Here are two outstanding days back in November of 2011.
I was solo both days and here is the way it went down.
November 10th.
I shot 161 crows with 200 12 gauge trap loads in the morning = 81% average. 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Then went out in the afternoon and shot an additional 340 crows on a flyway shoot with 546 trap loads = 62% average. 2:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Wind - W-NW 10 mph 28 degrees out. 501 crows for the day!
November 11th.
I shot 227 crows on a morning flyway shoot from 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. I used 298 trap loads (# 7 1/2's) = 76% average. Then went out in the afternoon on a flyway shoot from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. This was a wild shoot, rolled 290 crows in two hours with 382 12 gauge trap loads (# 7 1/2's) = 76% average. Wind - SW-10 mph 50 degrees out. 517 crows for the day.
This was very rare for me to get two 500 plus bird days back to back.
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To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
Gotta say I am jealous about any 500 bird shoot let alone a back to back 500. I would give my right arm for a 50 at this point. Only been at it for a year though and should be in the 20s normally but poor shooting and jumping the gun causes most of that.
I remember reading about big shoots before in Crow Shooting Secrets but nothing like this. This took the Mr Mermon shoots even higher so to speak..meaning big kills..I bet you(Bob) are legend amongst the farmers....but for the naive; Bob may get 500 crows tops but he had to have seen close to a million or more in his area meaning he didn't make a single dent in the overall population...during breeding season the damage inflicted on waterfowl and other birds in Saskatchewan in example is nothing short of horrific; Ducks unlimited estimated a hundred ducks killed by the crow -any individual crow-a year...
It is hard to imagine that many crows period...
Some have said the crow has no enemies-not true. They don't have enough enemies to make any significant dent in the population. I bet there are more crows in Saskatchewan than starlings in Scotland...
Excepting the larger owls (Great Horned and the Barred in example) the larger hawks have very limited success in capturing a healthy adult crow. Crows in many cases live togetehr communally in rookeries. The hawks cannot capture a crow this way. They are mobbed by noisy crows who despite it appearing to be a game it is not. The crow will kill any hawk it can and in fact do eat hawk eggs if they can do it; young included...
At night the larger owls will sneak into the roost and grab a crow. The Great horned owl will kill several crows a night eating but the brains...the crow sin daylight will follow the feathers to locate the intruder and harass and intimidate the owl into the next county!
Yeah I found a report that showed (I think is 2009) hunters claimed 11 million ducks in North America combined for that season and crow where account for 20 million. It was Canada's version of the DFW that released the study.
If I had a 150 bird roost and the area was "virgin" I could do about 20 birds as pathetic as that sounds that was then in the day...I figured this on my past experience knowing approximately how many crows were roosting in my town at the time given the seasons; fall and spring...this was when I started getting good at my hit ratio. naturally this cannot be compared to anything anyone regularly or has done in the central United states(or anywhere else including this state) but then i thought it was pretty good...no one else I was aware of did as good until a couple years ago or so....in this state...most people in this area got but few...so anyways I figure for every hundred crows 20 probably got shot....but i don't really know how that works out in Kansas or Missouri or anywhere there are sizable roosts..?
I've posted this photo a lot over the years because it is very unusual. There are so many crows in that corn field that it looks like a blacktop highway!
Here are some more to get you guys pumped up for the up coming season. I am already starting to get little twinges of excitement, as soon as I smell that first coolness in the air in the morning is when the hours seem like days until opening day!
I had one semi pet crow that I wing tipped back in the late 1970's. He healed up and stayed around the house (the neighborhood) until early March and then just up and left with the migration headed north. Here is a photo, that crow loved liverwurst!
Those screwed up crows are really funny to look at!
Love them photographs! I go over and over in my head to understand how a crow can get a cannon ball hole in it?? What were you two now-on a pirate ship or something?
That brown crow is really weird -how does that happen? Are they breeding with hawks now?
I saw all that mud on your truck. How far did you have to go out in that field to get to where you two were going?
I noticed around here soon as the season opened not a crow heard or in sight despite the few crows in this area these days.-they are all elsewhere!
Because if this area you needed a lot of farms to hold them around. How big is that area you hunted with your truck all muddy? You must have four wheel drive right?
That brownish colored bird is still from a black & white crow, just does not show any traits of either parent.
It was touch and go getting to that spot, I almost got stuck, if I did not keep that four wheel drive moving I would have been stuck for sure! The truck in the photo is sitting on nothing more than a glorified trail that Dick & I drove down to get to that spot. The tread on the tires gets so muddy that you loose a lot of traction, so you had better let the momentum from the weight of the truck help you by not slowing down until you can stop in a safe spot!
We both had to drive almost a mile to get to that spot. It was worth it because we got a good shoot, Dick was complaining that the crows were to close!
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To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
really strange looking crow you got mounted there! Greta blinds too...and did you ever get any photographs of the old Ft Cobb days or Medaros or anything like that?
The first photo was taken in Stafford County 40 miles west of Medora. The second photo I took of Boyd Robeson & I shooting crows north of Medora in the late 1970's, this was in Reno County. The rest are from Medora, St. John and Wichita. Jim Lundquist is in one of the action photos as well.
Now about your neighborhood crow; did it depend on you for food or only sometimes and other than that did it just hang around? Did ever land on your shoulder or hand? Did ti follow you around? Call for you?
It hung around the neighborhood and knew my house from the rest. He would sit on the outside dinner table and when I would get close to him he would take a short flight to the other end of my backyard. My wife took some photos of that crow coming to me once he saw that I had liverwurst in my hand in order to feed him. That is the only time he would fly right over and light right on my forearm. I even had old photos of him walking on the kitchen table (inside the house) looking for a free hand out. My wife used to get mad at me for bringing the crow inside the house. That crow would bait our ****er spaniel in the backyard. The dog would see the crow eating it's dry dog food right out of it's bowl and charge the crow on the ground. The crow would wait until the dog was almost upon him before he jumped off the ground and fluttered six feet above the dog until the dog went flying on bye. When the dog would make a you turn and charge again the crow did the same thing, about drove that dog loony!
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To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
Did it ever call to you or its' buddies? Having it in the house is comical indeed! I still cannot get over the incredible numbers though otherwise!
Probably that crow of yours found soem other home and was adopted which is why it never returned. they are such odd birds. they find and area they like and they don't wander too far!
I was teasing you a little bit...I was saying I was going to come down and pick up your shot shells...seriously though-no idea what i would do with them all!
Another week I will do some scouting...around this general area...I know the crows are roosting but naturally the it's all the county birds gathering before the migration...they trickle down around the time the broad wing hawk migration is in massive swing..then the big flood come october there about...
I got this friend here I tease about his guns..he always buys that "new' gun and i say::Okay , I'll pick up "my" new gun(I never ever see his new gun anyways-again-just a joke) you bought me Saturday!' Just a joke..." Every now and then he gives me half a _i guess you folks outside new England call them submarine sandwiches...here we call them grinders.
At work this takes place when we get there early and just shoot the bull...Chef boy R dee sells cans of really good cooked spaghetti and i give him one every now and then...we kid each other all the time or fairly regularly...just joking..I don't want his guns..who am I anyways-Big daddy Blowbama?
I've heard you and Pete mention in the past about the crow season being closed during you're migration period in NH. Has the state ever changed that in order for you to have better shooting?
How about close neighboring states to hunt if you can't hunt in your own state during a peak period?
My old friend from Stratford used to hunt in NH, VT and NY. He said years back he got very good shooting in VT. I suspect that was one of the reasons he hunted in the tri state area is because of the season dates.
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To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
Bob, our season does run until end of Nov, we just go out for a few hours a day,(too hot) not many birds around yet but will pic up each week from here until 1st week in Nov. Best time is 10/17 until 11/5 or so.
If your shooting is fairly close to where you live and you can get in a few hours in the morning before it warms up then you are ahead of the game. This years hatch should be easy pickings when you and Pete head out for a few hours.
So how much ammo do you have reloaded for this season so far?
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To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
I have loaded a 5 gal bucket of 12 ga 1 0z and 1 1/8th oz of 6's
a 2 gal bucket of 7/8ths oz 6's for the 20 ga
and about 70 1 1/8 th oz 10 ga 6's. than i load during the season to keep up with the shooting. i can load a box in about 5 mins. i hunt almost every day in Oct and early Nov,
we (i) shoot between 600 to 800 hundred crows each for the year. my best years shoot was 920.
When I used to reload I could get 500 12 gauge trap loads into a five gallon bucket, 650 20 gauge loads into the same sized bucket.
Do you start using you're short 10 gauge loads when it gets late in the season or all season?
I love playing pocket billiards and carem billiards. Pocket billiards is 8 ball, 9 ball or straight pool. Carem billiards you play on a pool table with no pockets on the table with just three balls. Pool is a great game of angles and deflection plus touch (stroke) and control. The only draw back is that the billiard balls are much larger than # 6 shot.
We start with our 10's so that we can shoot at the tall ones , early season you don't have that many chances ,so it lets us shoot at birds we wouldn't shoot at later in oct than back to the 10 ga's in the Feb to march
I thought for sure you would say something about my # 6 shot size and those billiard balls?
I just dropped off the pickup at the auto body shop to have some work done on the back bumper. I was pulling Dick out with my pickup (he was stuck) and I backed into a telephone pole!
What do you drive for a hunting rig?
I started running 10 ply tires on my 4x4 pickup three years ago; best investment I ever made. Have not had one flat tire yet!
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To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
