I paid my lifetime dues here about 3 years ago and read all the articles but am just now beginning to participate in the Forum. I'm from middle Tennessee/Alabama - 51 years old and have been hunting all my life. I have to admit that my 1st love with hunting was shooting centerfire 22's. Growing up on a farm with fields of alfalfa being eaten by groundhogs, I supposed this was to be expected. We also had a field of annual hay that blackbirds would damage heavily until the plants got too large for them to pull up and eat the seeds. That's where my serious shotgunning really began. I was told to guard the field and keep the birds out. (What a job, huh?) We also had two hog farms nearby where the blackbirds had their roost. I've never gotten to hunt crows in a flyway, but I know what flyway shooting is like from the blackbirds. I used to stand in a fencerow on a hill and get them as they cleared the trees. Every night I would shoot about 185 shells aimed at individual birds. I can only dream of doing that with crows.
Anyway, like so many people nowadays, my hunting time is consumed with deer. I often find myself sitting in a deer blind listening to crows and anticipating deer season ending so I can have fun and hunt crows! Hunting crows is the complete opposite of deer hunting. Crows give you the excitement of calling loudly and aggressively as they approach. And they DO approach unlike the boredom of sitting passively hoping a deer will eventually come by. And moving targets are just so much fun.
We don't have the flyway shooting here in Tennessee but we do have enough crows that you can call anytime or anywhere and a crow will answer in less than a minute. So far as I can tell, nobody except myself and my cousin hunts crows around our farm.
You fellas have given me some good pointers and ideas so far and I'm enjoying reading all the articles and posts on the forum! Hopefully I can contribute something myself.
