One of the local dove field owners asked me to help with his crow problem. As you may have seen on an earlier post, there were hundreds of crows coming in to this field and eating all of his corn & soybeans. Most of the crows were fish crows, but there was a healthy population of common crows to make the trip worthwhile. The dove season is over, but this was a "bonus hunt" so he could keep shooting. As it turned out, the owner didn't hunt, but he had his son go with me just to see what it was all about. The weather was a little iffy in that at mid-morning the wind picked up to 10-20 mph, which of course made the calling poor, the birds had to fight the wind to get in and once over us, they were quite dicey to shoot because of the dipping, etc.
The morning started slowly, but started to pick up around 10:00. Dad came by three times to check on us and had been watching the shooting from a distance. I could tell he missed being in the blind, but was proud to see his son so excited about hunting. It is a true joy to see a newbie get excited about bringing down crows and this kid could shoot. He is a inland fishing guide and spends most of his time outdoors fishing and hunting and it showed up in our numbers.
By late morning we had struggled with the wind blowing the birds and our blind. The wind was directly into us and at one point I thought we were going to loose most of the blind. I use fence posts with camo cloth draped over a rope strung between the posts. This morning we were not hiding behind camo cloth...we were crouched in the lee of a sail so it was not much fun. We made it up to around 85 birds and I was about to plan our exit, but sat down for a minute to drink a cup of hot tea. Of course as soon as I had taken one sip, I had to put the cup down for some incoming commons. As soon as we got 6 of those birds, a big flock of fish crows came in low and it really got exciting. Finishing off the flurry, some of the original crows came back on us and the shooting was frantic. Fourteen crows rained down from that flurry! The good news was that The Century Club was ours to brag about...the bad news was that cup of hot tea was now lukewarm!.
By the time we cleaned up and took pictures, the total count was 112 with about 1/3rd of them being fish crows. This was their first official crow shoot on the property and man, were they excited! We celebrated with a late breakfast of venison backstrap, grits and O.J. (tomatoes are out of season now). What a nice way to spend a morning with friends!
Demi
P.S. Will post the picture as soon as our email system gets back up from maintenance.
-- Edited by Island Shooter on Monday 26th of January 2015 08:53:24 PM
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The man who thinks he can, and the man who thinks he can’t are both right.
"1/3 of them being fish crows"!!! Outstanding work thinning out their ranks as typically they are tough to get into shotgun range. Fine report Mr. Howard and exciting to read and looking forward to the pictures!!! Excitement goes a long way in my book towards an enjoyable hunt!!!
Our email system is working again. Man, you don't realize how dependent you are on something until it disappears!
Here is the photo with one additional bit of information:
Due to some high weeds, deep ditches and heavy duty briars we had many more "dead but lost" birds than usual. I kept count with my clicker so the 112 count was accurate, but we only recovered 90 birds for the picture. While we were setting up the crows in neat lines, the owner's high-strung retriever was running around snatching a bird or two for retrieval to his owner. I finally brought him over to a patch of weeds where I knew there might be a bird or two hidden and, sure enough, it didn't take long for this dog to realize that we wanted them for the picture. By the time we had cleaned everything up, the dog had brought in an additional 12-15 birds! It was fun watching him work and even more fun for him to be running around and doing the job he was bred and trained to do in spite of the fact they were the wrong color birds.
Well done Demi!!! Looks like you shooting partner had a good time too.. I assume your using all the same decoys as posted in the pic? Same set up as Tomlin? Keep up the good shoots.. Dang fish crows...
Very similar to Jerry's setup. After all, everything I know about crow hunting I learned from Jerry... and Skip, and you, and everyone on the Crow Busters Forum.
The main difference being that I am using the FoxPro instead of the comeback call to turn the crows around after shooting at them.
Demi
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The man who thinks he can, and the man who thinks he can’t are both right.
Me too, about Tomlin.. some trial and a hole lot of error..Just can't seam to get the "e" caller part of my set up.. maybe one day.. I like the convenience of the hand calls..
We made it up to around 85 birds and I was about to plan our exit, but sat down for a minute to drink a cup of hot tea. Of course as soon as I had taken one sip, I had to put the cup down for some incoming commons. As soon as we got 6 of those birds, a big flock of fish crows came in low and it really got exciting. Finishing off the flurry, some of the original crows came back on us and the shooting was frantic. Fourteen crows rained down from that flurry! The good news was that The Century Club was ours to brag about...the bad news was that cup of hot tea was now lukewarm!.