today was opening day here i NY.......i hunted geese the morning before with my buddy and we wound up with 4 geese....afterwards i went scouting for crows and it began to become clear that there were very few birds in my general area and all seemed to be locals.... i formulated a plan and decided to hunt the corn feilds and use the standing corn as cover...i woke up to 50 degree temps and was very excited even tho the day prior scouting did not look good...got to the corn and set a small spread of 8 decoys...including one of a crow pole just above the standing corn and one sentry in the tree...at daybreak i heard crows in the distance got amped....i fired up the e-caller and 10 minutes later the first crow came gliding in and i smoked him at 10 yards....the rest of the morning proved to be slow....only had 5 other singles come in before the action came to a dead stop at 930...wound up with 5 out of 6...2 of which fell into a deep irrigation ditch behind me that i could not recover...it was not a hot barrel shoot by any means....but i shot well and all the birds came in perfectly....cant wait for some new birds from up north to fill in....going to try again next friday....felt AWESOME to be back at it!!!!
-- Edited by BAYMAN718 on Friday 2nd of September 2016 09:14:38 PM
disappointed in the lack of crows but LOVED my new choke it flat out smashed the crows i connected with.......always a good day when theres bandit blood indeed
Glad you got a few. Might be more productive to leave the deeks in the truck and just plain old run and gun. Up here we do this at this time of the year, look for groups of feeding crows and get upwind. Put the caller on and hammer them.
Ted
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that was one of my plans but the issue here is access we have only 2 public areas to hunt and i have 3 private areas....all of which werent holding many crows so i went to the area i saw the most and gave it a shot...thanks for the input tho
thanks butch....it will happen....its amazing how many more birds show in my area by october....
I whine about this every year; more birds appear during OCT, but our season ends on 30 SEP. Reason is that the state makes way more money in OCT on turkey and deer hunters than on us few small game hunters (incl. crows).
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thanks butch....it will happen....its amazing how many more birds show in my area by october....
I whine about this every year; more birds appear during OCT, but our season ends on 30 SEP. Reason is that the state makes way more money in OCT on turkey and deer hunters than on us few small game hunters (incl. crows).
There is no reason why your state should not have concurrent seasons in October, NH has it that way and I am glad for it as we can hunt the fall migration.
Old Artilleryman wrote: I whine about this every year; more birds appear during OCT, but our season ends on 30 SEP. Reason is that the state makes way more money in OCT on turkey and deer hunters than on us few small game hunters (incl. crows).
nhcrowshooter wrote:
There is no reason why your state should not have concurrent seasons in October, NH has it that way and I am glad for it as we can hunt the fall migration.
Actually, there is a convergence of seasons during SEP, when fall turkey, antlerless deer special season (location specific--regrettably not in my area--and we have deer in SW MI as abundant as squirrels it seems).
I agree with you, but truly believe that Michigan won't change the season to SEP & OCT (instead of AUG-SEP as now) to benefit crow hunters, because we are relatively few and there is no special permit needed to hunt them--only a basic small game license. For the other species, one must have a special tag which for residents is $15.00 (turkey) and $20.00 (antlerless deer). Revenue rules the roost.
Any idea how that happened in NH?
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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
In the 1970's when crows went from no closed season to a 120 day season NH ran it Aug 1 to end of November. Somewhere along the way the fall was shortened to provide a March Season with Fall going Sept to end of November. Then it got changed again with a 15 day season in March and a Fall season going from 8/15 to end of November.
When states close crow when other small game seasons are open truth be told it's because their law enforcement wants it easy and doesn't want someone hunting without the right license permit or stamp to be able to say I am crow hunting. LE divisions want it easy as possible to make a pinch.
Old Artilleryman wrote:
Old Artilleryman wrote: I whine about this every year; more birds appear during OCT, but our season ends on 30 SEP. Reason is that the state makes way more money in OCT on turkey and deer hunters than on us few small game hunters (incl. crows).
nhcrowshooter wrote:
There is no reason why your state should not have concurrent seasons in October, NH has it that way and I am glad for it as we can hunt the fall migration.
That's the difference between the USA and the U.K. a
You tend to use small decoy spreads, whereas we use large decoy spreads.
Most people here would use a minimum of a whirly or flapper, and at least a dozen decoys.
When I set up I have at puns 40 of each full bodied crow and pigeon decoys out, a crow whirly magnet, two pigeon whirly magnets, 2-3 crow floaters, 2-3 pigeon floaters, 2 crow flappers, and two pigeon flappers, and two crow sentries on a lofting pole in the hedge.
Take a good 60-90 minutes to set up if I'm quick, if not quick make that 120-150 minutes LOL
Breaking it back down goes quicker, usually around 50-60 minutes
This means in the summer it's often get up at 01:00 just to shoot somewhere local, as I have to be set up at least an hour before sunrise, and the wagon and trailer well hidden
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