It will not start again for me for another 8 months, next October.
Dick called and said he shot 30 this morning, just got in the wrong spot! He has 6 feet of snow in his driveway back in Ohio right now! Dick has not been home in 3 months, I don't know how he plans to get to his house? You can't even plow 6 feet of snow, perhaps snow blow it?
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To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
I love to play pocket billiards (pool) or carem billiards (with no pockets on the table) during the off season. I played a guy about 3 weeks ago who trimmed Minnesota Fats 40 years ago. He still beat my ass but not every game.
I have quite a few pool party's during the off season. I do my own maintenance on the grounds around the house to keep me busy.
I would love to get 30 crows out each time-nothing to sneeze at given where I live! How ever it is understandable that if you are used to pulling down a hundred each time out it can be frustrating indeed!
None the less I enjoy reading others experiences across the country and my fellow crow shooters here...
my favorite shot last year was when this crazy crow came dead on -I couldn't believe it-easy shot. However that was not to be the norm the rest of that shoot...here is that story...I set out pigeon decoys to my left in a bunch. I had a "flying decoy" from England on a pole but I forgot the battery holder but guess what? The wind made it look like it was just sailing along! we spread out the decoys with one on a pole..this was interesting as one of this group split up to go to it! Some split off to the owl , quite the sight.
Pigeons had been headed of about a dozen or so for their "buddies" when a crow came in from the left following my sailing decoy...pigeons are secondary targets..as are a group of starlings as we never do anything but flock shoot starlings.
Waste of a round to shoot one starling.
One crazy shot was I was out as the 11-87 only holds 3 rounds at this point, and a crow was moving in fast. I rolled in a round to the chamber ( or something)and aimed and fired a snap shot if ever and dropped the crow right in front of my buddies' blind stone dead(HE WASN'T happy I did that!). I still can't believe I did that but have done snap shots in the past over the years. It can be done but for me rare....
Snap shots are when crows come in steady and have an empty chamber...got to load fast!
Well that day I knew this area had been hit before and the crows were not coming over the fields at all...thy were how ever to the far left -East of us and west...so when there is a scenario like that does anyone imagine the techniques used by a "competitor' will work? Of course not!
But this one group caught me by surprise..I never expected they would split up like that...the decoy owl was in front of me, the pigeons to my left along with the flying decoy just behind them...a sharp shinned hawk repeatedly attacked my sailing crow decoy. I should say a couple of them at times came in, on a female sharpie, she didn't want to leave but there was too much activity this day so she couldn't scoop up a dead one if so inclined...I only saw them attack birds on the wing generally. They don't seem to enjoy attacking birds too much sitting still. But they will after the victim suddenly launches into flight. They will dive bomb the victim into a panic to grab it in flight. A red tailed hawk will just scoop up the bird where ever and when ever it can. I have watched redtails grab up shot crows time and again.
Here is a hint: you see red tailed hawks a lot in an area keep your eyes out for crows...red tailed hawks will harass the hell out of crows(if there is not generally too many of them and depends upon how hungry the hawk is)and vice versa. The crows will sooner or later after driving the hawk away will settle down and check out your decoys sooner or later.
Anyways we set out a number of crow decoys -different types..old herters foam decoys and the standard ones i see people using on here....and the crowbuster at the base of the owl...we had to keep our eyes open. Such is the way of the England trees here...fortunately the leaves were largely gone so we could look through the trees at potential targets approaching from a distance away...anyways this shoot was nothing like past shoots in this area and nothing like the old local farm when they only came from one direction...years ago...generally....but the more realistic a set up is in an area hit before the better your chances.
Yes in a sense you could say that is my family, more like tribe as none of them are related to me by blood. Just a bunch of gals I know who like to come over and hang out when I have a get together.
The dog under the pool table is Riley, he does have a little setter in him but he is mostly border collie. He gets so mad when I leave for a week to hunt crows that I have to take all the pillows off the bed and lock them up. Other wise he shreds them in frustration because I am gone!
Dick is going out again this afternoon, more than likely he is shooting as we speak.
I suppose I am spoiled or because I have done it for so many years that it just is not that big a deal to me to share the shooting you get at this time of year. I'd rather just let Dick have at it for what ever he gets. Now this is just me, most guys don't think like this, to me for two shooters out here 200 crows is par, (for a days hunting) anything less is below par.
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To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
Well that is Kansas shooting by one who knows..every now and then I run across someone in Oklahoma who only gets a handful of crows when he goes! So you are state of the art for the height of Kansas or midwestern crow shooting.
State of the art here for me is about 8-15 crows if I manage to hit them...I always see more than that but so it goes...we have our version of state of the art here too but it sure as hell isn't me! I got techniques but not as many crows! And no where near the amount of crows frequenting other areas of the state here.....
I always read with some mild amusement about the western New York State crow shooters who don't get too many either..I mean what is wrong!?? Here in NH we don't HAVE ANYTHING LIKE that but we have plenty to keep us at least interested. And a few of us are getting more crows than those aforementioned ...strange how that works....
The two main reasons some fellas do better than others is experience and knowing areas where the crows do not get any hunting pressure! You can have thousands of crows but if they are all spooked to death you are not going to kill very many of them.
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To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
Compared to past years last year in a new location was more about learning and understanding as I carefully took shots i believed i could score and i did! So let's say i got a very cautious eight but i actually saw about a hundred total tops! it was very active. Many crows were out there. many.many crows! This year if I go there i will try something totally different. I'll need the owners' permission to hit them on the East side this year but i figure I will or should get a hundred! Now wouldn't that be something? I think i can if i get permission! And I don't see why not!
So the bottom line is you got to study the areas you hunt...you might see one or two crows in the distance lazily flapping along but i learned that it's what might be on the ground you cannot see that counts! I followed soem siungle flyers and man oh man I found the main body right on the ground-it was black with crows!
ironically it was also POSTED!!!
Just got off the phone with Dick, yesterday afternoon was his last hunt of the season. He shot 30 in the morning and 114 in the afternoon. He got 172 the day before on an afternoon hunt so in a day and a half he shot 316 birds which is fine for one guy in my opinion.
Now he heads back to Ohio to ride out the winter.
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To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
