well we went out this afternoon to a good spot on a farm that i work on, only had 2 dekes and used a foxpro caller and some hand calling, managed to get 12, killed a few more but they went down in the treeline. seemed as we piled up the dead ones out with the dekes they just seemed to come easier. doubled twice! which i thought was kinda cool. actually shot one, had a hawk swoop in and try to pick it up, and then that hawk got attacked by another crow! it was pretty cool and my best day ever (in my young career) none really wanted to land but managed to circle low enough to bust em.
Whether your best is 12 or 1200, it's still the best.
I had a huge Red-tail land 15' directly overhead this AM. He was so close and straight up he never saw me until he turned his head over and look sideways down at me. I watched him for about a min before he realized I was under him. You should have seen him take off when he realized how close he was to me.
Awesome Job, love the snow. Wish we had it more often.
Congrats!!!
-- Edited by 8fishermen on Saturday 15th of January 2011 01:01:00 AM
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"If money can fix it, it ain't broke" The great theologian and my crow hunting partner AW.
Nice shooting. I like to take one deke out at a time once the crows start falling. I tuck the wings on some & the others I leave flared. Just my way of doing it. I've had Hawks attack my dekes on 2 seperate occasions & one other time we had a hwak land on a dead crow less than 10 FEET from my Brother standing in the tree line. LOL
yea it was crazy how many hawks we called in! it attacked one crow we winged that was walking, man he hit that thing like a ton of bricks and the other crows just went nuts!
haha yeah the snow is nice, really makes the dekes stand out, but it is cold to sit in! this field we were hunting usually has at least 500 birds in it at any given time, we are thinking about hitting it again on sunday morning. any tips on a set up to get the birds to circle lower? we had to pass up a lot of shots because the birds would circle up high for 4 or 5 passes then fly on. we were set up right were they were feeding on spread manure. only had 2 dekes out and we were tucked under some small trees
yea it was crazy how many hawks we called in! it attacked one crow we winged that was walking, man he hit that thing like a ton of bricks and the other crows just went nuts!
haha yeah the snow is nice, really makes the dekes stand out, but it is cold to sit in! this field we were hunting usually has at least 500 birds in it at any given time, we are thinking about hitting it again on sunday morning. any tips on a set up to get the birds to circle lower? we had to pass up a lot of shots because the birds would circle up high for 4 or 5 passes then fly on. we were set up right were they were feeding on spread manure. only had 2 dekes out and we were tucked under some small trees
Stay away from the tall trees. My experience is that they don't like to come in lower that the tallest nearby tree. Birds that have been hunted really stick to this rule. I have had success with birds that have been hunted by getting out in the field and building as natural of cover as I can come up with. They will fly lower in the open field than they will against a fence row. Just my experience. I wander if you slipped in there at night or some time in the day when they were not around and built a snow drift you could hide in if that would work?
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"If money can fix it, it ain't broke" The great theologian and my crow hunting partner AW.
huh thats a good idea, were actually only in some saplings on the edge of a tractor path that runs through the middle of a corn/hay field. we set up under the tallest tree though because thats the tree they were all sitting in, actually now that i think about it our lowest birds were ones that caught us off guard in the middle of the field, so we just laid down and they dropped right in. you guys ever have them land in your decoys?
Sometimes they try, and we are glad to assist with their landing. We have them sit in the trees we are hiding under more often. Sometimes they will land with a cripple out away from the spread.
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"If money can fix it, it ain't broke" The great theologian and my crow hunting partner AW.
We have them land in dekes all the time. We let that one land and then shoot the one coming in behind that one kill them both. We hunt the same place every week. Going to hunt it tomarrow morning. GOT THE CAMERA ON CHARGE, I WILL GET FOOTAGE.