Had a better hunt this morning with my son... thought he'd pop a few more than he did, but I wasn't much better. However, great fun. Got in before light to set up in a hedgerow with some foam and hard body dekes in the trees and bushes. Several more on the ground, with Triple Play near a fake gut pile no more than 20 yards out in corn stubble. Plenty of snow on ground but not in the air, and used one of my blinds made out of camo material from fabric store and 6' 1x2s that was set up day before - not great brush in but the camo pattern worked well on its own. Also, had Buster II hanging in nearby tree with wired remote at my fingertips.
Once we heard first crows (in nearly every direction) I fired up some simple calls on the Alpha Dogg -- fairly softly. Son got some crow sounds from his professor, which I edited with Audacity software to create six distinct calls. Also, have some crow calls pre-loaded on the caller, and some others like Crow Come Here. Got some early hits so they couldn't snitch, then several crows started calling for us -- staying out about 100 yards, but not flying away. As new arrivals came, some would always come in to investigate. If we were better wingshooters, we'd have downed 25+. As it was, we took 10-12 for the morning. We were fortunate to have 1-6 arrive at a time, some "low and slow" and few high gawkers, but the fun part was we kept it up for about 5 hours!
As things slowed, I'd crank the Dogg to 75% for a short bit to reach out to disant birds, and then back it off to 40% and sure enough they came. With crows near, I kept the caller in the 8-15% range only -- it's a loud caller, or kill it altogether and let the decoys work. I flipped Buster into action when they were in sight. Some birds even swarmed us and tried to land overhead -- had us spinning. When it really got slow, I even cranked out some cottontail or squirrel distress sounds. I even tried the old tie 2 crows together and throw them up a tree about mid-morning.
We are not talking huge numbers like some experts on here, but we probably saw 60-70 birds total with 40-50 in range. We both shot up a box of shells. That's a real good day so far this winter. It's an experiment every time we go out.
Jerry Nice day for you & your son, I'm sure the more you get out the more successful you'll be. Memories in the making, and more to come. The crow hunting will extend the time available to be out in the woods. If there are any dairy farmers close by I'm sure setting up after the manure spreader goes through would result in some crows. The crows & turkeys go through and get the grain that the cows didn't digest. Another set up I'd try is relocate a road killed deer out in a field close to a hedge row or at the edge of the wood line and set up over it when the crows start to feed on the remains. Set up there night time and you should get a shot at a fox or coyote. A couple of months ago a friend of mine shot a deer and we put the gut pile, head, hide, lower legs and other scrap out next to the wood line in sight from his house.The crows and coyotes worked that pile for a few days. The crows liked the stomach & intestines contents. Did you take any pictures? Pat
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Walk lightly, Carry a Big Stick & NEVER WALK AWAY!!!
I talked with my son this morning, He went to the Bass Pro up in Auburn and he went to the Sam's Club in Vestal yesterday. He said that big murder of crows was still hanging there by the Bass Pro Shop and there was a large murder of crws down in Vestal. The crows in vestal were on the move, he said they were strung out about a mile long flying over. The recent snow you guy's got must have them finding new places to hold them over. He has about twelve inches of snow at his place. Where abouts do you live in N.Y.? When I move back there I'll be in the Harpursville/Afton area. Pat
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Walk lightly, Carry a Big Stick & NEVER WALK AWAY!!!