Last two times out this season, which were also the first two times out, I placed myself in what I thought were pretty cool locations. However, I found myself restricted in decoy placement because the soybeans are planted pretty tight, leaving not too much excess space. You'd think these farmers would leave us some extra space since we're destroying all of those bandits. Nope. Since crow decoys placed on the ground in two-going-on-three feet tall soybeans are pretty ineffective--no matter how cool they are, I thought about a solution similar to pounding my piece of 8' rebar that I mount my red-tail hawk upon. Trouble with that is I didn't like the thought of hauling a bundle of steel rebar to the setup. Besides, I only needed a length of something long enough to just clear the soybeans and sturdy enough to be tapped into the ground with a rock, or hammer, or friend's Stanley thermos. Incidently, I broke one wing from one of my dekes on trip two, and it was lying on the bench drying from a repair job. More on this detail in a moment.
Hoping to hold the torch of continuous improvement high today, I found myself pondering what to do with the problem of tall soybeans here in my corner of MI. A couple of days ago, one Wise CrowBuster whose opinion on ancient Winchester pumpers I esteem highly, gently hinted, "Get thee and thy blind to an open area, so the evil bandits willst not make sport of you by hiding in the tall trees where thou always set-est up in those darned tree lines." I reasoned, finally, that just because it was Army doctrine to set up field artillery battery cannons in tree lines (in Europe), it doesn't mean you have to stick there when hunting crows in MI. I "saw the light" and promised the Wise CrowBuster I would try.
So, I pondered this whilst walking though the local big-box home improvement store, seeking (as usual) not to spend too much in the process. Once again, I "saw the light." Found it. I recalled I had some green 1/2" plastic garden stakes in the shed. These were fairly sturdy, easier to cut and haul than rebar, and best of all, no extra cost. So, after springing $1.50 for a bag of 1/2" electrical clamps here's what I came up with.
As mentioned, I happened to have the repaired decoy handy, which needed touch up paint anyhow, so he became the prototype for "Crow on a Stick, Portable." Two clips, two machine screws and nuts scrounged from the junk drawer and here tiz. Just need to trim the stick a bit so it will clear mature soybeans. Will modify three or four more and try them this Sat.
Good luck!
-- Edited by Old Artilleryman on Thursday 8th of August 2013 12:34:46 AM
Boy, that 'ole knogg'n of yours just doesnt stop does it...lol.
There is a fella that lives a bit to the north of me that likes to shoot crows locally and he also uses a couple post-like devices as a make shift perch for a few decoys. It works for him and your design should work too. In fact, I like yours better. It is much more mobile. Some may think that a "hovering" crow will flare birds but I would disagree. If you get a handful of decoys a couple feet above the beans in addition to your normal set you'll be able to kill birds over them.
Good work. Keep us updated on how you like the ease of deployment and the pending success of broken wings and flying feathers.
Great idea. I have a piece of plywood covered with the pattern for this type of decoy and think I just might incorporate your idea. I also have an idea that I hope works. I am going to put the wings on a hing so that they swing up for carrying them as a single flat unit and put a block of wood as a stop so that the wings stay out when you go to deploy them.
