Being Thanksgiving, my son flew in for a visit and a little hunting. In anticipation of his arrival I set up a blind out back in a field we use for clay pigeon shooting, including the use of a scaffold tower that I use for launching clays (it's sometimes nice being a contractor).
Due to the large number of fish crows now migrating to our area I wanted to get closer to them, so I decided to set up the blind at the top of our scaffold tower. This gives us an advantage with their habit of flocking in very high groups. At least it was worth a try.
The morning started out quickly with our first group coming over while I was still setting out the decoys. Before things died down a couple hours later, we had several groups over us and the shooting was fun! We ended up with a total of 37 crows, about 30 of which were fish crows and the rest common. Being so high up with machines, hunters and minimal hand rails, the tower was a little cramped and wobbly...adding to the excitement as crows flew in from all directions!
- The first picture shows the scaffold tower (also note the leaning & broken trees from Hurricane Matthew's recent visit).
- The second picture is from the inside of the blind, and the third shows the only ones we could find due to the high grass & weeds.
It's always fun hunting as a father-son team and this one was no exception!
Bob,
Those fish crows are always wary, but put a couple on the ground and they are all over you at that height!
The common crows came in, looked at us and before they could figure it out, the trigger was pulled. I was also surprised at how easy they responded to the come-back calls.
Demi
__________________
The man who thinks he can, and the man who thinks he can’t are both right.
Demi: Wow... an aerial anti-crow pillbox! Well managed sir!! Were your ears popping to adjust to the altitude? Did you file with the FAA before the shoot? But my main question is.... did you get to shoot DOWN on any of the 37 meaning were any of the birds killed... below the level of your feet?
Seeing the stacks of clay targets beside you... when things got slow... was your son saying "pull"?
The first time I shot this tower (without brush) a couple years ago, I did shoot some birds below my feet. That was a hoot! This time they were flying higher and we had the brush to contend with, so they were all overhead. The fact that the field had not been mown (due to Hurricane Matthew work) may have been a reason they did not come down.
The trap machines were also inactive due to the brush, so we got no clay practice that day, either.
Demi
__________________
The man who thinks he can, and the man who thinks he can’t are both right.
