Anybody want to share their best crow hunting memories ever? I know there are a lot of people on here that have been at it alot longer then I have and even though I only have one memory to share I will be sharing it for a long time to come I can already tell, I love this sport already and would love to hear everyone else's great memories.
So let's hear it! Pictures to go along with them would be great.
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I literally have no idea what I'm doing. -Me everyday.
From getting skunked to breaking your personal best TBC, or crummy conditions making it more interesting, or making that one fabulous shot, Leaving a piece of important equipment behind and finding it where you left it the next day (that feels good), or having a good friend (or first-time kid hunter) along who is brand new and watching them blast their first bandit. So, they're all good, because you learn something each hunt--just some are better than others.
22 & a wake-up (1 FEB) until we in Michigan can begin making 2017 crow hunting memories!
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"Arms are the only true badges of liberty. The possession of arms is the distinction of a free man from a slave." -- Andrew Fletcher 1698
Back around the mid to late 70s one week before Pheasant season or October 1st;on the last Friday of September I would get out of work on 3rd shift and almost within shouting distance ; I would shoot at crows until 1:30pm there'd be a steady influx of crows from the north...however allow me to emphasize they were the local rookery crows. And allow me to emphasize not a one of you wouldn't leave without shooting a minimum of a hundred crows!
I never did; I only got 14 every year with my Featherlight Ithaca 12 ga.And 4 boxes of empties. At this time it was time to go home. I loved it too. The skies were partly cloudy , mild breeze, and not a single crow was any higher than the trees....I got my first double one of these years. And I was also caught outside the blind picking up my kills...but the following Friday now it was time to go to the extreme west of NH to look for crows.Here it was even better;the local crowd was almost a thousand rookery crows here too with a few migrants dribbling through as if the locals got too "boring"..as in never...the few migrants at this time were easily recognized as they were right up there and the locals were often no more than a tree length and a half overhead. This was one of many in my experiences. For now this will do. But as a crow buster that Ithaca was king.I-on the other hand-was the court jester...
I used a Johnny Stewart record player and it was the party all the way. These days every one has one.Well some kind of electronic caller. Oh well it was great while it lasted...
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Top Cat Statutes never replaced or rewrote the constitution!
The decoys then were Herters' and some weird foam and designed to be stuck on corn stubble. I still have a couple dozen. Most of their bills eventually came off over the years of use however I have used them to flesh out my over all set up.Today I use the standard types mixed with some odd balls no longer made...my set ups these days look very realistic but here I won't give any more details on that; bad enough every one has some kind of electronic caller...and sure as Mount Monadnock don't full understand as to their proper useage mucking up the works for every one else...
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Top Cat Statutes never replaced or rewrote the constitution!
Well there was this one time I was hunting alone. It was mid October and a beautiful Indian Summer day. Much to my surprise a vehicle pulled into the field. I wondered who it was, probably a neighbor sick of all the noise. To my surprise it was the farmers daughter, she had long flowing dark hair and she was wearing tight cut off jean shorts. She had tied off her shirt into a bikini top. It looked as if the seams of her top were going to burst at any second. She was carrying a pitcher of ice cold lemonade and a quilt she wanted to show me which she spread out on the ground next to my blind. Shortly after I woke up from a little nap in the leaves, it was the best crow hunting day of my life
-- Edited by nhcrowshooter on Tuesday 10th of January 2017 11:35:59 AM
Well there was this one time I was hunting alone. It was mid October and a beautiful Indian Summer day. Much to my surprise a vehicle pulled into the field. I wondered who it was, probably a neighbor sick of all the noise. To my surprise it was the farmers daughter, she had long flowing dark hair and she was wearing tight cut off jean shorts. She had tied off her shirt into a bikini top. It looked as if the seams of her top were going to burst at any second. She was carrying a pitcher of ice cold lemonade and a quilt she wanted to show me which she spread out on the ground next to my blind. Shortly after I woke up from a little nap in the leaves, it was the best crow hunting day of my life
-- Edited by nhcrowshooter on Tuesday 10th of January 2017 11:35:59 AM
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"Arms are the only true badges of liberty. The possession of arms is the distinction of a free man from a slave." -- Andrew Fletcher 1698
Bringing it back between the ditches (but that was a great post nhc!), one of my favorites happened the first time I hunted with Pete. Pete wanted me to get rid of some problem crows in a dove field he owned near where we both live. I was recommended as a solution to his problem by a mutual friend. As I didn't have anyone to hunt with, I offered to have him come with me, so the two of us got together one morning and tried it out. By typical standards, it was a mediocre hunt with only 16 birds killed, but is was special for many reasons.
First, both of us were "ON" that day relative to shooting. A few awe inspiring shots were made by both parties. That is always fun.
Next, we were visited by a Coopers Hawk that nailed many of our wounded birds. What fun to witness that show!
Lastly, it was great fun to watch "the light come on" with Pete about crow hunting. He was so excited and wanted to do it again soon!
As it turned out, Pete has networked us in to many productive hunts in our quadrant of the state. He has even earned the nickname "Tonto" for being the best crow scout around and we have hunted together ever since.
That hunt started a lasting friendship and hunting partnership that has paid dividends for both of us for years. Isn't that what hunting is all about?
Demi
-- Edited by Island Shooter on Tuesday 10th of January 2017 06:28:12 PM
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The man who thinks he can, and the man who thinks he can’t are both right.
Bringing it back between the ditches (but that was a great post nhc!), one of my favorites happened the first time I hunted with Pete. Pete wanted me to get rid of some problem crows in a dove field he owned near where we both live. I was recommended as a solution to his problem by a mutual friend. As I didn't have anyone to hunt with, I offered to have him come with me, so the two of us got together one morning and tried it out. By typical standards, it was a mediocre hunt with only 16 birds killed, but is was special for many reasons.
First, both of us were "ON" that day relative to shooting. A few awe inspiring shots were made by both parties. That is always fun.
Next, we were visited by a Coopers Hawk that nailed many of our wounded birds. What fun to witness that show!
Lastly, it was great fun to watch "the light come on" with Pete about crow hunting. He was so excited and wanted to do it again soon!
As it turned out, Pete has networked us in to many productive hunts in our quadrant of the state. He has even earned the nickname "Tonto" for being the best crow scout around and we have hunted together ever since.
That hunt started a lasting friendship and hunting partnership that has paid dividends for both of us for years. Isn't that what hunting is all about?
Demi
-- Edited by Island Shooter on Tuesday 10th of January 2017 06:28:12 PM
Great story, some day soon hopefully I'll find a hunting partner although I havn't had much time to "look" for one. Crow hunting is just looked down upon by so many because crows arnt prized game birds but although I'm new I love it! Crows are similar to carp I guess, just considered trash by most but only enjoyed for the sport by a few.
-- Edited by JTNorthArk on Tuesday 10th of January 2017 11:59:05 PM
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I literally have no idea what I'm doing. -Me everyday.
I was wondering if anybody here ever hunted the ft Cobb (I think that's what it's called) roost? I've read some but not alot about it and mainly what I have read has said that it housed over a million birds so of course I'd be interested to learn anything more about it from whoever is willing to share.
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I literally have no idea what I'm doing. -Me everyday.
Re: Ft. Cobb, it would be best to use the search feature of this forum site to get lots of info on the topic. This way the thread stays on track. Just go up to the green band on top, click onto the search feature, type in "Ft. Cobb" and you will have reading for a day or two.
Hope this helps.
Demi
-- Edited by Island Shooter on Wednesday 11th of January 2017 12:36:16 AM
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The man who thinks he can, and the man who thinks he can’t are both right.
Ft. Cobb was the largest roost in North America. It had estimates of anywhere between 11 to 17 million birds, now I don't know how they arrived at these figures but I used to hunt Ft. Cobb back in the late 1960's to the late 1970's. They had more birds than you can imagine, but they also had plenty of hunting pressure because of outdoor writers building the place up in hunting articles of the day. I had more shooting near a much smaller roost that did not get the pressure Ft. Cobb did and it was 100 miles from Ft. Cobb in Shamrock Texas just over the Oklahoma & Texas state line. It was in Wheeler County.
The funniest memory in all the years of crow hunting was on a day about 10 years ago when Dick & I had two e-callers going and we forgot that we were both playing the same call on both e-callers. I was checking my call to see if sound was coming out of each speaker so I unplugged one speaker and couldn't tell from the blind. I thought Dick turned off his e-caller so I could test mine! I unplugged the second speaker and the caller was still going with both speakers unplugged on my e-caller. We were both dumb founded that my caller was still playing when both speakers were disconnected from the unit. We were in shock and couldn't figure out this great mystery! Then it dawned on both of us that his caller was still playing and we got a big laugh over our stupidity! We still laugh about it to this day!
Well I mentioned this before about that really long shot with number 4s...it was a single round I decided to try on this crow making haste over the trees at tree height or just skimming the trees. As it exited the small corn field I fired. It appeared to drop:"I think I got him!" So I had to go look for it. There it was in the center of the rail road track deader than a door knob. I looked in total amazement. I wasn't at this time a particularly good shot. This ole' buck crow had to have been a good hundred yards away but the hits indicated he was dead center of that pattern or so it appeared. To this day I wish I could remember the scenario to hit consistently like that. Ironically the best shot (maybe) of my life and I cannot remember the math involved.
Another comes to mind was a snap shot and didn't see it until the last second and it happened wicked fast. All in a second. The details I remember well...it was spring I think, and the crow was about 20 feet up flying across...and it was really close. This shot amazed me too . It was years before that rail road hit I mentioned just now. I just don't know why my mind draws a blank regarding the hundreds of shots taken before...I say "hundreds" was a figure of speech. IO cannot imagine I shot that many over the years total. It was always a few each time out after that one big day of fifty crows with a partner and everybody else is shooting way more than that.
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Top Cat Statutes never replaced or rewrote the constitution!
I got lot's of memories, and if you'd a told me when I was 15 yrs old you could call and decoy crows I'd of called you a liar, For at that time I had Ruger 10/22 that I was pretty darn good with it. We had a row of walnut trees about 40 yrds from the front door, Crows always would perch up in them a lot. And I would try to just slip that 22 out the front door to get a crack at them. They'd take off before the barrel got out the door normally. Finally one day just before the bus got there I looked out and sure enough, might as well again, this time though I got the gun out, rested on the jamb and rolled the sucker right off the branch. I'll never loose that memory!
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If you aim for nothing you'll hit it every time!!!
As stated above, high killer totals are great. But, I seem to remember the shoots were I had everything set up just right. Great blind, great location, and great weather. Lots of soft shots. Dang I love those floaters!
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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.
