Started the morning out on a rubbish field that was a bust. Killed 8 birds and packed up at 8 AM. We decided to head south to the big orchard we hunted back in Oct. As we were preparing to shoot it for the first time we learned someone else was hunting it every week and had been for several weeks. The birds were spooky and we managed to kill 27. We were disappointed in the way the birds worked and decided not to hunt it anymore.
Fast forward to this Saturday after the rubbish field hunt. We get down to the orchard to find crows in it. We set up 4 decoys in a tree on the North end of the orchard. We hastily set up the blinds and turned on the caller. There is about 450 acres in pecans on this one place with others around it. Some 6000+ trees. Crows responded immediately and the shooting was steady all day. No giant waves but was an enjoyable hunt. The crows decoyed very good except when we would shoot a few down wind and the inbound birds would hang up long. We would stop the caller, pickup birds, and place them back up wind. Start the caller and birds would respond as planned.
We decided the other fellow had given up on them as they we decoying so well. We later found out was not the case and he had shot them as late as last weekend. We were shocked that the birds were not call shy. He orchard owner said the other fellows caller is not very loud but he used decoys. We can not explain why the birds responded to us like they did. We ended the day with 99. Very few birds shied away from the set.
All we can think of is our calling and setup could have been different than his as I don't believe he is posting very good numbers. I know back in Oct he was killing around 20 - 25 birds per hunt. When I told the owner how many we killed he seamed genuinely surprised.
Y'all got any thoughts on this?
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"If money can fix it, it ain't broke" The great theologian and my crow hunting partner AW.
The reason (in my opinion) you had crows coming to the call so well is because between the time the other guy quit hunting them and the time you arrived there was enough time to draw new birds into the area that had never heard a call before. I've had this happen many times over the past 38 seasons, thats why I let my best spots rest a month before going back.
Bob A.
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To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
I agree with Bob, new birds or better set up & caller. What kind of caller you using ?
JS sounds edited to form a sequence that gets progressively more aggressive through a homemade e-caller with two 25 watt horns. Very clear and very loud.
The funny thing to me is this other fellow hunted here last week. Only a small handful of birds (10-20 maybe) were call shy. Most worked the set like they were dummies. Very strange.
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"If money can fix it, it ain't broke" The great theologian and my crow hunting partner AW.
Here is what I think about your hunt. If the guy was there last week he could have quit early in the day and you got a shot at birds that came into the orchard after he left a week ago. Now this is only speculation on my part because I don't know if he quit early or not, but I suspect he did.
I had two flyway shoots (within 24 hours of one another) back to back in the very same spot last season. I got setup late on the first hunt (3:30 P.M.) and shot 290 crows up until 5:30 P.M. that afternoon. The next day I got in there at 1:30 P.M. because I wanted to get at birds that already went through at that time yesterday. In the second hunt I shot 350 crows from the very same spot as the day before. I hunted from 1:30 P.M. to 5:30 P.M. The reason I did better the second day is because I had the same wind as the day before, plus I was getting at birds that were never touched by me the day I got the 290. This is what I suspect happened to you.
Bob A.
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To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
