I had a little hunt last Friday where I used a modified dove decoy system to pull a some crows in real close. Our local crows are generally pretty well educated, but this flat black painted Dove Feeding Frenzy decoy certainly focused the attention of the incoming crows. It sets up quickly and the rotary motion and hopping action did the trick.
For sound I used my new FoxPro Shockwave and it worked very well, too. The new remote and its ability to organize your sounds by catagory is very helpful. I also used FoxMotion for the first time and that is an excellent feature for crow calling, as it moved the sound between the speakers. Here is my caller on top of a fence post, as that deployment approach gets more sound out and keeps it from being muffled by the ground.
This photo shows my entire setup. I was standing on the shady edge under the small tree on the left, hiding very effectively in the tree's dark shadow on this bright morning. My decoys were about 20 yards from me, and very visible in the middle of a big row between the trees. Toyota 1 was well hidden under the tree in the back, about 50 yards from my shooting stand. No crows flared on my truck or me in the shade.
I dropped 11 of these 13 crows in less that 10 minutes, with my Browning Maxus sporting the Metro barrel extension. This was a late morning shoot after a nice visit with the landowner and his foreman. I had 3 doubles with those quick 11 crows, as I was channeling Skip Woody for a few minutes!
It will be interesting to test this decoy system in a high volume crow situation later this year. Mark 1, Mod 2 will be to put these spinning fake crows under the talons of a Mojo Hawk or Mojo Owl decoy. Note these Hunter's Edge Dove Feeding Frenzy decoy systems are on sale right now at Cabela's, and other vendors, with the opening of dove season recently completed. These decoys work great on doves and pigeons, too, if you keep a separate set of their very nicely painted deks.
I built one of those 5 years ago...We named it the "Flare Machine" and now it collects dust in the corner of my barn.....
It decreased our TBC so its history.....
along with my crow decoys....
and the owl.....(although we did shoot 513 from sunup til 11:00 AM with the owl once)
and the kitchen sink......
Point is, leave all the BS gadgets at home. Including decoys.
You dont need them.
My theory is this....When the birds are flaring or not working right, I dont have time to decipher if its the spinning wing decoy, the crow decoys, or whatever else is causing it.....Eliminate all of those, and you have less decisions to make as to what it wrong....
Location is everything.
Be mobile...and ready to move QUICK....If you cant pick up your stuff and be moved to another end of a field in 15 minutes you might be suckin hind Tit.....
Crow Hunting is about being in the right place at the right time.Due to your scouting efforts!!
DECOYS ARE NOT NECESSARY!!!!!!!
The birds come to the call, and without decoys....well, curiosity killed the cat. I feel they come in closer because they have no idea whats going on.
I have actually BANNED them from my hunts. I have the data and records to show that our top 5 Hunts did not use decoys.
Invest your time in a Killer, mobile , quick set-up blind and be ready to move at a minutes notice....Bury your ass in the thickest , lowest stuff you can find...Thats after you have scouted for a day or so.
I was in a pool tournament very recently and never lost a single game during the whole tourney. That's the best I have done to date. I've had a couple where I dropped one or two games during a tourney but batting 1000% is rare for me. I took advantage of every break I got and kept focused the whole time. That new cue is working for me.
Talk to you soon.
Bob A.
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To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
You always say that the mental part of the game is just as tough as the physical part of the game. To bat 1000% you must be pretty darn good at both parts of the game.
The mental part is maintaining your focus and not getting distracted. The physical part is having confidence in your own ability plus being in fairly good shape to stretch on some of the shots that otherwise would require a bridge. One other aspect of the physical is not choking, this is a lot easier said than done sometimes even for me. It just depends on how tough a player your opponent is, but no matter who they are I never let them see me sweat! That is also (mental part) part of the game.
When I am stroking through the cue ball my damn head stays down through the stroke same as keeping your face buried into the comb when swinging on a live bird. Talking about live birds, it will not be to much longer before I start to put flats of ammo into the 4x4 for the season.
Bob A.
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To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
