Hey guys. Ive been using the run and gun method with decent success( 15 to 20 a day) Ive tried to set up on what i think is a flyway and only have succes for about 10 to 15 min. I would really like to figure out how to set up a feeder spread that i could hunt on most of the morning or evening. Ive tried locating roost but the biggest i have found is only 50 or so crows. I live in northwest missouri and just dont see the big groups of crows that i hear you all talk about. Am i just not looking in the right spots?
Just start driving through the row crop areas till you find consentrations. Look for orchards, dumps, and feedlots. Check with your local extention office and other local Ag places. Sometimes they are of great help.
__________________
"If money can fix it, it ain't broke" The great theologian and my crow hunting partner AW.
Just start driving through the row crop areas till you find consentrations. Look for orchards, dumps, and feedlots. Check with your local extention office and other local Ag places. Sometimes they are of great help.
What he said. Farmers are great sources as well.
__________________
I hunt therefore I am!
If you are not stepping forward, you are stepping backwards. Time stands still no for No Man.
By now you probably know the biggest roost in missouri happens to be St.Joseph! Well now you cannot shoot there so find some place along a flyway headed there and you should have a ton of ammo and don't forget to pick up the birds! My best estimation right now is you probably won't find many until November perhaps given the high humidity and heat there. Supposed to be tens of thousands of crows that roost there so there has to be more than one flyway to that roost when it is active! If you are nearer to St.Louis well find some place well outside the city and set up for incoming crows there as well! I do not think there is a smany but there is far more than that little roost in NW Missouri. The trend these days is for crows to roost deep inside city parks because they know no owls -such as the great horned owl-will find them there. this also true of canada as well. In fact all over America. It's not like the crows to roost out in the woods any more.
St. Joseph? I was in St. Joseph at least 15 years ago checking the area out. There hasn't been a roost in St.Joseph in over 20 years. There used to be a roost there but that has been history for a long time now.
Missouri used to hold lots of small roosts years ago (10,000 crows) but that was over 60 years ago! There are some people (not well informed) who still think Ft. Cobb, Oklahoma still has a huge roost; that has been gone for well over 30 years now!
Bob A.
__________________
To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
I find it ironic that you call yourself the “Crow Commander” and you would ask such a question.. (Just kidding my friend..) Put in some windshield time and find where the crows are…They want to feed far more than they want to fight.. Then get there before they do, set up, call them in to feed with a fine Gibson call, shoot them and post pictures for all of us to enjoy.. Best of luck to you!!
Well that was recent and well maybe now but I was outside St joseph in 99 and got a huge surrpise when flock after flock was pouring into St. joeseph(from the EAST). Now things must have changed then. I knew they were not welcomed then either(only cities in Massachussettes welcome the tons of black and white doo doo everywhere). Not when there are thousands. I am well aware of the government eradication of the huge roosts however and this is another reason the wintering crows choose cities for their winter roosts in that neck of the woods- I wonder what happened there? They used to use dynomite but these days it isn't dynomite.
I am also aware that many crows these days are hanging back instead of going to their southern winter roosts. i mena how can places like Minnesota have hot crow shooting in winter when everything is covered in snow or Chatham?
Oh yes. Ft.Cob has long since ceased being the major roost-do any more crows roost in that area at all? Last i knew the crows now roost around Oklahoma city but gioven the thousands of birds these days I don't think the city would long put up with that idea. What do you know about that?
My heart sinks at the thought that maybe the plains' states might be seeing a decline of crow activity! Maybe all the crows these days formerly of Oklahoma winter roosts might be roosting further osuth or west or hanging back north?
Things change over time, areas that used to be hot 20 to 25 years ago are either "dead zones" now "no crows" or not enough to hunt in that area. There are some places that are hot for a little over 20 years and then the birds move out, I mean move out of the whole area; and never come back! They never used to do this 50 to 60 years ago.
Minnesota holds many more crows than they used too 30 years ago. Things change, sometimes for the worse, sometimes for the better. You just have to stay ahead of the curve if you can, that takes plenty of time.
In regard to the Ft. Cobb (Caddo County) there are not enough crows to bother taking your shotgun out of it's case during November to February.
The crows in Chatham move out of that part of Canada by early to mid September, I shoot a fair amount of those birds in the States during the winter months.
There has been a decline in some areas in the plains states but an increase in other areas in the plains states. You just have to keep your eyes & ears wide open!
In new york were I hunt, the crows do not start their large roost till late oct. or early nov. They fly into the city and roost by the hudson river. I hit the fly-way about 10 miles out on state land. You have to guess which way their going to fly out over the land. They change it up everytime I'm there. A good idea is to watch the skies after the clocks change and about an hour before dark, start driving and looking. You might catch some moving to their roost. This is how I figuered out my area to hunt. We have over 10,000 fly in town. it's an awesome site to see,unless,they Poop on you..lol Good luck.
-- Edited by comebackcrow on Wednesday 5th of September 2012 10:50:47 PM
Mom is home now. My wife is staying with her for now; I had to get back to work.
Her speech is much better but she is still having trouble getting around. She is totally blind in one eye but has a small pinhole of vision, albeit blurry, in the other.
She'd like to stay where she is but I think we may have to move her soon.
Thanks for asking, Bob! I appreciate it.
-- Edited by jonthepain on Wednesday 5th of September 2012 10:58:47 PM
In the last photo you can see Dick looking at the first crows arriving in a feeding area 11 miles from the roost. About a minute after that photo was taken I put my camera down and grabed my shotgun!
Bob A.
__________________
To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
Here is a wonderful still photo of a flyway shoot that I took in 1979 or 1980 in Kansas. It was cloudy that afternoon, the birds were strung out clear to the horizon, non stop the last hour, fast as you could load your shotgun.
The next flyway photo was taken in 2008 on a nice clear day so the crows show up better on film.
