Crow Busters Forum

DuckWyatt · Veteran Member

Volume level

Gadget Bob · Guru

Hi DW,

We start at a natural sound level and, if no response, ramp up to max volume. Throughout a stand, we vary the volume level. Max volume also covers up the sound of our Metro-barreled shotguns to some degree.

And when we say max volume, our new Super Crow Pro from FoxPro pumps out 50 watts of power.

Regards,

nhcrowshooter · Guru

Gadget Bob wrote:
Hi DW,
We start at a natural sound level and, if no response, ramp up to max volume. Throughout a stand, we vary the volume level. Max volume also covers up the sound of our Metro-barreled shotguns to some degree.
And when we say max volume, our new Super Crow Pro from FoxPro pumps out 50 watts of power.
Regards,

50 watts will produce exactly 3 more decibels in sound over a 25 watt system but will drain a battery twice as quick.

DuckWyatt · Veteran Member

I am just using a FOXPRO Inferno so my call will get loud, but not as loud as some. When I was a kid my Dad and Uncle built a caller out of a car stereo tape player, lawn mower battery, and a P A speaker. Let me tell you that you could crank out some volume! That thing is 20 years old and other than replacing the battery it is still going strong. But that was a long time ago and I have married and moved off and been out of the crow hunting scene until last year. So I am starting over. It's exciting as it ever was!!

boba · Guru

DW,

Here are two retired units that were made from car stereo's using cassette tapes. I powered them with a 12 volt marine battery.

I also included some retired Johnny Stewart models from the 1960's, 70's 80's and 90's.

DuckWyatt · Veteran Member

Bob,

Those are a treasure to view. Do you offer tours of your "crow hunting museum?" Guy's like me would get a real treat out of seeing that history and hearing the stories that go along with them. Thanks for sharing.

Matt

-- Edited by DuckWyatt on Wednesday 12th of October 2016 02:25:09 PM

boba · Guru

Sure, come ahead, I have had people from all over visit the "Crow Museum"

Just e-mail me or call me because at this time of year I am on the road doing my thing. My e-mail address rvaronsohn@att.net this way you will know if I will be in town or not.

DuckWyatt · Veteran Member

By the way Bob,

I bought and downloaded your sounds to my FOXPRO yesterday. I am excited to use them this Saturday.

boba · Guru

DW,

Use the fighting call or one of my distress calls and they will come in with blood in there eyes wanting to tear the place up!

Top Cat · Senior Member

I was in a favorite blind and wondering how do I imitate that Bob Aronsohm call anyways he does in his videos? Well things were slow so I imitated it: to my surprise it works like dynomite! I was looking at these crows at tree top level about 7/10s of a mile away I guess and nothing happening(high winds) and yet right behind me came in a dozen right off the river and I smacked one anyways but I was almost too surprised to shoot! If you are already competent at crow calling with a mouth call you can do it!

DuckWyatt · Veteran Member

Top Cat,

I've been practicing!

Top Cat · Senior Member

Not meant to be a criticism of you or anyone but rather a lesson as in you'd be surprised as to what you can do...I thought long and hard as to how to do that all last season. Last Monday it hit me: what if some one had already been here? Now what? Yes the crows were spooky indeed! I tried a call from Advanced techniques I almost never use-never really had to and it worked great but I also knew some saw me shoot down a buddy were now educated so I tried Bobs' call...well,well, well, what did I know? Whether or not they'd been there before that call helped considerably!

And as I posted else where that Bald Eagle got a crow to come over too! They hate eagles! This eagle was the best decoy that day simply by flying up the river closer to me and ole' Jekyll crow forgot all about me or why he formerly ignored my calling! I figured at number 5 a high brass could easily hit him at that height but the best was between 11:00 high or 1:00 o'clock high and by golly 12:00 o'clock high was ideal! And (((KA-BBOOMMM!!!)))

Top Cat · Senior Member

Why the high brass 5s? Simple i got them for what I considered free! I shot some heavy 6s too but it wasn't an argument of shot size it's just that they shoot better if they cost you nothing! With me it's so long as it goes "bang" when i pull the trigger i am happy and better if I hit anything when I do!

DuckWyatt · Veteran Member

Top Cat wrote:
Not meant to be a criticism of you or anyone but rather a lesson as in you'd be surprised as to what you can do...I thought long and hard as to how to do that all last season. Last Monday it hit me: what if some one had already been here? Now what? Yes the crows were spooky indeed! I tried a call from Advanced techniques I almost never use-never really had to and it worked great but I also knew some saw me shoot down a buddy were now educated so I tried Bobs' call...well,well, well, what did I know? Whether or not they'd been there before that call helped considerably!
And as I posted else where that Bald Eagle got a crow to come over too! They hate eagles! This eagle was the best decoy that day simply by flying up the river closer to me and ole' Jekyll crow forgot all about me or why he formerly ignored my calling! I figured at number 5 a high brass could easily hit him at that height but the best was between 11:00 high or 1:00 o'clock high and by golly 12:00 o'clock high was ideal! And (((KA-BBOOMMM!!!)))

Top Cat,

No criticism taken at all. I welcome the advice from seasoned hunters. I did remember that tomorrow is our Youth Deer season. So I may not get to hunt the crows in the morning. But hey, between you and me the deer tastes way better. biggrin

orrow

nhcrowshooter · Guru

Top Cat wrote:
Not meant to be a criticism of you or anyone but rather a lesson as in you'd be surprised as to what you can do...I thought long and hard as to how to do that all last season. Last Monday it hit me: what if some one had already been here? Now what? Yes the crows were spooky indeed! I tried a call from Advanced techniques I almost never use-never really had to and it worked great but I also knew some saw me shoot down a buddy were now educated so I tried Bobs' call...well,well, well, what did I know? Whether or not they'd been there before that call helped considerably!
And as I posted else where that Bald Eagle got a crow to come over too! They hate eagles! This eagle was the best decoy that day simply by flying up the river closer to me and ole' Jekyll crow forgot all about me or why he formerly ignored my calling! I figured at number 5 a high brass could easily hit him at that height but the best was between 11:00 high or 1:00 o'clock high and by golly 12:00 o'clock high was ideal! And (((KA-BBOOMMM!!!)))
Top Cat, we have seen migrant crows in NH this week, the big push is yet to come but they are definitely on the move through the state. Wondering if you get out much and if you are racking up any numbers?

Top Cat · Senior Member

Yo' Pete-yes indeedy! I've seen quite a few! It appears they are gradual as we both know the wind was horrendous last Monday. But the deal is they put in a new cornfield much closer to their roost so why mess with me? It wasn't a great day as my shotgun screwed up. Did I see crows-oohh yesss!!! Like you Pete the crows come in all at once so we see the numbers but too many get educated at once...I should have gotten more than I did despite the damnable wind but the gun screwed up. But in terms of "racking up the numbers"? Nooo....what I see is a gradual migration and here's why; an earlier posting pointed out that all the crows were hanging further north of my position is some huge rumble whereas any calling wouldn't have mattered and didn't....but the bottom line is there's a lot I saw skimming the trees into that roosting area and a big cornfield right at the base so they didn't need bother with me. Don't you worry now, be getting out there where ever you go; this could be a long migration period and you got nothing to fear except running out of ammo.

I think shooting a hundred crows that you and Scott do is fantastic for this area to be sure but what if it turns out that you too get only 20 each time out but still your total general 700 what ever for the season? That can't be too bad and that might be the story for you too this year and then again maybe just your big day hasn't arrived yet?

Monday all the ones I saw that gathered up on Monday apparently collected at that location to do battle with the ever present red tailed hawk and bald eagle which almost non stop traded back and forth north of me...

Top Cat · Senior Member

I might have had a hundred or more right in front of my blind but got only one and I was done a couple hours where as the occasional 12 0'clock high one would come out of the north just saying:"Hello" as it passed by at high speed with that horrid tail wind....it was way up there too, maybe 1,500 feet I'd guess....singles and doubles came over like that not dropping in from the north so I'd say it was the beginning of the migration so hang in there and for your sake don't underestimate what you think is going to be a handful of birds as I firmly believe it will only get better! Keep a goodly supply of ammo with you at all times! You don't want to running back to the truck for more ammo just when the shooting gets red hot now do you? Didn't you say that happened to you two in Maine once? I've gone into a field this time of year(years ago ) seeing only two crows and set up and much to my surprise in came the crows! If only I'd been there a couple hours ago one year! By "there" I mean north of me...

So don't be thinking this is going to "suck" today where ever-you could be missing out on that big annual shoot of yours!

By the way someone else in another part of the state has asked me the same question you have. Stay vigilant is your best bet. They are coming!

Top Cat · Senior Member

In further explanation-yes I had a hundred or more crows right in front of my blind but I never saw anything like that again that day. Mainly I'd see the usual-a dozen maybe like you two or a single which we both like-that is how we get any numbers at all. But sadly; I didn't get the usual twenty birds and however did see a partial piebald which escaped unscathed-I never saw a gun malfunction like this one did; no not the 11-87-that malfunction was the Walrus Mart "El not so Supremo" loads not having the oomph to make it go so I blamed the gun...I know, I know:"DDDUUHHHH!!"..turns out in the past years semi autos don't like reloads too much; my personal experience. Is it the rule? No..obviously not.

I hope I do not have another day like Monday though....crows hate that high wind...and of course no more "El not so Supremo" jam-a-matic Walrus Mart specials will largely be absent too. Big Honky told me that they jam his 870 and that means a pretty awful load if that happens indeed!

Top Cat · Senior Member

..oh and another thing; that hundred birds did not all come down together i sincerely do not believe but grouped up as they arrived from the north.(Montreal) this seems to be evident as I saw lone birds high over head who saw them moving on south of me and thusly ignored me as a result and continued to do so as they arrived....high over head then it all stopped for a couple hours the odd straggler that came over when the wind died down which it did about 2:oo then ;where did all the crows come from? I mean a handful here; one or two there but it became evident to me some one had indeed been there before me: I saw the tracks and the educated ones stayed east of my position following the ridge line until directly across from the rest whereas they promptly turned west. Other arrivals from the north basically slipped through the trees eating at that new cornfield....

Top Cat · Senior Member

Had things been better with the hundred birds coming by one by one well obviously -well yes-I could brag about that but they down like a giant loose beehive so I got more with my eyes than my gun....if only my looks could kill!

nhcrowshooter · Guru

So after fead8ng all that, are you getting out much and racking up any numbers? LOL7[

boba · Guru

TC,

I had problems with the heads on the Walmart El Cheapo loads and bought a Benelli semi auto and never had a problem after that. I used the Benelli's for 5 seasons and then went to the Beretta gas semi autos and have used them with no problems from the El Cheapo ammo at Walmart. The Beretta's and Benelli's will shoot anything you feed it.

Top Cat · Senior Member

(
So after fead8ng all that, are you getting out much and racking up any numbers? LOL7[

NNnnoooooooo...I don't start until later in the season. Monday was the first time this year. It's a long hike to go anywhere unless I can get anything. But when I do go twenty birds is the norm. I have competition or should I say I give someone else competition. Unfortunately they aren't always doing it so the crows are wary. They do it just enough to make it harder. ( I know what you are thinking,Mr.Comedian)

It was great having a newer and bigger cornfield to be sure as it anchors the birds so if nothing else I can drive by and wave. So no; I am not racking up the numbers. Mother nature was exhaling pretty strong wind gusts Monday.

You are wondering why I don't rack up the numbers despite all the foraging potential for the crows? It's really strange to be sure. I can access other cornfields perfectly shootable right now but there's no crows! I don't get it; nothing will go into those fields and others. I mean even if you were a bird watcher the fields are totally empty! Not even any bugs or spiders! It's a totally different day from when I hung out on the old connecticutt river valley. Once a year a huge flight of hundreds of herring gulls would come up the river (wrong direction or what?) And at some point the biggest flight of regular boring noisy blackbirds ever found in New England would come through;there was this field across the river covered in so many snow geese it looked like it actually snowed in Vermont in this one area..I was absolutely amazed at this time..it looked like that old tv show:The American Sportsman"...

Yes Bob I agree wholeheartedly about your Italian shotguns....they sell a few here mainly the hunters put them on lay a way but a few have them...i ought to do that but I got it in my head well I got this poor mans shotgun and that so..can I justify it this year? Nooo......

Back to you Pete; yeah I know it is unbelievable about the old Connecticutt River Valley. If you could have seen it up until about 1983 I guess you'd have been amazed-I know I was. Now many hang up north in that huge flock we know of but there's no place to shoot but just to see them is always interesting if you got the time..plenty of places to eat if you and scott want to roll up there...but don't bother asking permission to shoot that farmers wife wear the pants and not only will she say:"NO" she will ream out your bacon and she is a right nasty holier than thou broomstick rider. The farmer is a gentleman and a good ole' country boy but he fears his wifes' wrath so much you can see the fear in his eyes hoping you exit but fast. One day she came out-and she was nasty .....so that area is a complete write of. What happened is every piece of shootable property is posted and when you got money and all this time the number of signs you could cover every last inch of the all new england laid out end to end! They did areas of the river in Vermont next to the river too! Not every last piece of it but...the prime areas. And all those crows how ever I wouldn't go up there until later on though so you can see those crows.-say-November some time.

Top Cat · Senior Member

The best I ever did with a partner was 55 but that area now has all these restaurants and stores on it-Keene-but all the same the crows came down in good sized flocks so one or two out of 50 in a bunch and you cannot rack up the numbers like that and anyways it is all gone. The crows don't seem to fly over anymore anyways. This was one of the connecting areas on their way to where ever they went for the winter...there is another area fairly close but here again-not enough crows despite that 300 bird flock. Why bother? One shot and they are all gone. If you are lucky you might get 5 or 6 birds for the day but after that? Done for the season!
And ironically that was a twenty bird area but for only one day for the season...crows ain't that dumb. Other factors was that pheasant hunters screwed it all up and even more land was posted so....it's a rich folks area and they don't like hunting or guns so "let's move to tax free NH" (that isn't "tax free" at all by the way) and ban all their guns!(Criminals target these areas too-rich people got rich things and they go big on the black market so its a free pass because those folks have no guns and they came here from New York,Connecticuytt and Massachussettes and call the cops when they see you walking across the field with your rifle or up the road to your blind)....!

boba · Guru

TC,

It sounds like a police state to me? Perhaps a living nightmare? I don't know how you stand living back there?

Top Cat · Senior Member

Good news is his year I didn't see many mosquitoes so they sure didn't figure in any "west nile Virus" theories...or ideas...how ever I feel west nile virus might have been the factor in why swallows are practically non existent for obvious reasons and bats too....
I could be covered in mosquitoes in 2001 and earlier just walking across the yard after dark but these days? Really strange but I don't miss them. Anyways, the usual 4 crow family in the neighborhood weren't at all affected and the twiddly diddly litle tweety birds seem to have fared better possibly due to the lack of mosquitoes...

Top Cat · Senior Member

Hi Bob just caught your post....the people are friendlier over all further north..there are pockets of humanity in what used to be a regular folks state..still is just don't talk about hunting-just got to know where to go. Well I plan on moving; you better believe it. Things sure have changed around here. When the cops pull you over for any reason their hands are always on their still holstered pistols and their attitude is quite evident. ("Go ahead-make my day")
Yes it is sad as to what happened..farming used to be a very profitable enterprise but they traded heavily with central and south america putting farms out of business.."God Bless" America and all that...but it's all about smuggling coke in with the trade excuse to mask it all....just like the oil in the middle east and the heroin trade by the way...dogs cannot smell the poppies in the oil from the middle east all and all..what a racket!
The Military and Industrial complex is all about making money another story that's been sold.."An Economic Hit man"-find a copy and you too can say:"God Bless America"-yeah right. This takes in oil from almost anywhere and drugs but it means-again-no farms or fewer farms which is practically a hobby in the cold frozen wind blown North East hell hole...of joblessness, crime and bankrupt morality and phony R.I.N.O. styled "republicans" and the left is getting firmly entrenched....but I expect to get some fairly decent shooting tomorrow and Monday at some crows in the Dema-roid and the republican left wing of the so called party who don't believe that Trump ought to be saying we the people, for the people and of the people. That is what got Justice Scalia murdered. That is what got that former French President arrested to give you an idea as to how bad it is. She said:"France first!" IN an UN dominated area you don't say that..it is very dangerous! And they arrested her for saying that six years ago and when it appeared she would win well that is why I don't think Trump will win no matter how often he points out the Clintons anything goes dealings of everything A-Z...

Top Cat · Senior Member

On wearing fur..well I do..but people are weird tree huggers these days....some quite rabid too...my heroes growing up were Davy Crockett (as if you couldn't guess) and Daniel Boone, George Washington and that alone is enough to get me thrown in a FEMA camp..forever...well strangers stop me when they can and want to know where they can get one of those fox fur hats I wear-makes me look like a mountain man and I love it so I meet lots of people like that asking me-even Black people too! Some too shy to talk just stare but it has cost me but rarely because some-a few-are tree huggers and they hate me for it. But they don't say jack kadiddly...you can always spot me in winter in a crowd...I'm the only one in the area who dresses like that...in Massachussettes? They'd set up road blocks to arrest me!
But more people like my fur hats than don't. Even the Bay staters. But all told fantasies about cartoonish animals rules the land-"Bambie" ism and all that. This explains the posted properties and the ironic of building houses right in the middle of and endangered wildlife habitat..go figure....

Top Cat · Senior Member

It is a living nightmare Bob...in every way you can imagine and couldn't dream of at least to me regarding the crow situation...and other things I won't relate unless someone else brings it up straight out of the "Twilight Zone"!!!