Finished off the season today with 31 hunts for a total of 2028 birds. We do not keep up with individual totals. These are the total birds Skeetshooter and I killed along with my kids. Three hunts we had a guest shooter with us.
Largest single hunt was a PM shoot with 186.
Smallest was a morning rain out for a total of 10.
Average was 65 birds per hunt.
Had 5 shoots over 100 birds with 4 other hunts in the 90's.
Last year we killed a total of 1009. Our goal for this year was to double that. We made it!!
Good luck to all those still shooting.
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"If money can fix it, it ain't broke" The great theologian and my crow hunting partner AW.
F8: Splashing over 2000 birds and doubling last years total... simply outstanding work!! Few crow hunters kill that many birds in a season...heck in a lifetime!! In keeping with your goal setting calculations... next year should total over 4000... right?
skip
8 you guys are doing great!! Reading your posts I could tell you were having a blast and bravo on getting the young shooters out in the field!
FWIW 10gacrowshooter and I downed 1795 birds between last year but another guy (not Skip) told us we were not serious, just mediocre crow hunters, hacks. We're not sure where the line above mediocrity is for us but we're gonna try to do better too in 2012.
-- Edited by nhcrowshooter on Thursday 1st of March 2012 03:32:23 PM
F8: Splashing over 2000 birds and doubling last years total... simply outstanding work!! Few crow hunters kill that many birds in a season...heck in a lifetime!! In keeping with your goal setting calculations... next year should total over 4000... right?
and i think i need a new shotgun , my old ''corvid killer'' is tired now....
Heck, I think I would give up half of what I killed for one of those Magpies! 80 sounds pretty good to me.
There are many factors that go into killing crows. For the most part we are very fortunate to have friends that farm that let us shoot their places. Without them it would not be possible for us to post these kind of numbers as we are not willing to drive long distances to hunt.
We have the perfect storm here, very little competition, large farms, LOTS of friends and acquaintances, and a decent number of migrant American and Fish crows. I believe that most of our birds don't migrate as they do out west and up north, but rather just conjugate on local farms and orchards.
Last year we only shot one orchard and a handful of fields and food plots. This year we shot 5 orchards and added Thousands of acres of ag fields. We are just now learning how to scout and set up with that info. Next year we will work on increasing our bird per hunt ratio as spending more time in the field is not realistic. I believe that better scouting will accomplish that.
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"If money can fix it, it ain't broke" The great theologian and my crow hunting partner AW.
i can't disagree , scouting is the most important part!!!!
the problem with me , is that i can't find anyone willing to come for crow shooting Everyone loves coming for shooting ducks , quail or whatever is tasty and edible
People need to know that the fun is where the crows are!!!
I just started hunting crows about 6 weeks ago and am nowhere near as serious about it as most of you, but boy are we having fun! We're somewhere around 45-50 birds with only March left to hunt (usually Sundays only). We are pretty serious about deer and turkey hunting up here and only picked up crows because we noticed in our handbook that they are one of the few things that are legal to hunt right now.
Our focus is on having fun first, learning everything we can second and lastly...actually killing crows! Therefore, we'll never compete with some of you but sure appreciate all of the input and information we've picked up here so far.
I had to laugh as I read the topic debating which # shot to use. My buddies and I have been arguing about this for over a month. The conclusion we've come to, so far, is that if you're comfortable with your ammo, are having fun and knocking down a bird or two than shoot whatever you want.
Heading to what my scouting tells me should be a "honey hole" on Sunday.
We are not what I call serious crow hunters. We are just the most serious around here that we know of. There are so many other hunting opportunities while crow season is open that no one else hunts them here. Other just laugh at us. With the exception of my kids, if we never killed another deer or turkey it would be OK with us. Skeet and I have killed WAY more than our share. They are as plentiful here as the crows it seems. We took three week off during crow season to hunt deer during the rut so Skeet could get his itch scratched and my son could kill his first one. I like the shooting that crow hunting provides but I doubt we will ever be on the level of some as we are not going to put the time into it that it takes to go to the next level.
For us, it is not a competition. We just love the fellowship and shooting it offers. That is why we only carry one counter for a total body count. We could care less who kills the most and will often pass on bird so someone else can shoot. If the bird gets away because we did not shoot it at first chance, so what? There will be others. We enjoy each others company. The only ones that keep up with how many they kill are my kids. Of the 2000 birds we killed I can tell you for certain I killed 94 only because I was by myself on that hunt. Other that that, I have no clue, nor do I care. As long as we continue to laugh and share life with each other, we will keep crow hunting. The moment it becomes a chore or a competition to kill the most or pride creeps into our hunts, it will end.
I hope no one takes our body count and compares it to theirs. I hope you see our totals and say WOW! I bet those guys shared some great memories and laughs. Do y'all have any idea how many times we missed, fell off stools, got tangled up in speaker wires, had to run back to the truck for the caller or parts, had to back track to find the phone that was laying in the road, run over decoys with the yota, shot decoys, tripped and fell down, and got skeets truck muddy to make 2028 memories??? I could tell you but that would take a while...
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"If money can fix it, it ain't broke" The great theologian and my crow hunting partner AW.
8F: All three of your paragraphs are a good read.. but the last one is very good. Several of the mishaps you mentions.. made me think of similar incidents I have had.. plus a few more. I enjoy your posts.
Just how I like them "low and slow"
10 ga
