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Crows and snow
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Anyone have advice and any luck hunting crow while the snow is falling not just after on the ground?



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Hello;

 Years ago I loved the big soft heavy snow flakes slowly sailing and zig zagging to the ground.Like fog-my favorite-the crow shave  a very hard time seeing completely. Now i am talking lightly falling snow here. Also a light misty rain is also great. I have always gotten decent shoots for this area with mother natures' all natural camouflage. I have actually stood out in the open but camouflaged perfectly still until anti-aircraft time. This is particularly effective on singles and doubles so all you got to do is await the next one and they won't be high either.Worked very well in this area!



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Slayerking -

I have never had good luck with any snow gathering on my decoys. Maybe if you run and gun without decoys, it could be fine -- crows don't care if it's snowing or raining. I have run out to brush new-fallen snow off of my decoys, however, and it's just never good for me when I expose myself too much. So, when snow is falling, I just don't bother. I have too much to deal with setting up as it is without trying to put handwarmers or something in my decoys either.

If the only day you have to hunt is a snowy one, then I guess you gotta' give it a shot, otherwise I stay in bed.

Jerry

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Yeah have to watch snow on the crow. I had that problem too but still had a terrific shoot for that time. But what if a mojo decoy with a timer was used? The spinning effect of the wings might help keep the snow off. Until then-I guess calling alone will have to determine the end game.

\ There has to be something the snow won't cling to on plastic or whatever decoys...



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I have a Mojo Dove that I made black. The snow still gathers on the body. In general, I agree with many that crows don't like the spinning wings, plus I have found that the spinning is also too fast. I made a wired remote for it with speaker wire and 9-volt connectors (you just connect the 9-volt connectors backwards - they snap into each other), and even wired in a potentiometer to make the speed adjustable, but it doesn't matter. I just leave it at home.

Maybe just use a few static decoys, and run out once in a while and dust them off. A little whisk broom would be a good investment and probably work better than the tip of a mitten.

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Might try run and gun without decoys just fox pro call!

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The thing Is I have seen or read a lot of gimmicks and they all work period. I have shot at fly ways without any decoys or calling. (Roost flyways where I did not endanger the roost-a good enough distance to allow the crows use of that roost) The trick with run and gun is to know the area-kind of rots when you go to do it and the house you couldn't see from the road is only a hundred feet away.
Secondly; try to get them on the first run as you are only calling; there are no decoys to cast any doubts on their departure. I have had quite a bit of success running and gunning. I gave it up as gas went up and houses started popping up like spring grass every where!
Gimmicks are a personal or necessary choice depending upon your situation, money and preferences.
The easiest and simplest one I like is where one puts out a buster 2 crow with a hawk or owl decoy nearby. It works so well that calling isn't even necessary! Just have uneducated crows and plenty of ammunition!
But running and gunning? Be sure to know the death cry and fighting calls...they will drop their caution and this is what you want! time and again i have seen where crows wouldn't drop by with feeding calls at all but the death or fighting calls? They came like kamikaze!!!

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motiondecoy wrote:

The thing Is I have seen or read a lot of gimmicks and they all work period.  Gimmicks are a personal or necessary choice depending upon your situation, money and preferences.


 

Interesting.  I feel the exact opposite.

 

Motiondecoy likes to talk about needing gimmicks to fool educated crows.  I still feel the exact opposite no matter the education level of a crow.



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I'm with you BH. Next to Gadget Bob, I've always messed around with gimmicks with the best of 'em. They don't really help me much, but it sure is fun if you're a tinkerer! Motion decoy mods, fake gut piles, happy meals, and old deer 3-D targets, wind activation, you name it. I cannot say that any of it has helped me shoot more crows, and nothing really helps with the educated crows (Lord knows that I've instructed many of them).

If you watch and read what the best do on here, it's find large numbers of crows, hide extremely well, become expert on the hand calls, and shoot very well. But, for now, I have a lot of fun just getting out there trying to get better at it and fooling a few here and there.

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IMG_1272_zps54821c1b.jpg

Unusual for us NC crow guys to get to engage crows over snow!This past weekend was the exception. These two crashed where you see them. . I was suprised at the blood "debris field"...that covered yards around these birds! Black and red offer sharp contrast with white. Graphic!!Again, not something we see here much!

Skip



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Of the 4 months we get to hunt here, I'd say best case scenario is that you are dealing with local educated birds for 50% of the seasons. Some years it is way worse than that depending on when birds might move thru. I know of no tactic from calling to decoys that will bring in a steady stream of easy shooting on those birds. I'd actually say that most efforts just make them laugh at you. Its the same as hunting hard pressured waterfowl. They've seen the lifeless decoy spreads and the weird looking motion decoys before; come on that stuff works once but none of it looks real instead it makes them stay 100 yards away scanning for those two legged critters hiding in the brush somewhere that tried to kill them last weekend. Only way I know to deal with those birds is learning how to consistently connect with 50+ yard birds. And that still wont give me any big numbers.

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Skip,

You do make a good observation.  Crow "spray" shows up quite nicely with a beautiful white backdrop.  Here is a pic of a crow that I helicoptered from a good ways up.  He spun fast all the way to the ground.  



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Big Honkers wrote:

Skip,

You do make a good observation.  Crow "spray" shows up quite nicely with a beautiful white backdrop.  Here is a pic of a crow that I helicoptered from a good ways up.  He spun fast all the way to the ground.  


 Very nice spiral splatter!



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Sure would love to know what exactly fools educated crows. I am sharing my experience-what i have personally SEEN and that worked for me. Maybe it was being over technical. But i want to point out that compared to the greater Mississippi valley area in example you could say crows are mighty scarce around here.

 If you have hundreds of thousands of crows  you probably don't need decoys at all of any nature. Just park under a flyway and have lots of ammunition from what I have been reading from some of the dwellers in the hot areas.

 This area by comparison is mighty pathetic. You could get permission to hit what appears to be a hotspot and no crows at all. Certainly not after the pheasant and goose hunters have  haunted the area. One day hundreds of crows and the next when you arrive-nothing...just one or two that fly away for the day, maybe to McDonalds' parking lot or something? But one thing is for sure; there is always some scout wwaayyy out there flapping along or sitting in a tree you cannot see watching you.

 Bottom line: every ones' experiences are different. New Englands' crow shooting is a far cry from Illinois or Nebraska or Kansas or England for that matter...and each other. If i had the crows the states adjacent to the mississippi river had I'd be in crow heaven for sure.

I could probably get a tax refund on all the ammunition I'd shoot.



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Tom,

When educated crows only come so close (50 yards then fade off) I will move the speakers farther up wind from my position. About 11 years back one of the members and I were on a hunt where the crows would only come within 50 yards of us. We moved the speakers an additional 30 yards up wind and they came in real well. They thought they were far enough from the sound to be safe. We shot over 300 that afternoon, Drew Moore & I, had we not moved the speakers I don't think we would have shot a hundred crows that afternoon.

Bob A.

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Bob A is right!! Odd how that works. I tried everything this weekend on a fly way shoot. The birds just kept flaring. I knew it wasn't me and my decoys were ok. I even took down my sentrys. Drove me crazy. I moved the speakers back 40 yards and drew a few in. Unfortunately it was at the tail end of the flight and it started raining. The important thing is tho,,,, I learned a trick and that will pay off in the long run!!!!!

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That is the sort of information I am looking for on this forum. What a great tip that I don't think I would have come up with on my own! File that one under "Finer Points."

Thanks Bob!

Jerry

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Jerry,

Your quite welcome.

Bob A.

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Hi Bob:

 This is incredibly hot information. I never thought about that but i only got a remote   too late to make a difference but none the less it is still crucial. All the same  with the educated crows here we cannot get them in that close even. They just ignore us altogether however an uneducated one will break a way from that little flight line and head on over. By and large here they sit in tall pine trees barely close enough -if that-for a nice .223 round to blow them to smithereens.

 Unfortunately up here in this part of the state we don't have those numbers you do out there and hardly the numbers i saw in the 70s. They are really weird but one day there is some-not many-and the next day I can barely hear one off in the distance down town somewhere...BUT to be fair..someone I know haunted that area so they knew EVERY call to avoid. To get any shooting at all I said not to run the crow call when they were coming. I have actually seen them flare when he turned on the caller! BUT when left to come on in it was as if they'd never been there before. It is really weird how much of a difference a couple of hundred yards or so makes. The ONLY time we would turn on the caller is if they are not showing any signs of interest way out there.  This area was so screwed over that when we fooled them and  what worked before-that is turning on the caller say the fight call-didn't work now AFTER we cut loose with a volley. They knew it(They actually used to RETURN!) was a set up just a little south of the one they are familiar with or overly familiar with. When I noticed they kept booking I knew right away the place had been hounded to death and was virtually now useless. Anyways the crow shad  had it with the continuous visits by Birds of prey and refused to come there-not even to ROOST just  a half mile away...



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Hi Tom,

No doubt about it, they remember certain spots if they are burned out of there by excessive shooting.

On my last hunt of the season I killed a whopping 7 crows in the morning, the crows were spooked to death. That afternoon I got on a new bunch and shot 50, unfortunately there were not that many of them, but these birds came in real well to the call. It was 10 degrees in the morning so I was dressed for it. In the afternoon it got up into the mid 40's. I took off my down filled parka and sweat shirt. I had my bib overalls on and a red & black checked flannel shirt. I just held still until it was time to take the shot with the flannel shirt on. I got away with it because the incoming birds were looking at the decoys and not me!

Bob A.

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Bob, Your dead right about movement... "Any" kind of movement and crows will look "extra hard" and find you.. It's as simple as that...



-- Edited by Mark on Wednesday 5th of February 2014 10:39:37 PM

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I love hunting in the snow. It seems that the crows fly lower to the ground. A week ago it was snowing and we were able to scratch out 80. This is a really good day for us. I would love to be on a hunt where you would shoot 500



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500 would be great but I'd take an 80 any day



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20-25 is good most of the time for me , I take what I can get

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This one did a header right in front of me!



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