Well this hunt started years ago when I joined the old crowbusters web site and began talking with a guy named Skip Woody, some of you may or may not have heard of him.
Me and Skip have spoken via email and even met about 2 years ago for lunch. My brother carried him around some of the properties back then, and Skip was impressed with the terrain. I have been working 7 days a week for a long time and never could get set up with Skip for a hunt. Until this past week, we still had not hunted together. All we had was just a great friendship. I got up with Skip about 2.5 - 3 weeks ago about a hunt. He was very persistant after that email, and I dont like to take a day out of work. The last email he sent me had a saying at the end...."LIFE IS TOO SHORT". That made me make up my mind to call the ol boss and let him know I was taking a day of Friday.
I emailed Skip saying "IM OFF WORK FRIDAY CALL ME!!" It wasnt 30min and my phone was ringing so hard it nearly broke has it vibrated of the kitchen counter onto the kitchen floor. Fast Forward to Friday morning......
Skip calls me 30min before he said he would be here and said he was 5miles away. I told him I had to finish drying off and finish helping the kids get ready for school. He was very polite but very anxious in his tone when he said "TAKE YOUR TIME!!"
We drive out to the first hunt/set up and imediately downed 8 birds, it was then that about 150 crows were swirling all around never to come low enough for a shot, after that set up Skip spoke of the high crows as RAIN or Coastal crows. Said they were very hard to call and very rarely would come into shooting range. We head out to the landfill and shot a few more but most were Coastals, but plenty of them as you can see here.
Just LEFT click on the picture below:
We only shot about 6 of those birds
I knew we had to get away from the landfill to try and find some COMMON crows. And the rest of the day, Thats just what we did!!! after the first 3 stands we only had
23 birds down, but the next stand would change everything. We set up in some small pines about 3/4 of mile away from the landfill just inside woodline semi surrounded by picked beans. Skip turned on his call and the crows came in ready to kill or be killed, it was an ariel attack of crows from every angle. Crows may carry West Nile but they dont carry #8s very well!!! 23 birds down at that spot.
Next set up was hillarious we killed 8, but as we were shooting Skip shot two trees IN HALF!! IF you ever what to see him get mad, just throw a tree in front of him. I couldn't shoot from laughing and watching this man beat the crap out of a sapling. After the tree was torn to shreds more crows came and we shot them, after it slowed down I asked SKIP very loudley if we should move on. He told me not to talk to loudly....Skip shot another bird and didn't know if he knocked it down and said loudly, DID I GET THAT BIRD?? I said Skip, try not to be so loud. We got a good laugh out of that.
We continued to move away from the landfill meeting up with more Common Crows. I had a new SX3 and was breaking it in nicely. By the Way, SKIP can shoot and I wished I would have pulled the plug from my gun as we would have killed more.
Im mainly a deer hunter, but watch crows and learned yesterday that crows are all around me. The keys to killing them are camo, and blending in with the terrain, and the sun is your enemy. There were other set ups of 10-20 crows, but that was all due to being concealed. We saw a lot of hawks while calling and I believe it gave the crows more confidence. Its amazing how the Common crow will come in with his wings tucked like an F15 fighter jet Ready to take out the Taliban. Skip is a fine man and I look forward to more hunts next year with this Comander and Chief of Crow hunting. We ended the day with 114 crows DOA. Skip says that is an Awesome shoot with just 2 hunters. We had plenty of light left in the day for several more set ups, but Skip had to leave at 3:30 for Valentine Dinner with his family. I will let skip tell what really made him upset as he was driving back home.
Here is a few pics Skip captured of our hunt.
Can you spot the SX3 hunter
Crow #100 (THE CENTURY MARK) for the day.
-- Edited by ditchbank on Saturday 16th of February 2013 03:02:03 PM
-- Edited by ditchbank on Saturday 16th of February 2013 03:03:00 PM
-- Edited by ditchbank on Saturday 16th of February 2013 03:09:02 PM
-- Edited by ditchbank on Saturday 16th of February 2013 03:09:44 PM
-- Edited by ditchbank on Saturday 16th of February 2013 04:54:25 PM
Philip: More on your descriptive report when I can grab the time but I need to make one comment on your fine video of the rain crows. Everyone look very closely at those birds and you will see small oxygen masks on each bird. That is how high they were...interfering in commercial aircraft traffic for sure!
Skip
PS: Very pleased to be in attendance for your 1st Century Club shoot!!!
Philip: More on your descriptive report when I can grab the time but I need to make one comment on your fine video of the rain crows. Everyone look very closely at those birds and you will see small oxygen masks on each bird. That is how high they were...interfering in commercial aircraft traffic for sure!
Skip
PS: Very pleased to be in attendance for your 1st Century Club shoot!!!
Geeze, now that I have had the time to properly read your report, I understand why I am getting emails from tree huggers and 'save the forest' people not to mention several calls from therapists wanting to help me with anger management classes! Heck, I thought what happens on crow hunts, stays on crow hunts!!! Now everyone knows I become ill at trees that tend to hit my barrel when I am swinging on a crow. The gall of such trees!
Ditchbank, your best line was "crows may carry West Nile but don't carry #8s very well"! Well said. Hidding well, shooting well, calling well enough are the keys to a good crow bust but there is one more key, the very valuable one you brought: permission to hunt on the farms in your area!
As for being eager to "go mess'em up" I plead guilty. Some things are not tempered over time. Eagerness is a virture in some endeavours and crow hunting is one of them. You sir, were also guilty of that condition.
Rain or coastal crows vs. the common crow have been discussed on this forum before. Botton line: I have no affection for those smaller buggers. They make nasel -- non crow sounds, are about 85% the size of a real crow, don't respond well to mouth or electronic sounds and tend to look down on hunters from the low ionosphere! We must have seen 1000 of them!
Gotta say your SX3 performed very well in your hands. A poor shot can mess up a good crow hunt as I am sure you know now. I am sincere when I say you shot very well, otherwise I doubt we would have make the Century Club which is, by the way, a tough club to join! IF I did not have to depart for home at 3 pm.. which was very difficult to do..with several hours of very fine weather left, I suspect we would have easily reached the Century & One Half Club. BUT, wife and I had long standing plans for a Valentine/wedding anniversary dinner with my brother and his wife at 7 pm. Unfortunately, 20 minutes after I left you my wife called my cell and said " your brother is sick and they have had to cancel dinner". WHAT!! For me to miss an F-15 and Taliban encounter, he better be REAL sick.
WHAT!! For me to miss an F-15 and Taliban encounter, he better be REAL sick. 