Yesterday I hunted public ground scouted by a friend. We had a great shoot although the steel shot was a pain in the ass!!! We killed 64 birds. A game Warden snuck up and checked us cause he thought we were hunting ducks out of season. He gave us some info where he had sighted some crows the day before. We checked it out and it was packed with em. We decided to leave them and do a predawn raid today and here are the results. Picture 1 and 2 are of the dried up barrow pit the birds were feeding in, taken from our hide. Picture 3 is of the road running along the same barrow pit, in the ditch by the road are thousands of dieng shad just boiling in the water. I realized this is what was bringing the birds in for an easy meal. The last pic is of our set in the afternoon that wasn't near as good due to rain all afternoon. We killed 84 in the morning hunt and 27 in the rainy afternoon. Good thing we were legal cause the game warden had some GOOD info. My TBC for the very young season is 392. I shot my Mxus with # 7 steel in the morn and a youth model 20 in the afternoon with #4 steel. My deeks were 6 carrylite feeders and 5 standard carrylites with four sentry's hung behind the hide. Calls were come here crow from a 512 red rock (thanks Jessie) and my CS-24 fox pro screaming crows, and Dying crow on approach. The combination of the two calls are deadly. I also had a 3-d flapper from urea duck and my trusty jack kite flyin in the wind. My buddy was shooting a Browning B-80 with a turkey choke and #6 steel. Lessons learned #6 steel is better than #7 steel and if you find a big concentration of birds staging late in the afternoon it is better to hit them the next morning at daylight if possible.
Hey pup, Ya I am big on deeks to, I am all the time working on new ideas, like the chip crow as Shane calls it. I dont look like much but it works!!!!! Since I been using it the birds that try to light in my spread always seem to ltry to land right on top of it. Rob i live in the heart of waterfowl country and a lot of the public land is waterfowl management areas. Steel shot only for all hunting. I have shot a ton of it lately. It is hard to adjust from 1375 fps to 1200 fps but i have done pretty good with all the practice I've had. Steel is about the same price or even lower priced than lead in most cases....(Thanx to Obama and the rest of his tree huggers)..........
Chip Those are some nice pics! Thanks for sharing the pics and story. I am into deeks as well, I think that is very important on a crow ambush setup,always trying something different with my spreads.
Hey Chip, know what you mean bout waterfowl country. I'm hail'n from a whole county north of ya. Olny been two times so far this season, first outing wacked 58 and second time out smashed 66, been hunt'n solo last 2 years since my buddy quit going with me. Sick last weekend, deer season this weekend kind puts a damper on things. More crows around this year than I've saw in over 11 years of hunting. Understand why the steel, I know of quite a few area's in both our counties, if you even have lead with you (not even in your gun), your in for a pretty good fine!
Ya robo steel sucks but truth be known it is cheaper than lead in most cases and I have just about learned how to shoot it, Just have to shoot em in the lips as they say. There are thousands of birds in the area, never seen the like, they are everywhere. I have permission to hunt 1000's of acres on the mississippi after deer season is out I am gonna waylay em. What town you live in????? Guess I'm gonna have to be more discreet with my pics when I take em LOL,,, I think it was O'l Shanedog that warned about that a few years ago
Don't be too concerned about the pics or giv'n too much info bout your hunt'n area...not the type to hit someone else's honey-hole. Been huntn crows for over 11 years, always wondered if i'd run into a fellow crow hunter out in the field. Btw i'm from M'Boro. There's only bout 3 counties in So. Ill. I haven't hunted in so far. River's are where it's at ;)
,,, I think it was O'l Shanedog that warned about that a few years ago