NC ended Feb. 29th. We did have a Leap Year final day... piled up 121, got a BBQ sandwich... when home with a big smile.. Season reopens June 1. Open a fresh bottle of CrowZac...last Thursday. It still works nicely.
Crows will starting to arrive very soon. Not in numbers worth hunting until Mid April though. I hunt them from then on until the last migrants leave for the south by early to mid October.
Ted
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Life's tough... It's even tougher if you're stupid. John Wayne
Finished here on Saturday. Killed 28 on a conservation area that I figured would have scads of em, but did not. Ended up with 286 for the year, which sounds low to all you Crow Gawds, I'm sure... but remember ... I never had more than 20 crows show up at any given stand, and I can count the number of those on two fingers. Usually it was five or six here, five or six there. There just ain't many crows around these parts anymore.
Finished here on Saturday. Killed 28 on a conservation area that I figured would have scads of em, but did not. Ended up with 286 for the year, which sounds low to all you Crow Gawds, I'm sure... but remember ... I never had more than 20 crows show up at any given stand, and I can count the number of those on two fingers. Usually it was five or six here, five or six there. There just ain't many crows around these parts anymore.
Scout it sounds like you had a fun time and great season. 250+ crows in a season for a single individual is outstanding, nothing to be ashamed of there. I bet if you took a poll of how many folks shot 250+ a year you would be in a small group of people.
-- Edited by nhcrowshooter on Tuesday 6th of March 2012 10:09:49 AM
Well thanks NHCrow... I looked back at my figures and my best day this season was 44, on "opening day." I've always kinda shot for 300 birds, but closest I came was last year at 293.
Man, it's a blast! Hunting crows has become my "new duck hunting" now that I've moved to town. I used to be able to hunt ducks/geese literally out my back door. Now that option is past, so the crows are taking the heat LOL. I tell my pals that I'd rather puff a crow than 10 mallard drakes these days. They look at me funny. I think crows are wayyyyyyyy sharper than mallards, plus they can do aerobatic stuff that a duck can only dream of (swapping ends in mid-flap, for one, and doing that high-speed swoop that they sometimes do).
One of these days, I'd love to go someplace where there are actual crow flyways, and do that type of shooting. All my hunting these past six years has been run and gun.
Anybody ever gone to Alberta or Saskatchewan and hunted crows up there? I've always imagined there are scads of crows there... that never hear a call LMAO!! Always wanted to combine crow-shootin with a duck/goose hunt up there! One of these days.
I'm going to give it one more try at least. Only reason being, I want to try out my new call. Got a Knight & Hale aluminum call. And I got something I want to try as a decoy. If it works I'll post pics after the weekend. Only a little over 3 weeks left in the season. Most of the crows here have splitup and I don't see the big flocks flying by the house anymore. Be doing some runnin and gunnin from now on.
I only got out late at that about 3-4 times and shot at a lot of crows i know were downers and my total was only about 30(?)
I should have had twice that many but had a new to me shotgun and was very careful at the shots I took..initially missing was quite common but once i figured it out...!
So you have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. I have been watching and reading areas in the country where despite their state being a well known big crow state they did but a handful each time out...looked ridiculous to me but so it goes....and i am talking Pennsylvania and New York states where these guys should have shot quite a few!
Managing to shoot at any is always an accomplishment...
Vermont now has one of those week end seasons and goes now to April 11.....I'd like to know how an aluminum call goes.
On that note i learned a lot from mouth calls...my favorite is the Haydells' plastic see through call....the jC Higgins' is a nice wooden call that you don't need to bite down on...the Hoosiers' wooden call you cannot bite down on and works best if using the calls on this website...I cannot imitate certain calls i like on it but otherwise if you use Gordon Krauses' recordings you should be okay...
I don't use any calls except the growl calls on this website...Bob Aronsolhm can sound like two crows on his Mallardtone(?) wooden crow call which i've yet to master ..that particular call demonstrated on his crow hunting dvds' which i recommend..the entertainment value-well-I never heard anyone say to a crow:"Welcome to the united states" then ((WHAAMMMOO)))..I don't remember the 7 crow calls i like the best or I think for me are the best...but that Johnny Stewart isn't one of them! Porbably needs a little fine tuning..but I'd love to know how an aluminum call works!
UK and southern Ireland corvids and pigeon are classed as a pest species, and can be shot end days a year (except northern Ireland whee shooting any bird on a Sunday is banned)
Hence they are very wary birds, and anything out of the ordinary will cause them to flare away. Birds flapping around in the ground, or lay dead in their backs, is a nono, and you generally needs lots of assorted decoys, standing feeding, flying on bouncers or a whirlie.
Also have to ensure to put out "sentry" decoys.
But, if all well with the decoys, and they are hungry for "your" type of crop, then there is no stopping them
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If it moves and is legal but also moral, SHOOT IT !!
I hunt them year-round on a depredation permit.
You all should look into your local Fish and Game/Wildlife Department rules.
Local farmers, etc. LOVE this rule and I'm in The People's Republik of Kommiefornia so any state that is more rational, (49 others), should have some consideration for this.
