Detailed in an earlier post, a good hunt in a pecan orchard a month ago was cut short by the police who responded to neighbors who complained about our hunting. The officers had bad information about how far away from a residence bird hunters had to be.
Before returning to this orchard, I first did some homework. After meeting with the local mayor and doing some research on our DNR website, I sent a text to the Deputy who had checked in on us. In it I gave him the heads-up about our next hunt and included info on the correct laws as it pertains to hunting near residences. His response was good and positive. All was set for a Saturday morning hunt.
Not long after our shooting started, we were visited by a neighbor who was concerned about the high noise level and possible safety issues. After explaining how we were well within the law and shooting only shotguns with limited range, he left satisfied. The crows returned and the shooting resumed... for a short while.
Our next visitors were two Deputy Sheriffs doing their duty after neighborhood complaints. After the last hunt and my recent text, we were now on good terms. They asked a few questions about crow hunting and watched us for a few minutes before wishing us good luck before leaving.
Getting back to business, we called in a near steady stream of incoming crows. The air was hot with both birds and lead! The ground had a good dusting of “crow snow.” Finally, the action began to slow down around 11:00 so we collected the dead birds and debris and were out of there by noon. Total count...an amazing 164 crows, setting a personal record!
What a great morning and a fun hunt! In addition to the crows, cops and neighbor, we also had a close-up visit from two mature and one immature bald eagles looking for an easy meal... they left hungry when the shooting continued.
Some of the things that really helped us were the pre-hunt homework, heavily brushed blind, well-placed (and high) sentry bird decoys and a large population of fresh birds. What a great hunt!!
Demi
Pictures from the hunt below:
-- Edited by Island Shooter on Monday 20th of November 2017 05:42:09 PM
This is an easier way to place sentry crows in tree tops.I use 9 ounces of fishing lead tied to trot line string.throw the lead over the high branch,then tie string to crow.pull crow up.tie string to branch.when finished just let slack in line.crow will ease down.untie then pull string out
Great job !! Very impressive. You mentioned the eagles. We have a lot of hawks around here and on 2 separate occasions they went after my crows. Once i had a wounded crow on the ground jumping around & a hawk came down & struck it. ( didn't take it ) Then another time i had one of my frozen dead crows placed in a tree limb as a decoy & a hawk came down & hit it knocking it to the ground. Some interesting things happen out there !
We have had bald eagles come down and take dead or wounded crows many times. On the local news, I have watched episodes where they have found dead or sick eagles that had lead shot in their stomachs. X-rays show the shot that were ingested by the eagles.
From now on, I'm going to retrieve my crows and submerge them in the farm's cesspit where they can compost.