I wish I could say that this was one of my shoots but it is not!
Dick my partner had a day in 1995 where he alone shot 1,222 crows by himself! It is very tough to get two outstanding hunts back to back, one in the morning and then another in the afternoon!
Dick hit it right where he shot over 600 crows on a morning hunt up till around 1:00 p.m. Then went out in the afternoon and setup at a different spot and shot an additional 600 plus crows on a flyway shoot. The interesting thing about where he setup for his afternoon shoot that day is that this was the exact spot where I filmed a 551 bird shoot in 2001 in the DVD "The Art of Crow Hunting" Dick & I did not start to hunt together until around 2003.
Drew Moore and I used to run into Dick in Oklahoma years ago before we became partners.
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To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
The hunt that I described above is rare for several reasons.
If you are hunting in a crow rich area where the birds do not get much pressure that would be the first thing needed.
Second you need to get not one but two outstanding shoots back to back in the same day! Many times both Dick and I (hunting solo) have had either good morning or afternoon shoots but to get both in one day is very tough, you need the right weather conditions and you need to be in the right spot both times!
Many times over the past 12 seasons of hunting together we will get a so so morning hunt and then a real good afternoon flyway shoot or visa versa. It is not unusual at all to get a couple of hundred in the morning and then go out and get a couple of hundred more in the afternoon. But to do what Dick did back in 1995 where he got two 600 plus bird shoots in one day is indeed very rare.
Dick & I have hunted crows for many years before we knew each other and in all those years he had that one hunt alone! He had one other where he and a friend shot 1,050 crows on an afternoon flyway shoot back in the 1990's.
My largest solo hunts are 711 and 834 in all the years of hunting them. Boyd Robeson & I shot 859 in one spot all day long back in 1982, as you can see, they are very rare hunts.
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To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
it is incredible because I cannot imagine that many crows anywhere! I've seen a a lot but it's like comparing a grain of sand on the beach to the size of the beach!!
(Or something like that?)
I've seen a lot of videos of crows here and there and it is still amazing! To have shot that many crows even a couple hundred in the morning then another couple hundred in the afternoon is incredible; let alone 800 all day long!!
I wonder why you cannot shoot that many like that any more? must be a story there in and of itself?
It can still be done but like I said you need the right kind of spot to have a really big shoot. You also need lots of crows strung out over a period of hours. You need the right kind of wind velocity and the right direction of the wind that morning or afternoon.
The reason it's tough to get those big shoots is because you have to have all those factors come together the day you are hunting! Sometimes conditions are perfect on an afternoon flyway shoot and you are killing them left and right and then the wind dies on you or you get a wind shift that changes everything. Just because a fella might have tens of thousands of crows to work on does not mean he is going to do well every time out.
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To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
It's still just incredible period....what bothers me is the interruptions even when I must allow some wandering pheasant or goose hunter to join me because they are just lousy shots on crows period!
I don't need to explain that to anyone here however...you know the transition! One thing I never saw before was in one of your videos Bob A. you had three shotguns! Caught me by surprise!
You were hitting with whatever one you had in your hand too!
I still had to think that one out then it hit me-you can drive out to your blinds..I cannot!
I know the film footage you are talking about, I had a pair of 20 gauge Remington 870 Wing Masters plus a 12 gauge model 23 Winchester double. You are correct, I drove the pickup right to the spot I wanted to hunt that afternoon. That film footage was shot 1 1/2 miles east of the old Medora roost in 1990. My wife Gail shot that film footage, it was a perfect day, the breeze was in the south southwest that afternoon about 10 to 15 mph and it held all afternoon. I had two flyways come together where I was positioned, one from the northeast and the other from the east southeast. The crows that came in from the northeast were against the wind and the ones that came from the southeast had to quarter the wind to get to me.
I went quail hunting that morning with my 20 gauge model 12 skeet gun bored WS-1. My friend had a good pair of English Pointers that were well seasoned gun dogs. The wind was light in the morning so it made for a wonderful upland hunt. That is the reason I was dressed the way I was in that film footage in that afternoon crow hunt.
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To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
Some areas of the country still hold good sized crow roosts during the fall & winter months. When I say good sized I mean twenty five to thirty thousand or more crows in any one roost. They have smaller roosts where you can get decent shooting along the flyways leading to or from one of those roosts. The smaller roosts of ten to fifteen thousand can yield a couple of shoots in the 200 range but you can't over due it because you just don't have that many birds to work on.
About 14 years ago I was filming a duck hunt with my two partners at the time. We were roughly 15 miles west of Hutchinson where I live, anyway I noticed enough crows to get my attention that morning. The next morning I got up and drove to that area and back tracked until I found out where they were roosting. I went back about an hour before sundown and just watched to see what direction the birds were coming from going to that small roost. Now this was really a small roost, perhaps 3,000 crows. Now this was in 2001 and the crow shooting in my area of Hutchinson had ended in 1990 so I was eager to get in a little shoot in my home state. I noticed only one flyway big enough to setup on so I went and got permission from the land owner and waited for the next south breeze since the majority of the crows going to that roost were coming from the north. Four days later the forecast called for a south breeze of 10 to 20 mph. I setup roughly 400 yards north of that roost at noon time. Not much happened until later in the afternoon but I was picking off stragglers from noon time till 3:30 p.m. By 7:10 p.m. I finished up with just over 200 crows which was a very decent shoot for the amount of birds I had to work with going to that roost. I was lucky, these birds had never heard a call before and that is why I did so well in relation to the amount of birds in the area.
Bob, great story. The largest roots I've ever seen was about 2 to 3 thousand birds. That made for some great hunts. Here in Wisconsin we don't have jack for birds. But I still like to get out and pound a few birds. I'm just in the wrong part of the country. Some day.
When I was young and still working for a living I used to live for the time I could take off for 9 days vacation and go out of state to where the crows were located. As soon as I got out of the Navy in 1970 I got a job working construction in the state of Connecticut so I could take off for the whole winter to hunt crows. I used to drive to Kansas (1,500 miles one way) and spend several weeks at a time out here years before I moved here.
Years ago in the mid to late 70s in the old Connecticutt river valley there were always crows around...not sure of the exact number but roughly 5-600 were chasing this luckless turkey vulture once and i nailed a tail end charley...just as my partner asked;"Do crows get along with turkey vultures?" Never forgot that day. Anyways that whole area might have a 50 bird crow roost...and now the whole area is posted ...new owner[a FOREIGNER from the British Isles]...I doubt very much he allows any kind of hunting now..his neighbors the horse women don't want any hunters around..doesn't matter as that whole area was by and large abandoned by the crows decades ago...but those were the days i tell you! Most of the shot gunners on here would have nailed a hundred birds if they brought the ammo..with me took a hundred rounds to get 14-18 each time out..to me that was amazing.
The bottom line here again is-if you want the crows got to go else where and be prepared to spend the gas money!
Item: so long as food abounds the crows will hang around! I cannot believe there are so many crow sin Montreal-I have read the reports and this fellow up there shoots year round I think and in winter Montreal is practically the North pole!
But..uumm..I wasn't talking Kansas or a Missouri but none the less I know what you mean...I am talking those few areas with a lot of crows historically but research says that a week end out of state is possible if necessary..but mainly I am looking at areas right now where I might be home after dark versus any over night stays....but i like those ideas...because that is where the crow shooting has the best quality and quantity....but for now; things seem to be okay. I cannot imagine what you must do logistic wise but all told you know the areas around the midwest will be largely guaranteed to have crows and everything else is academic so no surprises!
Food? Oh yes I remember some story by some one where if you didn't bring a heating plate what ever they are called or a small microwave and your own food and whatever you were in deep doggy doo!
Yup, that was down at Ft. Cobb back in the early 1970's before they had any restaurants any where near the motel. You had to cook your own food in the room to stay alive! This was long before micro wave ovens were invented.
Years ago Dick used to use a trailer to haul his ammo to Oklahoma back in the early to mid 1990's. He hauled 60 flats from Ohio to Oklahoma (15,000 rounds) and he rented a house down there for three months during the season. He had a good run down there before the area dried up about 14 years ago. This was the same area where Drew Moore and I had two 500 plus bird shoots with in a few days of one another. Drew wrote the article "Ole Time Crow Shooting in the 21st Century" in reference to this crow safari. Dick had a 10 year run where he was shooting 10 to 11 thousand crows a season by himself! The best I ever did (but I was still working in those days) was 6,349 by myself in one season.
When the farmers switched from peanuts to cotton all the crows left that once great area!
When did you know you'd have tons of crows you might be shooting at? And no restaurants?
I cannot imagine any scenario like that I mean I grab a McDonalds break fast and roll on....whole different scenario here of course.... I cannot imagine a shoot like that or an area with no restaurants like that....and how did you know what to expect? Meaning what you'd be facing? No food availability unless the farmers' wife cooks something up...? How did you know this in advance? Myself I'd likely be packing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and a thermos or two of coffee......sounds like Ft Cobb was practically in the middle of nowhere for what that is worth...surprising to me too about the flea bag motel idea...brings up another question:you hung around a few days maybe? I cannot imagine zillions of crows anyways. Our roosts here only hold up to a few thousand birds and the trick here is finding an area to get at them. One such area here in the fall has hundreds of crows but it is basically a college town and all the farm land now has $500,000 homes with two car garages sitting at the edge of once big cornfields and about the only place the crows go is at the farm itself where it's all posted now a long story.....all too familiar to anyone who reads my posts....if they are really bored...now I got another area I can go but unless I travel the shooting is pathetic....and there are good areas not terribly far away too.
1200 birds in one day would be a tremendous pounding on the body. Further, I'd say with a 10 percent miss rate which is somewhat conservative for live birds in field conditions, one would be looking at 1300 plus rounds fired. After the sun set I would likely have had a couple belts of good bourbon and retire to bed. Probably wouldn't want to see a crow or shoulder a shotgun for a week
Ted
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Life's tough... It's even tougher if you're stupid. John Wayne
Hey Ted, He more than likely shot more than 1,300 hulls because you shoot some of the cripples over so you don't have to go running after them. Dick used to have 6 model 1100 Remington's that he used when he was away from home for three months hunting crows. Dick when he had to walk in to his blind anywhere from 175 yards to several hundred yards from the road he carried one 1100 semi auto and another 1100 semi auto with no barrel, just the receiver and forend in a short case. If the one gun started acting up in a hot shoot where a gun will get very hot he would simply pull the backup gun out of the short case and pull the barrel off the gun giving him trouble and switch it to the second gun to keep on shootin! When guns get hot parts can start breaking in the heat of battle, you're worst nightmare is to have gun trouble on a good shoot! This is why I went to the Benelli montefeltro model shotguns for five years before I switched to the Beretta model 391 gas auto. The Benelli's were very reliable but the Beretta's were much softer shooting. I bought an A - 400 Beretta about 3 years ago and it was a good shooter but I still liked the Beretta model 391 better, just my own personnel taste is all. Dick bought a pair of model A - 300 Beretta semi autos to try out for this season coming up.
I sold that A - 400 Beretta to Dale who posts the crow hunting videos on this site last year and he loves it.
Tom, the closest restaurant to the dumpy motel I stayed at in at Ft. Cobb was 11 to 12 miles away. It was in the town of Binger which was northeast of Ft. Cobb.
Hey, here is a good one for you guys, back in 2010 I found a new area and was alone. After scouting for two days straight and securing permission I had two 500 plus bird hunts back to back, one on each day. It was two different setups on each day but it was an outstanding experience. I called my partner and said you better meet me here because there are more crows than I can handle alone! Dick was there within 24 hours and driving over 1,000 miles to find me! We have hunted this area ever since and if memory serves me right we have had at least four other hunts together in this area where he have killed over 500 crows in one day. Many others in the mid 300 to mid 400 range. Last season we had a great morning hunt where we shot 314 up until around 10:30 A.M. and the conditions were not right for a good afternoon shoot so we just scouted and watched the place we were intending to hunt. Thousands came through but all were way to high because there was no wind.
