Main question, Then the story below. If i'm hunting an active flyway but have limited vision as to when crows are coming , I have my decoys out, my e-caller set up & a mouth call. my e-caller runs a call then stops for 30 seconds and then calls again. That's how the icotec's run. QUESTION, should i leave it running it's cycles continuously ? or just do some random calling ? It's kinda tough not knowing what's coming a few hundred yards away in the air ???
Neighbor took me to his 320 acres yesterday. plenty of unshot crows ! only downside is he's got bad knee's & doesn't get around very well & wants to hunt from his polaris ranger which IS camouflaged. we would back it under some trees & he shot from it while i put out decoys & caller & got about 50 yards away, run & gun you might say. called em in every time, only 4 kia and several unconfirmed. my 1100 acted up & had me fireing single shot sometime's. But what we did see is a quite active flyway right along a long strip of woods ! 2's 3's & up to 5 at a time, north in the morning, south in the evening. when we called it quits for the day we were driving the ranger across an open pasture & saw some crows flying our way off in the distance, Bob said get your caller going ! i said that would be a waste of time out here in the open. he insisted, so i grabbed the e-caller & put it on the roof of the ranger & turned on crow gang & beleive it or not 2 came right to us !!! one downed one missed. i couldn't beleave it. out in plain sight. I think next time i'll use some pruning shears to cut a cubby hole into one of the many cedar trees to back the polaris into & use the cut branches to camo the top of it. i'll have to take some pics.
The calling is okay. The parking is okay. You might have to clean your 1100 every 100 rounds-have you done that? Are you using high brass shot? Automatics generally like heavier loads....my advice isn't the last word I emphasize.
Parts wear out too...there are others here who regularly shoot 1100s...NHCrowshooter comes to mind. I bet he can do you one better on your 1100...BobA is also very great on automatics...your flyway gives you a 300 yard view of incoming crows? What could be wrong then?
gun was acting up with light & heavy loads. Today it got a complete strip down & even removed the recoil spring inside the stock, cleaned it & the tube, checked the gas rings & o-ring. just ordered some replacement o-rings in case. even cleaned the gas ports in the barrel. it was getting enough recoil to eject the fired shell but not putting a new shell in the chamber, ( short cycling ) i see some people replace the recoil spring for light loads ???