olympic track and field team - probably the 100m hurdle event...

They get up in the air amazingly quick compared to other large birds. No slow long lope with lots of flappign like a buzzard has to do, they are more like a crow in flight capability.

They are also extremely tough animals. Buddy was using a muzzle loader last spring with a "reduced" load driving a 10mm 200gr hollow point pistol bullet at 1600fps (actual chrono readings, his normal deer load puts 'em out at 2200fps) from his .45 front stuffer using a sabot. Hit one dead broadside mid body shot at 50 yards with big poof of feathers from both sides, and that thing immediately took off and gained altitude to about 100 feet, then flew south until we lost sight of it.