So this morning me and a couple of my buddies went hunting on some new ground...we set up before light for our first hunt but didnt have enough brush around to get camoed as good as I would of liked and we only killed 1 crow. Next we moved to a crp field that had some small saplings scattered around, probably 5 or 6 feet tall. we set up on a point of the edge of the field just right inside the woods that surrounds the field and were blinded up in some honeysuckle with 3 decoys in a tree right off of the point and 3 decoys on some saplings about 30 yards out from us, and the larger tree was around 20 yards of us. The wind was to our back and we were facing North east. Now when the crows came in, some directly south, and some from the east coming over the trees on the other side of the field, they would fly straight at us until they reached about 50 yards and would raise way up and then just circle above us and the trees and never come back low enough for a shot. Would they raise up like this because of the trees, wind, or maybe because they were suspecious of something? We ended up shooting two that were above us and that was it.
Next we drove around and found a winter wheat field that had around 30-40 crows, so we set up about 500 yards on the other side of the road facing directly north in a honeysuckle/Autumn olive fence row with a few smaller trees around 20ft tall. We brushed up good and put three decoys in one of the small trees and put three more directly out infront of us in the corn field. We started calling and about 25 crows came directly in and circled about but hardly any got low enough out infront of us to give a good shot. After they left we called in some more smaller groups that came straight south across this corn field flying very low, at times just a foot or two about the field, from around 400 yards, they came in like this until about 80-100 yards away and would rise straight up with the wind and circle above and behind us, I managed to smash 1 from the group but it was a pretty far shot. A couple more small groups of crows came in and did the same thing, raising up around 70-100 yards infront of us and then never dropping low enough for a good shot infront of us.
Sorry for the confusing mess, haha but I am trying to describe this as best as I could, because all 3 of us were not sure what would cause the crows to shy off after coming in straight at us for a few hundred meters.
You probably got some birds that have been hunted before. Also 2 's a company 3's a crowd. 3 guys are tough, any one of you getting ready to soon, a little gun movment, head movement or you plan old stick out. They put on the breaks or stay way up.
I agree with Mike, but will add that your first set up was probably not helped by being in the tall trees. Crows perfer to fly above them until they get a visual of whats going on below. Also, when trying to hide in sapplings it is hard to break your silhouette, be sure you have enough brush to accomplish that. Camo should match the hide....snow camo..etc...etc.
The quality of a good blind means a much different thing to me these days VS when I started chasing crows.
IMO, it takes a bit of trial and error before really learning how to hide.
I'd say they saw you. In my experience, any bird that approaches the set up only a few feet off the ground is generally the easiest type of target and should die nearly every time. A smart, educated, or call shy bird will never approach the set up this way.
I've noticed that they can spot the very slightest of movement. That includes even very slow head movements and from very far off. I'd say if your camo and blind was good, its got to be movement.
We almost always start out with the "Crows" foxpro sound or "Crow gathering" and I hit the come here call some on the hand call and then after we start shooting I switch over to more distress / fighting sounds.
Getting the best blind setup is #1 on our list for this weekend. A couple more questions for you guys would be that I bought Bob's cd on crow calling and I listen to it multiple times a week for practice and have most of the calls down pretty good on there, but I can't seem to get much of a response with the recognition call or the come here call. Would any of you guys have any audio files or videos of these single crow sounds that I could listen to for practice? I have great success using any distress/fight calls with the faulks c50 I also bought, but just don't have any luck with the soft calling by hand or maybe you have some tips on executing the calls. Thanks guys.
Just how I like them "low and slow"