Charles and I went and scoted a new place yesterday. It is a large dairy farm. As we got to the edge of the property, there were literally thousands of crows in the air. With the temps above freezing now, they were extremely busy spreading manure on the fields. The crows were out picking the grain out of the manure.
We found the owner and after introducing myself I asked if it were possible to get permission to hunt crows on his property. He responded by shouting loudly, "I wish to "BLEEP" you'd kill all those "BLEEPIN BLEEPERS!!!"
I responded with, "That's the answer I was looking for." Super nice guy, even told us where the concentrations of birds were.
One thing he told us was that he bought 30 TONS of out-dated bread to feed his cattle. In 3 days, the crows, along with sea gulls and starlings ate one third of the bread. A THIRD OF IT.
TEN TONS of bread in 72 hours.
Needless to say, we are extremely excited to get over there this afternoon. When we were leaving, I stopped the truck along the road and started "cawing" my best wounded crow sound with my voice. At least 2-3 hundred crows immediately came over and started to circle my truck.
Get there as early as you can. Stay as late as you can. Shoot all you can. That is my advice.
We had a couple of shoots like that this year. The birds were comming in so fast that the heat rising from the barrel created a mirage just above the barrel. It was extreamly agraviting when you could not see to focuse on the next bird. This may be why Bob A carries two guns to the blind. I hope this happens to you. Might want to take a little backup for that "New" Nitro of yours.
Good Luck!!
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"If money can fix it, it ain't broke" The great theologian and my crow hunting partner AW.
My Brother & I found a farm like that here. We gave a few cawws & here they would come!! We thought we were in crow heavan!! Then we made the mistake of starting off with the tape player right away on our 1st hunt there. We were covered up & done in about 15-20 minutes. 3 weeks later we went back & started the day with just hand calls. We had a good 2 hours of shooting that time. I hope you don't get so covered up you're done early. Good Luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We got over there late. Charles and I both teach school at the same building. We had about 45 minutes of crows. We were on the edge of the property, we killed 11. A similar thing happened that Glen mentioned. With the FoxPro going full blast, initially we were covered up. Twice, we had a hundred crows right on us just swarming us. Too much all at once.
A couple of times, I shut the call off and used my voice. We were in a bad spot with no blind, just stood in some bushes. Saturday will be very different, we'll be in a blind and in the heart of it.
I look forward to your report from Saturday!! There otta be some "grounded" crows by the end of the day!!
I'm having a lot of difficulty deciding where to hunt Saturday morning. A great lack of cover with practically nothing around to construct a blind from. Hundreds of acres of open fields with no brush taller than knee high. Most of the trees are too close to houses for my taste, far enough to hunt legally, but I don't want to ruin relations on this place.
crows love freshly fertilized fields, i watched a couple hundred eating on some chicken !@#$ the other day
Every field at this farm is corn that was harvested months ago. The ground is frozen solid and has a couple inches of ice and snow on them. Then on top of that, liquified cow crap has been sprayed on top of the snow. Nothing has been tilled and won't be till spring thaw.
I guess I'll have to get there wicked early Saturday morning and build a blind in the dark. Not sure what else to do.
Any way you could get some of the blind ready today or this evening? Sounds like a tough place to hunt but the rewards may well be worth the work. I know you'll get it figured it out. Good luck!!
This is where the blinds like I built or the ones Bob and some of the others have built are invaluable. They really work well in an open field set. It doesn't take much brush to brush them in either. I have hauled brush with me when it was not available.
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"If money can fix it, it ain't broke" The great theologian and my crow hunting partner AW.
Cow crap keeps the crows here in some areas all winter long...yeah i hate it when they all come over at once. A few shots and done in that area for a few weeks.
Just how I like them "low and slow"
Super nice guy, even told us where the concentrations of birds were.
Might want to take a little backup for that "New" Nitro of yours.