Crow Busters Forum

Bob · Guru

My first two shoots of the season

Zeddicus · Senior Member

Stop depressing me! ;)

Nice one Bob!

Old Artilleryman · Guru

Photo of the carnage please, so we all who are out of season may be equally envious.

Wow.

Elkhunter · Senior Member

Bob,

I have always thought I was a pretty good wing shot. You make me look like a novice! LOL

Nastygunz · Senior Member

Ya got me by a few hundred ha-ha!

Mark · Guru

Very nice Bob!! Where we shoot we do not have as many birds as you do/ lucky you!! This is our second shoot of the 2012 season.. Killed birds from 7:50 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. .. more than 1/2 were call shy and most flared when they got over the decoys.. i.e. educated birds.. The 50 (1 fish crow and 49 common crows) that made the picture played our game very well.. ( feeding call with 2 Gibsons and 1 C-50 Falk NO "E" caller used ) Notice how close we were set up to the owner's house.. The birds had to fight a "high tension" line ( power line) all morning. Some birds would drop down below the bottom power line and try to land among the decoys and the others went high to go over the line and when they did they would flair when they looked down in the blind and saw us.. When were packing up the owners came out and opened his wallet pulled out a $100 and said "please let me pay for your shells." I said no way.. He said please come back and kill more... We of course said yes and will do so in 3-4 weeks..

Lone Star Phil · Senior Member

Damn! That's impressive!

Barrel shroud?

Low and Slow · Senior Member

Nice work Bob, keep it up, and lets see some pics, we love pics around here

M12Shooter · Guru

Very nice shoot Bob, solo hunt? Sadly my crows have long departed. Season ended about a week or so sooner than normal as we had about a foot of snow first week of October which pushed them all out cry . Guess this gave me some extra time to concentrate on shooting a few greenheads smile . Marshes are freezing hard now, likely all will be over by the end of the month.

Ted

-- Edited by M12Shooter on Monday 29th of October 2012 08:34:38 PM

Bob · Guru

Hi Fellas,

I will post up some photos later today or tomorrow.

I had my first field hunt of the season two days ago. I found a nice area 15 miles from the roost where they trade around and stay in the area. The first crows did not make it out there until 9:10 A.M. but the shooting lasted until 4:00 P.M. The good shooting was between 9:30 P.M to around 2:30 P.M. I shot 343 crows with both the 20 gauge 870 and the 12 gauge Beretta. I shot a little over a hundred with the 20 gauge with # 9's. I never shot a crow past 25 yards with the 20 gauge, all soft shots.

I forgot to mention on the flyway shoot where I got the 239 that day I also got a scotch double. I killed the crow I shot at (20 yards) and another one crossed just as I touched off the shot, the second bird was about 10 to 12 yards further out and they both fell.

I had a morning flyway shoot yesterday on a small flyway from 8:10 A.M. to 9:30 A.M. I shot 154 crows with the 12 gauge on that shoot.

I've only been out 4 times so far this season and have 1,162 crows in the bag so far. All solo shoots.

The first shoot (the wild one) I shot several dozen birds at point blank range between 20 to 30 feet from the muzzle. I'm going to hold off and heal up a bit, I broke the first layer of skin on my right shoulder from the volume of shooting over the last four shoots.

The photos I will post are of the field shoot because it's easy to see them, plus it's all where they fell so I know Big Honkers will like that photo. The other flyway shoots were in timber so it was impossible to get a good photo as so many just fell in the toolies.

I got a bunch of crow wings for a friend of Ken Weidner, he is the fella that I send the bulk of them too.

Talk with you guys soon.

Bob A.

Zeddicus · Senior Member

Hi Bob,

I am no longer depressed! I could not afford to shoot with you guys anyway ;)

How much do you have to pay for decent cartridges (25 box) regularly? Not bulk!
I pay 45cent a pop here...

Rgds,
Zeddicus

Bob · Guru

Hi Ulli,

It varies on the price I get them for. But for say a box of 25 at $ 6.00 American it's .24 cents a pop. I cut back in other areas to support my addiction Ulli.

Bob A.

Zeddicus · Senior Member

Hi Bob, 6$ a box is really good. Don't we all make sacrifices for our passion...? And gladly so! Rgds, Ulli

Bob · Guru

Low & Slow & Artilleryman,

These are some that fell in the open on the first field hunt of the year. The ones that you can see fell east and northeast of my blind. The ones you can't see are the ones that fell on the north side just beyond that strip of weeds. Thats right where they hit the dirt I did not move them. The wind was southwest that morning and afternoon. Thats the spot where I got 343.

Bob A.

Glen · Senior Member

Good shooting Bob!! Again I might add!! And Thanks for the pics. I love those carnage shots!!

Bob · Guru

Hi Glen,

On several shots the singles would hover over the dead crows hollering like mad. You could see there heads swinging back & forth in mid air. When I stood up to shoot they never even noticed me at all, infact I did not want to shoot them like that so I would whistle to get there attention so they would see me and start flying instead of being a stationary target. That's where the 20 gauge got some work.

Talk to you soon Glen.

Bob A.

Old Artilleryman · Guru

Your photos reminded me of recent postings re. what to do with dead crows; to retrieve or not retrieve--that is the question, etc.

I'd say you are an advocate of leaving dead crows lie...

Thanks a lot!

92 days until MI crow season #1!

Bob · Guru

Hello Craig,

If the birds begin to hang back because of some long falls I will go out and pick them up and move them closer to my blind.

When I'm done I just leave them lay, the coyotes will make short work of them. If I'm near a road I will pick all of them up and just throw them in the toolies to get them out of sight.

Bob A.

Bob · Guru

Hello Elk,

I've seen you shoot, you can hold your own with anyone!

Bob A.

Bob · Guru

Hello Mark,

Your not kidding when you said you were in the guys backyard! LOL. Was this in the city limits or outside the city limits? You had a very unique crow hunt. Looks like you & your friend had a good time and that's what it's all about.

Bob A.

Big Honkers · Guru

Bob wrote:

The photos I will post are of the field shoot because it's easy to see them, plus it's all where they fell so I know Big Honkers will like that photo.

Bob A.

biggrin You are right about that Bob!

That is some mighty fine crow carcass art you made there Bob.

BH

Big Honkers · Guru

Bob,

In the first photo. That must be the shadow outline of the meat-wagon I see and Im guessing you are standing on the tailgate to get a better perspective.

BH

8fishermen · Guru

Bob,

As always, nice shooting and nice pics.

Bob · Guru

Hi Honk,

Yup, I was standing on the tail gate to get some elevation for a better photo.

Bob A.

Bob · Guru

Hello Greg,

Glad you enjoyed the photos. I'm letting my shoulder heal up before I hit it again, wore the first layer of skin of my right shoulder. The last time that happened was in Colombia, South America on a dove hunt, that was back in the late 1980's.

So how is your season going so far?

Bob A.

Elkhunter · Senior Member

Bob wrote:
Hello Elk,

I've seen you shoot, you can hold your own with anyone!

Bob A.

Thanks for the kind words. But, I have never shot the percentages you shoot. I like to try them high birds too much! biggrin

Bob · Guru

Hi Elk,

A fella always shoots a higher percentage when all the birds are soft at the start of the season. Fatigue is a factor even when they are soft because of the shear volume of birds presenting themselves to you. There were a few high ones that I shot, but you couldn't count them on one hand. About 99% of them would come in and give you a good shot at them.

Talk to you soon.

Bob A.

Bob · Guru

Here is a photo that I shot of Dick a few years back.

Bob A.

Elkhunter · Senior Member

The peanut field we shot last year was by far the hardest shoot. Was just so open. But, you seem to have great luck with wide open shoots. Did we do something wrong or are these Bama birds just different.

If we were doing something wrong, what should I do to correct it? I could go down and shoot over peanut fields now, just a little gun shy.

Thanks in advance for the advice.

Bob · Guru

Hi Elk,

As long as your hid well you aught to be able to pulverize them. I would have to be there to really size up the situation.

Bob A.

Low and Slow · Senior Member

Bob wrote:
Low & Slow & Artilleryman,

These are some that fell in the open on the first field hunt of the year. The ones that you can see fell east and northeast of my blind. The ones you can't see are the ones that fell on the north side just beyond that strip of weeds. Thats right where they hit the dirt I did not move them. The wind was southwest that morning and afternoon. Thats the spot where I got 343.

Bob A.

thanks for the pics,looks like a fun shoot. I cant see any decoys out there, whats the story?

and I would learn to shoot left handed if there were birds like that to be shot and my shoulder was hamburger.

or I could shoot from the hip or one handed or like MN John biggrin

Bob · Guru

Hi Low & Slow,

I didn't use any commercial decoys, I just brought a couple of dozen from a prior shoot and used them as decoys to get things rolling. Nothing beats "the real thing" in my opinion. When I got done, no decoys to stuff into bags, just collect all my empty boxes (trash) load my gear into the pickup and I'm outa there.

I didn't want to get to the flinching stage thats why I called it quits. If it were a little later in the season I would have been toughened in. On the first shoot (flyway shoot) I had not picked up a shotgun since last February so my shoulder was not used to it yet. Even then I was still ok even after the second flyway shoot, it was the first field hunt that finally got to me. I had one more flyway shoot in the morning this time and I chose a small flyway on purpose because I knew from past experience when to call it quits. I'm ok now, just waiting for the right kind of day to go again.

So, how are you doing up there in Minnesota crow wise?

Bob A.

Low and Slow · Senior Member

Bob wrote:
Hi Low & Slow,

I didn't use any commercial decoys, I just brought a couple of dozen from a prior shoot and used them as decoys to get things rolling. Nothing beats "the real thing" in my opinion. When I got done, no decoys to stuff into bags, just collect all my empty boxes (trash) load my gear into the pickup and I'm outa there.

I didn't want to get to the flinching stage thats why I called it quits. If it were a little later in the season I would have been toughened in. On the first shoot (flyway shoot) I had not picked up a shotgun since last February so my shoulder was not used to it yet. Even then I was still ok even after the second flyway shoot, it was the first field hunt that finally got to me. I had one more flyway shoot in the morning this time and I chose a small flyway on purpose because I knew from past experience when to call it quits. I'm ok now, just waiting for the right kind of day to go again.

So, how are you doing up there in Minnesota crow wise?

Bob A.

tons of crows around now, season is closed, Last weekend I was fishing up on the Canadien border and the crows were thick hundreds and hundreds, the resorts dump their fish gut buckets out in some fields and it really draws the crows and eagles.

the resort owner said they stay all winter, I'll be back in March when it opens back up.so for now I have to cross the river and hunt Wisconsin

Elkhunter · Senior Member

Bob wrote:
Hi Elk,

As long as your hid well you aught to be able to pulverize them. I would have to be there to really size up the situation.

Bob A.

Is your truck broke? LOL

Bob · Guru

Here are a couple of photos of a morning hunt. The crows were after peanuts.

Bob A.

M12Shooter · Guru

Bob wrote:
Here are a couple of photos of a morning hunt. The crows were after peanuts.

Bob A.

Guess they found lead wink

Ted

Mark · Guru

Good stuff Bob,

The way I read your email was you dont use commercial decoys. In looking at your picture, think I saw some plastic crows in the tree... Do you mean you dont use decoys on the ground?

Big Honkers · Guru

Mark,

I think the post you are referring to and the last couple pics are from different shoots.

BH

Bob · Guru

Hello Mark,

Yes, I do use plastic (Carry-Lite crow decoys) decoys in the trees and dead ones on the ground.

I'm going to post up some brand new action photos from just a few days ago. If I get time I will get them on the Bulletin Board later tonight.

Bob A.

Bob · Guru

Here are three of my favorite action photos from this season.

Bob A.