Well I finally got my DVD player to watch BobA.s' fantastic crow shooting episode. Finally ever os finally to hear his "special"crow call and special indeed it was. I was extremely skeptical-how many crows sound like that in New England? None the less they came in time and again and impossibly few misses-in fact I don't recall any at all! If he did miss I guarantee you the second shot quickly altered history! I laughed again and again but if you knew me you would know why. Some of these crows appeared to be exploding! One crow actually looked like it broke up in 5 big pieces!
If it looks like BobA. and his shooting partner is in the boonies as we say around here well guess what? He IS! No one is going to spot this by rolling down the highway or back road. It looks to me you'd actually have to be right out there to know what was going on despite the incessant gun fire every ten seconds or so. Can anyone actually imagine that in most cases?
Here you'll see doubles dropping and it looks like bob just doesn't miss actually calling his shots before the crow explodes. But you'll just love the post death greeting of :"welcome to the united states!"(A very very warm greeting indeed!)
Here BobA. exlains why it isn't wise to shoot too close or even in the crow roost. makes perfect sense.
I was surprised still when I saw Bob using a 12 ga pump-an 870...I never knew he used anything remington...his choice of blind blended in really well which is the idea but I didn't under stand the wind chime crows but here again Bob explained all that too. What got me was the distance-you have to drive your vehicle way out there a single advantage to this is obvious and two fold. The casual observer driving by will never be able to see your techniques! And no dumb game warden desperately needing to check your license because he has nothing better to do like arrest REAL bad guys!
And you don't want Nice Mr. Game warden suddenly scaring off thousands of incoming crows. But in all fairness I didn't really see any more than 10 or so tops testifying that Bob did his homework well. You don't want thousand sof crows sitting on your blind all at once...coming in as singles and doubles is much much better...but he can do that. You and I might have to take what we can get.
Bobs technique is different from mine as i never ever expose myself for any reason unless i am picking up crows which Bob says isn't necessary borne out by the video-the more crows visible the better. It obviously works. His techniques are worth studying . especially his special crow call; that mourning or wailing cry. As he does this he runs an E-caller or his partner does.
He has his own designed "cheat crow" which looks like a crow sized Buster 2 without batteries. And it worked really well too! Wherever he is you got to know in a large flat area there is adequate wind-sometimes too adequate as he explains in the video.
While that isn't an exceptionally large roost he shows us leaving for the day still around here 60,000 is more than enough to melt my gun barrel off...if I could lug out the ammunition. But to begin with shooting at or near a roost is just plain old every day bad news. You can appreciate this given that crows will go into the next county possibly leaving with no crows for miles around and you have to spend hours rolling around late afternoons trying to locate the new roost...
Bobs message is very very clear-you need to get away from every body else, get really well hidden, and carry plenty of ammunition. It appears he uses a home made blind that conceals him very very well. The casual observer won't readily recognize it as a blind either! And that casual "observer" just might be an incoming crow!
I never saw anyone hit so much either! Consistently at that! Years if skeet shooting in the Navy made that possibly unquestionable!
You'll love the exploding crows. many looked as if the shot gutted them almost shooting them in half it appeared!
Bob and Dave do a commentary between the flicks but i myself would rather see the shooting.
I wish there was more of a commentary as to why the Remingtons were chosen. It doesn't detract any from the main meat of the menu though. It is breath taking! Who wouldn't be seeing crows coming nonstop?
But it is an education all around. every crow hunter irrespective of where they live can learn something from this!
The reason I chose a Remington Wing Master was because they are a very reliable firearm and hold up well when it comes to volume shooting. The production you just saw was made 13 years ago when all I used were either 870's or model 12 Winchesters, both pump guns.
In the commercial production of "The Art of Crow Hunting" there was roughly an hour and twenty minutes cut from the 551 bird shoot at the end of the DVD because the lighting was to poor to include in the last hunt. We just used the film footage from the first half of the hunt because it was shot earlier in the day.
Did you ever count how many seconds it took for some of those high birds to hit the ground? Man there were some that were also shot at almost point blank range.
Anyway I'm glad you enjoyed that DVD.
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To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
man I thought they looked close but I thought it was a trick of the camera-just like me to not notice just why they looked almost blown in half!
About that high one? Yeah it did seem awfully long...now that I think of it..! Did you use a shoulder pad at all? I wish they had the decelerator recoil pad years ago!
Are these fairly local crows or do you drive into the next state and do you have the areas you choose to hunt fairly scouted out with complete blinds? Are all the roosts around the 60,000 bird mark? How many rounds average do you expend during any given hunt on the average?
What is your preferred shotgun choke? Does that blind help with the wind? What kind of blind do you use in the snow? Were you already there when your video opens up with those 700 odd crows? Before the crows arrived? was these crows members of that roost you showed us later on? How many shots(rounds)do you take on any given hunt? What do you eat and or drink on an y given hunt? Are all your hunts like that one, Bob?
Do you prefer vent ribs to plain? What is your preferred barrel length? What kind of a shoulder stock do you use? And if you do what model is your favorite?
If I am using a pump or semi auto I prefer a 26" barrel (vent rib) with Improved Modified or full choke. But if the shooting gets hot and the birds are coming in as fast as you can keep the gun loaded I will use Improved Cylender because it is more forgiving than the tighter chokes at close quarters. You can score more easily on multiple kills in mid air with a more open choke providing the birds are with in 25 to 30 yards.
I use a lot of tumble weed blinds in the snow. Many of my permanent blinds are already covered with snow when I arrive at the blind. They already blend right into the landscape.
Most of the roosts I hunt near are anywhere from 20,000 birds on up to over a million in one roost. On average most are between 30,000 to 60,000 in size.
If I am solo an average hunt is 175 to 200 crows so 6 to 8 boxes (25 shells to the box) would easily handle that amount of crows each day.
I don't eat until I go in at the end of the day, I just drink coffee & chew Beachnut Chewing Tobacco all day long.
I use a shoulder pad that is inside my camo jacket, it's a pocket sewn into the right shoulder area where I can slip the pad in or out when it's time to wash the jacket.
Hope this answers all your questions.
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To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
Remingtons are very popular around here and the price reflects and I own one myself. I like them, the way they handle. Very ergonomically friendly and i have noticed other newer shotguns have taken the hint. I have never known a crow hunter to use a mossberg except me. Winhcesters are very popular on the forums too I noticed. I used a winchester pump for years and it worked but compared to a remington or an ithaca it didn't make the grade. Not where balance goes. I seemed to have a harder time missing with an ithaca or remington by comparison.
Bob is the man. I learned more in one weekend hunting with him than I had in the prior 5+ years of hunts. I actually keep a Remington 870 with a mod choke and a Mossberg with a full choke in the blind. I love knocking out some HIGH birds. Keeping them loaded is the hard part when you are having a good shoot.
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I hunt therefore I am!
If you are not stepping forward, you are stepping backwards. Time stands still no for No Man.
You my friend can hold your own with any one on high birds!
One thing that I noticed was the extra recoil you were getting using the Remington 870 and your Mossberg pump on the one good day we shared together. You had a high percentage during the first half of the shoot but I could tell the recoil was starting to get to you because you were starting to miss shots that you never would have missed earlier in the shoot. This is why I switched over to a gas auto in 12 gauge.
Tell your friend Bob says hello. That guy had a very nice house, I loved those red wood floors in his home. Ya'll have some wonderful BBQ in that part of the world. I don't know what I enjoyed more, crow hunting with you or eating BBQ with you?
Best regards,
Bob
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To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
You gave me some critical information regarding recoil and i guarantee you I noted it! I will look for another decelerator equipped shot gun as I know about recoil and the remmington semi I own made all the difference in the world!
I liked the idea about keeping a full choke shotgun with higher brass for high ones too-that is definately etched in my ever vacant brain! (Well , not really terribly vacant but where crow shooting goes one cannot learn too much! thanks again!)
Years ago when just about all I used was a 20 gauge model 12 Winchester or an 870 Remington I didn't have any recoil to speak of with the 7/8th ounce load. I could shoot hundreds of rounds in either a morning or afternoon hunt with no ill effects.
It was not until years later when reloading components started going through the roof that I said to myself "why fight it" so I decided to just buy factory ammo from then on in. Since I hunt in different states it made more sense to just go with the 12 gauge that way I cut down on the bulk of having both 12 and 20 gauge ammo in the truck bed. It also cut down on taking two extra firearms with me, before I used to take two 12 gauges and two 20 gauges with me while on crow safari.
I first went to the Benelli Montefeltro which is recoil operated, the Benelli was a very trouble free semi auto. I used a pair of them for about four seasons before switching to the Beretta model 391 because it was a gas auto with little felt recoil with trap loads. It makes my hunts more enjoyable when I am not getting beaten to death from recoil, I get plenty of other beatings from setting up in the wrong spot during the season.
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To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
I had never noticed that before, thanks for the tip. I didn't get out but once last fall. Good shoot but nowhere near great. I am going to try and really hit some of those good peanut field shoots this year. The pecan orchards will always be pretty good.
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I hunt therefore I am!
If you are not stepping forward, you are stepping backwards. Time stands still no for No Man.
I forgot all about tumble weeds probably they being in such short "supply" here in the north east...but we used to keep a pair of bush snippers to modify natural blinds as that is a great way to go given that some one else will come along as has happened in the past and collect the stored blind laying out there like a summer cottage on the beach.
Some one stored these flambeau turkey decoys in my old crow blind and i used them as part of my set up-they worked really well too but I always put them back. They were left there and were there for a few years too. So too was my military blind until one fine day some one I guess just had to have it.
Maybe the owner decided it was too far to travel and collected his decoys when moving away? The old farmer never would have touched it. it wasn't easily visible so that the corn pickers never would have touched it.
A couple people would come by and take an armful of corn(I don't know why-it wasn't people corn!)
Let me know what John thinks of the "River Hunt' DVD that I sent you? Gadget Bob and Texas Matt viewed about 15 minutes of it but they were pressed for time and wanted to get back on the road to North Dakota that day. I gave Gadget Bob a copy and Texas Matt got some different film footage. That river hunt is the most picturesque hunt we ever filmed. I loved seeing the dead crows splash down in the river like waterfowl!
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To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
