Crow Busters Forum

I use the golf ball retriever, I added an 8 foot piece of bamboo on the handle. that gives me about 30 feet with my over 6 foot hight. It bends a bit but works like a charm. I am expecring something in the mail soon from a guy from Iowa that will make it even better. Mostly when I'm huntn alone 

Something I've been using (not with great success) (maybe some one can improve on it.) I use a softball with an Ihook drilled in with  thin twine rope and tie it to the decoy and just throw the ball over a tree limb. and pull the decoy up to the limb....The softball sometimes is not heavy enough to pull the decoy up...

Wis:

Include a three-foot length of twine or dark string in your gear.  After you put two crows on the ground, tie each end of the string around their respective necks and hurl them up into the nearest tree.

If you feel compelled to remove your "sentry decoys"  from that high limb after the fight, use your shotgun and any remaining shells you have.   

You'll be amazed at how efficient the practice is.

I got all decoys converted with hangers for the new place.. I'm thinking of adding leaves to hide the hangers. Have any of you guys used leaves to hide the wire?

Appreciate the info.. I didn't think they would notice.. It seems that once they are committed  the only thing that makes them flair is movement..At least that's been my experience...

I normally only throw one or two decoys in the trees and I use the same method as you do.. I also put 10 or so decoys on the ground to replicate a feeding situation..... Due to the tall grass at the new orchard, I'm going to try and put all the decoys in the trees as this is the way these crows feed... 

Mark:

In orchard set ups we try to use a combination of static flocked dekes on the ground, on fence posts, etc., with a flapper or two set on humming bird feeder stakes stuck in the ground.  Gadet Bob perfected the flapper deploy ment and it does work to hold the visual attention of the in-bound crows when they clear the last trees so they don't see us raising the long guns to contest their infringement.

Gadget Bob and Texas Matt have also perfected a large fishing weight on the end of a thick, monofiliment fishing line attached to a regular plastic crow decoy and it works great.  Just hurl it up into a tree where it will be in plain sight and in the sunlight when the sun comes up and just about every crow that comes from that quarter will typically be as low as the "sentry" on duty.  The sentry decoy works very well in native pecan orchards where the trees are significantly taller than the commercial varieties.

Thats a long answer to your short question.  The short answer is we set the decoys up whereever we can find room.  Sunlit areas are prime.  We typically play Owl-Crow Fight, Dying Crow, Crow Party, Come On Over (my terms).  The common theme is "crows miling about" and, I firmly believe, you need sentry crow decoys.

And, as hung up as most of our decoys and dead crow sentries have been, it takes just one to three well-aimed shots "up limb" to defer the recovery issue to gravity.

Regarding crows decoying to dead birds - yes, they will.  Especially if you're playing Dying Crow.  We've even began picking up the dead crows and placing them in a matrix to faciliate counting and the inevitable photo record and had crows come in.

Crows "raising heck" are an excellent development.  Once they display that behavior, you own them.

Control your hoppers though!  You don't want one hopping off a few hundred yards because the inevitable vocal WIA will usually divert flying targets to his AO.