I would say for only begining just over a month ago... Though my hunting partner and my kill counts arent very high. Its definitly been a good start! We've learned alot from being in the feild and also reading from expierenced crow hunters from this site! Its very addiciting!
Onlymy new places were productive...My places that produced many good shoots in 2011 had "no crows." Drought or other shooters? Maybe booth.. Over all a "down" year.
Winter season opened Jan 21 and closes end of March. No Sundays. I've been out six times, killed about 120. Last year we shot more than that on opening day. We have a summer season of Aug and Sept.
our season is june-march Fri,Sat,Sun ONLY-makes it pretty tough when my only day off is sunday but i managed to get a few this year 15 and only hunted a hand full of times...hopefully i can get some of my hides a lil better before the first of june cant wait! Overall i didnt see many birds this year.
It's been a good season here in georgia. About the same as last year. Not any folks hunt crows in my neck of the woods. Tomarrow is the last day for crows in Ga but Alabama season never closes so I get to hunt crows all year long.
I start around mid-December after deer season until end of March -- in NY season is Sept 1 - Mar 31 (Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon). Been out probably 12 times with limited TBC - 15?, some full set-ups, some run and gun. Been really fun, though. It's all an experiment, and I am good at educating crows!
Here are a bunch of pictures... can't say I don't try.
In Iowa around Des Moines it has been poor. There are a ton of crows in the downtown area, but are not leaving the city limits. Have had to work hard for the ones we have gotten. We are not hitting the same place twice. Not sure what is wrong?
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I start around mid-December after deer season until end of March -- in NY season is Sept 1 - Mar 31 (Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon). Been out probably 12 times with limited TBC - 15?, some full set-ups, some run and gun. Been really fun, though. It's all an experiment, and I am good at educating crows!
Here are a bunch of pictures... can't say I don't try.
I did not go out as often as I usually do this season.
I went on 27 crow hunts and shot a little over 3,000 crows. Next season will be my 40th season keeping records and should hit the 150,000th mark before seasons end. We will see.
Here are some interesting stats, this is why it's fun keeping records. Last season Dick & I shot 6,339 crows on 37 crow hunts for an average of 171 crows per shoot.
This season Dick & I shot 4,645 crows on 27 crow hunts for an average of 172 crows per shoot. This does not include what Dick shot solo this season.
Bob A.
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To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
i have been out several times with me, nephew and his buddy, we manage 40 last season which we was very happy with, and with 2 more hunts to go till the end of our season next weekend we have killed 46 so far this year, were gonna try for the 60 mark, even though weve got more this year seems like the numbers were down this year. we found some new areas and have had a blast hunting with family and friends and good fellowship.
As time goes on you will do better & better as you learn the territory you hunt in.
When I was 15 years old I read Bert Popowski's book "Crow Shooting" and said to myself "hey, I wanna be just like that guy" and could only dream of the shoots he had. He had a photo in his book of a 124 bird shoot (good black & white close up photo) and I just looked at it and looked at it and said to myself someday.
Go ahead and follow your dream you never know where it will take you. I never thought I would shoot 100,000 crows back in 1974 but in 2001 I shot my 100,000th crow.
An awful lot depends on the region of the country you live in to be able to get some of that type of shooting. You also have to have more than one crow rich county inwhich to hunt in inorder to rotate your hunting spots so you do not over shoot any one area. Plus you have to have plenty of time to know the birds habits in the field inorder to be very successful.
Good Hunting!
Bob A.
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To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
Another season under 500 for me as well For the first time I put all my stuff up 2 weeks prior to season going out. We had a huge amount of snow that stuck around forever this year right after christmas. This pushed what birds that we had south. I had a large roost that I had 3 maybe 4 good flyway shoots off of. After I had hit them from 3 directions I could not get a bird from that roost near my call. My season started out decent (young birds) but as it went on the birds just would not respond. I even started back to winter fishing, haven't done that in several years I forget how fun it is. I love to smash em thats for sure but I can't kill em at 100 yards high. 60 65 no problem but 100 just wont cut it. I hunted one time very close to the roost, I watched @ least 15 thousand birds fly over my spread, those birds stayed 100 to 125 yards high until they got directly over the very tree they were gonna spend the night in and just folded up and fell out of the sky and lit in the tree dandest thing i ever saw
Chip: What a "visual" that must have been -- 1000's of "targets" overhead but nothing in range. I bet it was spectatular but also quite frustrating. Goes without saying, crows are smart birds!
We are just getting started, as our est shoots won't be until the end of this month, and early April, but there seems to be a good number of crows around......more than last year for sure, but they don't seem to want to cooperate when there is snow on the ground.
I hunted 6 times from Oct 6th thru Dec 8th. Killed 417 birds for an average of 69.5 birds per hunt. Had two good hunts out of the 6 and 2 sub par hunts. One was just my fault. I went to a place I have hunted many times without scouting it first. My normal blind locations were gone. The farmer had replaced all of his fences and had cleared all the cover out from the field edges that I normally set up in. I still had my blinds and all but the birds were super spooky that day. High winds and blue bird sky didn't seem to help either.
All in all, I had a great time. Learned alot more about blinds and setups. Looking forward to the fall already.
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bob those numbers are amazing, early congrats on your 150k mark i know you will get it, i dream of the day we hit the 20 bird mark for the day.
I grew up in Ohio, I lived there from 1966-1984, then again for a couple more years 1986-1988.
I never saw more than 10 crows on a one day there. Do you see many in one day in New Plymouth?
I live in SE ohio and i dont see many at all...i went fishing yesterday and tried to count saw maybe 40 in a flock and thats probably the most ive ever seen at one time...sad.
bob those numbers are amazing, early congrats on your 150k mark i know you will get it, i dream of the day we hit the 20 bird mark for the day.
I grew up in Ohio, I lived there from 1966-1984, then again for a couple more years 1986-1988.
I never saw more than 10 crows on a one day there. Do you see many in one day in New Plymouth?
I live in SE ohio and i dont see many at all...i went fishing yesterday and tried to count saw maybe 40 in a flock and thats probably the most ive ever seen at one time...sad.
What I find really odd is that there are so many grain crops down there for the crows to eat, I would think there would be more crows there, than up here. Unless they are just more concentrated up here.
bob those numbers are amazing, early congrats on your 150k mark i know you will get it, i dream of the day we hit the 20 bird mark for the day.
I grew up in Ohio, I lived there from 1966-1984, then again for a couple more years 1986-1988.
I never saw more than 10 crows on a one day there. Do you see many in one day in New Plymouth?
the most we ever had come in at once is probably 20, we usually see crows most of the day but come in just one or two at a time, i'm gonna try to find area around chillicothe was working over that way a couple of weeks ago and ther were 100's in the crop fields. plus i don't think we had the numbers this year around here as we didi last year
bob those numbers are amazing, early congrats on your 150k mark i know you will get it, i dream of the day we hit the 20 bird mark for the day.
I grew up in Ohio, I lived there from 1966-1984, then again for a couple more years 1986-1988.
I never saw more than 10 crows on a one day there. Do you see many in one day in New Plymouth?
the most we ever had come in at once is probably 20, we usually see crows most of the day but come in just one or two at a time, i'm gonna try to find area around chillicothe was working over that way a couple of weeks ago and ther were 100's in the crop fields. plus i don't think we had the numbers this year around here as we didi last year
I love it when they come in 1 or 2 at a time.
I was in Chillicothe once. I went to a recreation of a native American battle with Chief Blue Jacket at an outdoor amphitheater there.
Went out for my first hunt today with a friend. We made a quick blind in 45 mins and called some in. 2 came in close but we saw them too late . Picked up A owl decoy today to try tomorrow and the last week of season. Can't find any decoys and don't have time to order so I figured I'd dry the owl with black rag under it as a crow and call them in, but not sure which call to use for this setup? It was fun and I'm already addicted. At least I gogo turkey deer and dove to hold me over...
Went out for my first hunt today with a friend. We made a quick blind in 45 mins and called some in. 2 came in close but we saw them too late . Picked up A owl decoy today to try tomorrow and the last week of season. Can't find any decoys and don't have time to order so I figured I'd dry the owl with black rag under it as a crow and call them in, but not sure which call to use for this setup? It was fun and I'm already addicted. At least I gogo turkey deer and dove to hold me over...
Got out again last Saturday. Started late, so crows were already where I wanted to hunt, but I believed that even more would be arriving. So, after thinking about it, I scared a few off and got set up.
First thing I did was wait in silence for at least a half hour, and just listened and watched birds in the area. After a while, I called and got a few to commit, and was 4 for 5 (including my first double), when a couple started warning the troops in a half-mile radius with the definitive caw-caw-caw-caw-caw-caw danger warning. Then I decided I would try to override their warnings with some of my own friendly calls, both e-call and hand calls.
Damn, if I didn't get a few more to commit over time. Ended up with just 6, but got some good field observation work in to add to my crowology knowledge.
I tried my hand at crow hunting this last season for the first time and I truly enjoyed it. I took two this year. Here is a video of my crow hunt. http://youtu.be/60gOyKQF9yg cut and paste into address bar to watch video.
You need to find an isolated area where no other types of hunters go period. My partner and I had permission to go on "No trespassing" property in example. I have visited Iowa and I swear everyone there hunted pheasants and a crow has no idea if they are hunting a crow or not...they will leave to safer grounds...!
that was the beginning of the end for me in my territory. They didn't stock pheasants then started again and in flooded the pheasant hunters and largely drove all the crows out of this neck of the woods and the farms drying up did the rest along with no real feeding areas to hold the once numerous crow flocks in fall and late summer. They just plain left.
2012 was really bad. While crows almost always came over I was going further and further away as old haunts were all dried up due to farms drying up. I shot about 18 and missed a couple of times (in four hunts although I could have gone more-I saw it was useless) but believe it or not only a couple because I didn't see that many nor did I get that many....did i see a lot oh yes. And that is where i am going THIS year if they will allow any hunters in there? luckily I won't need a lot of decoys initially early in the season. Later i will change techniques as that has always worked for me. i try not to use the same set up twice in the same area and get the same results.
Believe it or not crows will recognize that vehicles mean possible danger. When ever I hid my vehicle and walked a ways I always did okay. On that note if you have to, just use sheets of whatever camouflage and hide your vehicle and make it look like a pile of corn or hay or what have we?
I saw a lot in another area in the distance but it was too late in the season. they might not be there next weekend at the time. Well at least i now know where to be this year after they get driven out of the more easily human accessible area!
