I was curious as to how everybody was doing on crows this season?
Is this an average, above average or below average year for you guys?
Bob at the Texas Crow Patrol says his season has been less than stellar. This is why he has not posted, just nothing to post about.
How about Skip, NH, 10 gauge, Low & slow, Big Honkers, Motion Decoy, OA, Ted from Canada, Shane Dog just to name a few?
The Michigan season, 1st half (FEB & MAR) begins on Monday. A report (if there's anything to report) will be coming. I'm hoping for some mentally-challenged, uneducated bandits.
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"Arms are the only true badges of liberty. The possession of arms is the distinction of a free man from a slave." -- Andrew Fletcher 1698
Don't know what to call this year, it was all over the place. Hunted less because of weather and circumstances. With that said it was a challenging season. Still had a blast Huntin these bandits and the fellowship was off the chart, which made for some great times afield.
Don't know what to call this year, it was all over the place. Hunted less because of weather and circumstances. With that said it was a challenging season. Still had a blast Huntin these bandits and the fellowship was off the chart, which made for some great times afield.
Butch
Hope you chased the survivors up this way!
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"Arms are the only true badges of liberty. The possession of arms is the distinction of a free man from a slave." -- Andrew Fletcher 1698
Lots of survivors, plus a lot of green birds should be headin your way. Hope everything lines up for you Crow slayers up there to have a great Feb. & March season. Looking forward to the posts.
This was to be my first season as a retiree! After scouting the birds were establishing in the normal roosting area. Opening day and the day after I put 118 birds on the ground. The roost was only holding between 6 and 8 thousand birds all early arrivals of course. The following Thursday duck season came in. No ducks so some high school kids decided to shoot my roost. The birds re established about 18 miles south east. I left them alone for 2 weeks and I was steadily getting more birds. I estimated 25 maybe 30 thousand, I hit them one more time then the entire county was under water for a month. The flood pushed my birds 25 miles north. I am currently letting them roost untouched. I'm going to start on them in a week. I'm about to run out of season tho. Weather and idiots are hard to battle. Worst season on record for me. I had big hopes being able to hunt every day. No big deal there is always next year. I will start chasin Turkeys before long and hammering the crappie. I will say the migration south was about three weeks to a month off this year. I was wondering if we were ever gonna get the birds. They are here now.
Did the math and in 14 hunts we picked up 1001 with a 70 average a few hundred birds shy of last year, hunted less and crows were on there game a lot. But from others not having any birds and other things going on I will gladly take this kind of year. Hoping to go a few times in Feb. may get lucky and put some on the ground.
As of Jan 1.. my total for the previous 2 1/2 months ( I usually do not get after crows till mid October ) was 1,097 or about average to that point. Unfortunately, the weather here since Jan 1 has been awful for crows! Rain, mud, snow, ice had prevented most of our efforts. We got out only twice in January killing 93 and 169. Am hoping for a less wet Feb. as our season ends Feb 27th. Am thinking the cold up north over the past few week must have pushed larger numbers of birds our way. Chasing and trying to outsmart Mr. Crow never grows old!!
My crow season is down about 30% from years past,but the future looks bright as I've obtained a key to a new farm and i'm really looking forward to hunting next year.Our season goes out Feb 29 and with all the warm weather we are having the crows seem to be pairing up early. Hope to post a few pics
My season was typical of last years -actually better..I was there during migration...I was stunned by all the crows but I got roughly 20 each time out and missed about 3 times more too.....in my estimation..but they were there! hardly the numbers you people got however but it was active with some great shooting for what it is worth until the very end....but it got better in 2015 than 2014....but nothing like most of you did...on any given day at that!
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Top Cat Statutes never replaced or rewrote the constitution!
If I only knew what then was going to happen on the very last day I went I could have cleaned house (not really) as the crows were coming in 5 abreast very predictably to the roost and I could have done a bird every row which would have bolstered my numbers. But so goes the learning curb!
Every 5 minutes(?) a flock of 5 abreast would appear...and that is time enough to prepare for the next batch....the deal was to have higher brass shot and get set up but I was caught totally unawares Putting out a hay blind in the middle of this corn field and i would have likely gotten 50 anyways...so it goes. I didn't-it didn't happen but so it goes!
But spring is coming!!! That is so long as the warm weather doesn't cause too much hair pulling! Until you've seen it when the crows come back after the season is over or the season ended the day before the migrants come in you can appreciate what I am saying...seasons are useless in my views ...they should be left up to the crow shooters judgement..this is not like water fowl hunting or deer hunting at all! One size shoe does not fit all!
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Top Cat Statutes never replaced or rewrote the constitution!
Every season is different in regard to the type of weather you get, like the old saying goes, "you can't fight the weather" When ever possible I will wait for conditions to favor me and not the crows before a crow hunt. If conditions are not right in one area I will check another area that is any where from 25 miles to 100 miles away. Getting the extended weather forecast for certain areas sure helps because 40 miles between areas can make a world of difference.
Every part of the country is different as well. For example, I have heard Skip mention that he much prefers calm days when he run & guns for crows. In my part of the country a calm day is the kiss of death for an afternoon flyway shoot. You might as well take a break and go hunt some quail with a good pair of dogs when you get a day like this in the plains states.
Pete and his pal 10 gauge say that they time there hunts to the migration pattern through there state in the fall. We all do that but what seems to be different in Pete's case is that either the crows do not stick around (they are just passing through) or they are staying in an area (for the winter) that Pete does not know about.
In all of the areas I hunt the crows stay all winter, now feeding areas will change from week to week so you have to do your homework so as to know what is going on.
One quick note for the fellas that drive four wheel drives. I bought 10 ply tires for my pickup three seasons ago and have not had one flat tire, best investment I ever made in my hunting equipment! Before that I would get at least one flat a season with all the crap I drive over during the season.
10-4on the 10 ply tires boba,any one that drives gravel roads and off roads needs better tires than comes on new vehicles now. Most are 2 ply with 4 ply rating. One other thing I've done is added a 3ton rolling floor jack from Harbor Freight.Haven't had any flats yet(knock on wood) and at my age (69) I'm etting too old to do so.
My "season" won't begin until late March when north bound birds begin to arrive in numbers substantial enough to warrant hunting. Spring crows up here in Canada are tough. Highly honed survival skills as the stupid members have long since been weeded out by hunters in the US Midwest. Good spring shoot would be 20-30 birds a a 3 hour morning campaign.
Ted
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Life's tough... It's even tougher if you're stupid. John Wayne
