Just so you know, this sport is still hunting and not shooting. Crows are fickle and can fool the best of us!
Recently we set up in another dove field that looked very promising. It was a cold morning and after an hour, the wind started kicking up. The blind was blowing and the occupants were being chilled...to the bone. Worse, the crows were not particularly cooperative. There was a mix of common crows and fish crows. The commons were skittish and the fish crows are always elusive and out of range.
The good news is that we were smart enough (for once!) to call it quits in the middle of the morning. Picked up and gone in a couple of hours, but with only 15 birds.
After cleaning up and leaving, I had a strange feeling that not everything was where is should be. Pulling to the side of the road, I took inventory of all of the items and found that I was missing my FoxPro remote unit...Ouch! A lot was going on when we cleaned up and I must have dropped it. Retracing my steps, I drove back to the site of the blind with my fingers crossed. My fear was that I left it on the bumper of the truck and drove off in a rush to get into a warm vehicle. It took me a couple of minutes to find it, but the remote was pressed firmly into the mud, dead-center in one of my truck tire tracks! I pulled it out, brushed off the mud and sand and held my breath. Yeah! it worked flawlessly! Thank you FoxPro for making such a durable tool!
Nobody gets them all the time, we all have days when things could have worked out a lot better. Weather conditions in the central part of the USA can make or break a flyway shoot. For field types of hunting the birds can change feeding areas out here in a matter of days so if you see them working an area you had better hit them with in a day or two before they change areas on you. This holds true at this time of year when the feed is running out, earlier in the year you can sometimes wait a week to hit the birds.
Dick and I take our share of beatings as well during the season, that's why they call it hunting.
__________________
To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
I.S.
Had it happen this past Saturday, Crows left this spot because of no feed. Going to try and do better with communications with land owners, most are 2 plus hrs away so scouting is difficult prior to hunting, haven't hunted a lot down here in Feb. so I'm learning as I go.
Thanks for the report and hope you get em next time.
Food for thought here.....in situations where the birds are a two hour drive (or longer) what I do is drive there and check it out. If there are not enough to mess with I head home, if there are good numbers I wait watch and look for the rest of the morning to see where the birds are working. I try to line up several shoots if possible, then go get myself a motel room around noon time and stay there for two to three days.
I realize this is difficult if you are still working, Dick & I are retired so time has no meaning to either one of us. When I was working I always got sick in October every year, and once in a while in November & December. My attendance was very good for the rest of the year, never would miss a day, I saved those days for crow season. Something to think about?
You can't rely on other people to watch the crows for you, they don't know what's going on unless the crows are in there front yard. I just bite the bullet and do it myself because nobody is going to take the interest in it that you will take !
Many years ago back in the late 1960's to very early 1970's before I moved to Kansas I rolled into this farmers yard and asked him if he had seen many crows yet? He said "very few so far" so I got out the binok's and glassed the river where I hunt on this guys place. The river is 200 yards from this guys back door! There were thousands of crows going down the river and he had no clue......... this is what I am talking about in regard to relying on other people!
__________________
To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
If I know there are going to be some kind of crow shooting I always pack up and go-grab some coffee an egg mcmuffin(ok you comedians-TWO) and if i see a potential hot area,. enough to keep me at least from falling asleep(in the blind area) I drop in and talk with the land owner...I have found one area can be even hotter just down the road. Farmers only see the crows if they fly over head. Sometimes the whole area is swamped in crows. I mean they were like pigeons and we used a minimum of camouflage to shoot them and in my case just behind a shed!
But the bottom line is you need to see for your self!
You sure don't want to miss a paradise!
This one back road led way out in the woods but at the end of the trees was a big cornfield full of crows! I remember this one old hunting ground where you couldn't see any crows at all! But behind the island of trees you could see through it was black with crows!
Why is it the area with the most crows here in NH has the most gun hating left wing socialist communist tree hugging liberals? You can imagine how funny it is when these same crows rain down calling cards on their homes!
