It's been some time that I have been able to join in the conversations and even longer getting into the field for crows. Well, I finally did get to call some and I also introduced an extended family member, John, to the fun of crow hunting. I went to Delaware for the conservation snow goose season, something I do every year with this person. If you haven't been following the freaky weather patterns in the east, it wasn't a day conducive to snows. It was a 70ºf day, but it was a day off and we all know what that means! We decided to go for some crows as I took along my Snow Crow Pro and he really wanted to see how the caller worked. We went to one of his farms where he hunts deer and the owner was ecstatic that we wanted to hunt crows. We had a small set up and used a portable blind that we use for waterfowl. We setup on the edge of the field, in some standing corn that the farmer leaves for hunting. We only were able to hunt a couple of hours because we had a tee time for 9 holes of golf in the afternoon - remember, I said it was warm...
We had no trouble bringing in the first birds and it was exciting to see how John was totally surprised at the inbound birds. We stayed there for a couple of hours, taking breaks and discussing tactics and bird behaviour and just enjoying the great day. All in all, we walked away with 10 birds. It's really funny for him to see how frustrating it can be as we watched a trio of birds approach from 1/2 mile away, slowing descending into the field and coming right at us, head on, 2' feet from the deck the last 100 yards. When they got within 30 yrds, I told him to take them and he was so excited and anxious, he missed the two on his end! I did get mine tho There were also times he forgot to cycle his gun for the next wave of birds!
I really have to apologize for not getting any pics of the setup. We basically had half a dozen deks 20 to 35 yards ahead of the blind with the standing corn at our back. We would fill in more with the kills as we got them. The portable blind had tall grass for cover and was comfortable for the two of us and provided 360º of coverage. We took all our shots sitting on buckets with swivel tops, not wanting to stand and shoot above the cover of the blind as we would for our duck hunting. If I can find a pic of the type of blind we used, I'll post it.
-- Edited by ecuchief on Friday 10th of March 2017 12:38:41 PM
-- Edited by ecuchief on Friday 10th of March 2017 12:39:32 PM
This is the blind we use: AVIAN A-FRAME WATERFOWL BLIND: http://www.avian-x.com/blinds-accessories/a-frame-waterfowl-blind.html
It is a metal square tube, click together construction. The sides (2) cover the front and back with snap buckle closures on the end. It was grassed up with marsh grasses which covered the opening. We were able to stick our guns up through the grass without flaring the birds. The metal frames disassembles and is rolled up in the sides with bundling straps for carrying by hand or back.
There were also times he forgot to cycle his gun for the next wave of birds!
