Crow Busters Forum

BAYMAN718 · Senior Member

are crows getting smarter???

Old Artilleryman · Guru

I'd say you nailed it.

boba · Guru

I will buy what you are saying because I have seen this myself in different areas of the country in recent years.

boba · Guru

Hey Bayman, you are hunting close to some of my old crow hunting stomping grounds 50 years ago!

I hunted around Poughkeepsie, Millbrook and Clinton Corners. West of Poughkeepsie are "the Jewish Alps" where the big Jewish resort Grosssinger's is located.

Back in those days I was dating this good looking Liberal broad who worked for Cosmo Magazine in New York City. I took my 20 gauge along on a trip upstate when the two of us wanted to get away for a couple of days. I got up the next morning and was putting on my hunting duds and she almost had a stroke! She said you hunt? I said I sure do, I will be back before noon time so we can go have some lunch. This was in the summer time so she did her thing with the sun bathing around the pool until I got back.

She was amazed that I liked to hunt, she said "but you are so nice" I said but of course I am, what did you expect? We still dated after that and remained friends until I met Gail the gal I married about 8 years later.

Old Artilleryman · Guru

boba wrote:
"She was amazed that I liked to hunt, she said 'but you are so nice' I said but of course I am, what did you expect?"

We (the handful of regular hunters at church) get that often. Esp. me, since I began pastoring part-time last fall. It's fun.

Island Shooter · Guru

Bayman,

Crows have always been smart and may very well be getting smarter. Hunting pressure increases intelligence. But one question: Can there be enough McDonalds and Burger Kings in town to feed 10-15K crows?

The point is that they all need to eat. Where is it? I think the changes are more from the food end rather than the hunted areas end. Food sources change with the season and/or what is growing/being planted/harvested/etc., so the job is to find out where the food source is and set up between the roost and their buffet. Easy to say, but sometimes hard to figure out.

Find the food source and you have outsmarted the best-educated crows! That is your mission, should you decide to accept!

Demi

-- Edited by Island Shooter on Monday 7th of March 2016 06:56:51 PM

nhcrowshooter · Guru

Hunting pressure will make them quite wary, but overall the crow is by far and away the easiest bird to decoy and shoot if you hunt them correctly.

boba · Guru

NH,

The crow is easy at the start of the season to decoy, but so are waterfowl. If they become wary (spooked) then you can be a seasoned crow hunter and still not get a lot of them to decoy, the real smart ones just come so close and that's it. I'm sure you experience this in your state as well.

As the old saying goes, "you can pull anything on them once" and after that they start to wise up. Another great old expression is "where there is lead in the air there is hope"

So what kind of crow season did you and 10 gauge have together? Average, above average or below average?

nhcrowshooter · Guru

How do you define "season"? We hunt Maine but mostly when it opens in late January until NH opens on 3/16. Then NH until 3/31. Then back to Maine on 8/1 until NH opens on 8/15 until NH closes on 11/30.

I think of it as a year. 2015 Winter/Spring was not very good, we got hammered with snow. Three and four feet deep in Feb. Fall 2015 was about average. Due to the poor hunting conditions in winter/spring season, 2015 was overall slightly below average.

Winter/Spring 2016 seems to be below average, crows have not migrated back this way yet but should soon.

boba · Guru

NH,

You might start in the fall of 2015 and still hunt in the spring of 2016 that to me is still one season.

They don't sell copper plated shot in 25 pound bags? I'm afraid to ask, how much for that 10 pound bag?

nhcrowshooter · Guru

boba wrote:
NH,

You might start in the fall of 2015 and still hunt in the spring of 2016 that to me is still one season.

They don't sell copper plated shot in 25 pound bags? I'm afraid to ask, how much for that 10 pound bag?

It was the only picture of a bag of #6 I could find. As far as I know copper coated lead shot is sold in 10 pound bags, I thought the price as about the same as a 25 pound bag of magnum lead but I have never bought any loose copper coated shot. Back in the 70's I used to shoot Super-X copper coated 2's at geese.

boba · Guru

I know you shoot Canadians, do you ever draw a bead on any Brant, Snow Geese or Speckle Bellies in your part of the world.

My dad used an old Boss 10 gauge double with hammers on it for pass shooting geese back in the mid to late 1950's. He had a half a dozen model 21's mainly in 12 gauge. He had a pair that he used to shoot live pigeons with in Mexico City in the mid to late 1950's. He used to hunt ducks in Cuba before Castro took over. He used to shoot an over & under 20 gauge Purdy bored full & full back in the early 1960's on crows, but he never had the shooting I did out here in the plains states.

He liked double rifles on African game such as elephant, rhino, cape buffalo and lion. He used a .600 Nitro Express Holland & Holland for elephant which in my opinion was unnecessary. He used a .577 Nitro Express Holland & Holland on elephant and rhino too.

nhcrowshooter · Guru

Almost all Canadians here on the coast of NH. On the Connecticut river between NH and VT they get some Snows, rare as hens teeth over here. No blues or specks either. Your dad had good taste in guns, do you still have any of them?

Mallardsx2 · Member

I would say they are definitely getting smarter!

boba · Guru

I kept one 12 gauge model 21 with 26" barrels in 12 gauge bored Improved cylinder and modified. I also used a poor mans model 21 (a model 23 Winchester double) bored mod & full. I also used a Parker double with double triggers it was a DHE grade and was that ever a duck buster! It was Improved modified and full. I still hunt some quail with a 20 gauge pigeon grade model 12 Winchester with gold inlet on the receiver. Of all the doubles I ever used I liked the Parker the best of all, that was a very good shooter. I never liked the splinter for end I liked more of a beaver tail for end.

boba · Guru

NH,

Just before I moved to Kansas in 1974 a friend offered me $ 1,500.00 for that old Parker and I sold it. I used to love to pass shoot black ducks with that DHE grade Parker. Fifteen hundred bucks in those days was a lot of money so I let it go.

There used to be a big store on the CT side of the state line and Parker Bros. owned it but I do not know if they built there doubles there or not. I had my model 21 12 gauge restocked with beautiful English walnut at that location. I used to buy shot for reloading back in those days at that location.

Elkhunter · Senior Member

They are named Canada Geese guys! LOL

BAYMAN718 · Senior Member

boba wrote:
Hey Bayman, you are hunting close to some of my old crow hunting stomping grounds 50 years ago!

I hunted around Poughkeepsie, Millbrook and Clinton Corners. West of Poughkeepsie are "the Jewish Alps" where the big Jewish resort Grosssinger's is located.

Back in those days I was dating this good looking Liberal broad who worked for Cosmo Magazine in New York City. I took my 20 gauge along on a trip upstate when the two of us wanted to get away for a couple of days. I got up the next morning and was putting on my hunting duds and she almost had a stroke! She said you hunt? I said I sure do, I will be back before noon time so we can go have some lunch. This was in the summer time so she did her thing with the sun bathing around the pool until I got back.

She was amazed that I liked to hunt, she said "but you are so nice" I said but of course I am, what did you expect? We still dated after that and remained friends until I met Gail the gal I married about 8 years later.

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the east side of the big river!!! maybe i need to investigate that side next fall :) liberal broads are a dime a dozen here....dated a bunch...till i found my current girlfriend of 3 years.... i knew it was true love when she saw a picture of a pile of dead crows and described it as orgasmic....lol

BAYMAN718 · Senior Member

Island Shooter wrote:
Bayman,
Crows have always been smart and may very well be getting smarter. Hunting pressure increases intelligence. But one question: Can there be enough McDonalds and Burger Kings in town to feed 10-15K crows?
The point is that they all need to eat. Where is it? I think the changes are more from the food end rather than the hunted areas end. Food sources change with the season and/or what is growing/being planted/harvested/etc., so the job is to find out where the food source is and set up between the roost and their buffet. Easy to say, but sometimes hard to figure out.
Find the food source and you have outsmarted the best-educated crows! That is your mission, should you decide to accept!
Demi

-- Edited by Island Shooter on Monday 7th of March 2016 06:56:51 PM

Demi..the problem being PERMISSION....its getting tougher and tougher to get access to private land...i currently have access to about 200 acres of land..some corn fields some hay...some woodlots....but the point i was making is were seeing less and less birds traveling further from the roost then we used to...instead of 20 miles it seems like they are sticking to a 5 mile radius around town where getting permission to hunt is next to impossible...tho it could also be an effect of the extra warm winter we had here in NY and the birds not needing to feed as much....well see next season i guess!

Bad Boy · Member

I don't think they are getting smarter because I shoot them with my slingshot , light them up with my 10 mile laser and they keep coming back for more.