Crow Busters Forum

IF you look carefully where my barrel is aiming you will find "Leroy" my pet crow decoy. Leroy is a crow feather covered piece of plastic and he is very real looking. I really think he deceives real crows better than any other decoy I have ever used for whatever that is worth. He has a wire on each foot and I wrap them around twigs, etc.. and he sits up nicely and realistically. And yes, that's me replete with chamo Maxus, 2 Gibsons, a Turpin and my FoxPro remote at the ready! Picture was taken at 11:30 last Wednesday and is labeled properly: Two Smiley Faces!!

A week before this picture, I had found nearly 200 crows feeding on a freshly planted winter rye. After several "door knockings" we got the number and address of the owner and inasmuch as deer season is now OUT in North Carolina, getting permission is generally a formality but not this time. Our first answer was "no... I do not allow hunting, etc." Keep in mind we could hear all the crows hollering around his house while he was telling us NO. I gave up on the spot but my buddy did not. He returned the next day and after convincing the owner we were ONLY after crows ( he admitted they did pull up his corn last year ) he said "kill them all". Hearing this was tantamount to getting "permission" for whatever.. on prom night!! Fact is, I prefer permission for de-crowing operations over the latter at my age!!!

Netting in place for two blinds and Leroy in place, we started calling at 0650 on a beautiful cold and windless morning---perfect conditions. I do not often set up on the edge of a field but it was the right decision this time and when on the edge is the only time I use decoys.. or in my case "a" decoy. The key is LOTS of cover...be sure crows cannot see through it, etc. We knew the birds would be leaving to feed and would be coming from our left to right. They did. By 11:30 we had the 91 down you see here. FINE target presentations..crows doing what crows do best, all angles, speeds, evasive maneuvers, etc.. lots were killed, too many were missed.

We had planned to return that afternoon and catch them on their return trip but my buddy said he had to help his daughter do something and could not make the afternoon. Gee..looked like I would have to fend off the afternoon attack alone! I grabbed lunch, headed back to my blind at 2:15 and by 4:30 had dropped another 36 for a daily TBC of 127. These 36 contained many very close shots. I could see most all of them through holes in my blind headed right towards me.. gently flapping wings often gliding about 15 feet off the ground. I was doing almost no calling as I had placed 15 or so dead birds right in front of me, was using low volume on Foxy with the young crow distress sound..and they just came right at me. It was a true crow hunter's delight. I had blood on my ProEars, blood on my face mask, gun and remember being sprayed several times with crow body fluids due to some very close in work!

  No record of any sort here.. just a fantastic crow day. I will never grow tired of the flying marvel we call the crow. I called my buddy's home afterwards and told him to thank his daughter for needing him at home that afternoon and, as you might imagine, I was quite sincere!!

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