With season starting the 10th of Oct. here in Oklahoma i decided to do a few drive by's this morning of a couple new places i have procured. First drive by had a tilled field with 10 + crows on the ground, A group of turkeys along the woods & several crows flying. GREAT !!! Next stop was Bob the hay mans place.After a cup of coffee with him i was informed that his wife had a change of heart & thinks of the crows as her pets ! Apparently she feeds them off the porch. So no hunting at Bob's. ( DANG ) . He sent me over by a local pecan grove but it's right on old Hwy 66 & probably not the best place to shoot. There were crows around even with the bird guns going off, so i did some driving around the area & i saw crows at every field & wooded creek line !!! That got my blood pressure pumped up so i drove up to a farm house & a truck with a round bale on it pulls in behind me. I asked if he was the land owner & he said no. He wanted to know what i was doing there, I had a lengthy conversation with him about crow hunting which apparently no one does around there & since i knew Bob the hay man he hooked me up with the land owner of the prime spots just a couple miles from the pecan orchard ! So i now have access to alfalfa fields, freshly planted wheat fields, hay & soybean fields and a nice creek with some big tree's & lots of cover to tuck into along it !!! All located around the pecan grove !!!
They all look like feeding setup's, out of the way from houses ect. The weather has started to cool off here so perhaps more will pile in. Any way i just wanted to share the good score i made because finding a spot to hunt ( with crows ) is the hardest part of crow hunting in my opinion.
I'll be adding updates as the birds start dropping. & sorry guys that i don't have a female skirt wearing hunting partner yet to post pic's of ! LOL.
Great to have an open invitation to shoot crows on private lands Cammo. Cant hurt to knock on doors, might make new acquaintances and possible hunting opportunities for other game species. I do the same with sunflower producers up here in Canada. Crows love sunflower and farmers hate crows. You may even have them calling for assistance which is a crow shooters Nirvana. As for the sundress clad hunting partner...well its not what its cracked up to be. Gel nails get broken, earrings get lost and such. Best off leaving these parked at home for other duties )
Ted
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Life's tough... It's even tougher if you're stupid. John Wayne
To Randy, I did tell Bob the hay man to call me if his wife goes out of town. His reply was, ( we'll take care of it ) so it's still a possibility.
For Ted, I hear what you're saying on the high maintenance but !!!!!!!!!!!!! & yes i plan on treating the land owner well & perhaps it could lead to dove hunting ect. although i'm perfectly fine with just a good crow spot. It's gonna be hard to wait those 4 to 5 weeks between visits there !
My experience with the propane guns hasn't been bad, crows in my area get use to them quickly and our shooting seems to be less of a threat to them. But all areas are different. Congrats on the new spots and I look forward to your reports.
My experience with the propane guns hasn't been bad, crows in my area get use to them quickly and our shooting seems to be less of a threat to them. But all areas are different. Congrats on the new spots and I look forward to your reports.
Butch
I spoke with the woman that owns the orchard. She said she wasn't to keen about having anyone hunt her property. She said that a few years back she let some hunters in & they set up camp & she lost more pecans to the hunters than to the crows ! I didn't even ask what happened but she kept my contact info in case she gets overrun & i asked her to forward my info to anyone else in the area.
Opening day with a perfect 10 ! Went to a new spot this morning, got in early & dark, all set up & already had the blind made. Then i heard the crows, lot's of them. i didn't dare call because i knew i would get overrun all at once. patients paid off, after about a half hour a few came close & bang. then for the next 3 hours i got several more. not a flyway, just a feeding area. i was facing west on a creek tree line overlooking an alfalfa field. had a strong northwest wind which made for some challenging shots. mostly used mouth calls then used crow in distress with the electronic caller once i started shooting. all by myself today, probably would have gotten 20 if i had another shooter.
attached are pics from behind the blind looking out, the sentry on the hotstick & the KIA'S !!
-- Edited by camo on Thursday 11th of October 2018 12:14:54 AM
Oklahoma wildlife dept. started a program called OLAP . It leases land from private owners & makes it public hunting. With restrictions on what you can hunt & type of equipment. ( no rifles ect. ) So i have 160 & 80 acres close to me that is in that program & crow hunting IS permitted. Went to the 160 early today & saw 2 vehicles there. I figured on 160 acres i could squeeze in. Turned the caller on & had a bow hunter walk out about 50 yds from me.He was done, & since i saw no crows i was done also. did see a fresh gut pile from a deer that someone got yesterday. Went to the 80 acres & no vehicles there so i walked in & did a quick set up under a tree & got 3 real quick ! run & gun, on the way home i went by the 160 & no vehicles there but i saw 2 crows, probably feeding on deer innards, Walked in about 100 yards & hit the caller. Got one right away & peppered another. In & out in 10 minutes.
I think the key to these spots is to go in the middle of the day when the deer hunters have left, also i attached a pic of a tote bag that comes from the NRA. I have 2 of them & they are super handy !! carry 8 decoys, caller, 2 boxes of shells & room for more ! Makes setting up so much easier. Also started using amplified ear muffs, I like em, my ears aren't ringing after shooting anymore, plus i can hear the crows coming !!!
Thanks for the pictures and reports. I'm getting antsy for some shooting myself and you guys that are getting some, help sooth the impatience. Keep after 'em.
So being so excited to get to hunt next to a pecan grove i decided to bring another shooter hoping that this would be my best hunt ever. 5 hours later & only 12 birds down it was a little disappointing. The orchard had propane guns going as well as blasting sounds of crows, hawks & what sounds like electricity about 600 yards away. I had a fantastic blind with cover above & behind, my partner couldn't sit still & spooked quite a few birds before they came within range. Most were very cautious & out of range. Used 2 greenhead flocked decoys, one was on the hotstick. Also put out 4 dead crows from a couple days ago. tried mouth calls, no calls & then electronics. None seemed to work better than any others. It's just amazing that a crow can spot movement in the shadows with such good cover ! I think these were all local crows from around that area & were certainly on alert ! Perhaps some new migrants will show up soon.
Thanks for the report Camo. Expectations often aren't met, but if some fun was had, call it good and redouble the effort next time. Twelve were knocked down, that's better than none.
Good job considering you were hobbled by the noisemakers. Sounds like they were doing their job. Try it again in 3-4 weeks. They may be used to it by then.
Demi
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The man who thinks he can, and the man who thinks he can’t are both right.
This past weekend we hunt an 800 acre pecan farm. I called the guy and he said come and get them, I also asked if the birds had been called and he said no. Here I am thinking, man I may get my first 100 bird hunt, was not the case. We get there at dawn and no crows. We ended up setting up anyway and killed three but the birds that did come in seemed pretty dang gun shy. I am guessing they have been hunted quite a lot. Wonder why there was not more crows around this gigantic food source?
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"If men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be wise enough to be crows." Thoreau.
yesterday i checked my area across from the pecan orchard & there were crows all over the place, the weather was nice with light winds. Got there early before daylight this morning with winds 15 to 20 and only got 4 and didn't see very many others. I think the wind may have grounded them.
Got some payback across from the pecan orchard yesterday. Light winds & they were in the air. Took Demi's advice & moved a few hundred yards from the old blind. The new blind consisted of 4 cedar trees about 7 foot tall on the tree line overlooking the alfalfa field about 1/4 mile from the pecans. I think it was my best blind yet. Never got spotted. All i had to do is clip a few branches. The tree's were growing there. Ended up with 17 KIA. 3 in the pics were brought with for decoys.
I know the FF5 & FF6 is the hot item for some of you right now but i used a $42.00 MOJO spinning decoy out there & it brought crows in, kept them in, had them landing in tree's next to me, and kept the birds from spotting me. I think it worked great !! Didn't scare any off. By no means am i trying to say it will work as well as an FF but don't write it off either.
17 isn't many compared to how well some of the guys are doing but for central Oklahoma not a bad day because you couldn't get triple didget's there if you got every one you saw & it was a solo shoot.
-- Edited by camo on Wednesday 7th of November 2018 04:05:09 PM
I also have the mojo spinning crow decoy. The first time I used it I didn't do anything to it, just took it hunting. I stuck that baby out an crawled in the blind. The first birds that came in flared off a 100 yards out. So, I turned the call off, took down the mojo and started calling again and Bam! here they came. After a ton of reading on the site I learned that it was too shiny. So, I painted it flat black and bought some fake feathers, I hot glued them onto the wings and am hoping it helps with it looking more real. I'll find out in the morning how it works.
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"If men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be wise enough to be crows." Thoreau.
I had originally planned on attaching feathers to mine also but after good results as is i'll keep trying it. I had mine in wide open plain view so they didn't get spooked by movement when they got close. I had birds come in without any calling at all, When they got close i would hit the distressed crow button & it was time to shoot by then.
I plan on using it more so i'll keep you posted on the results.
I know it keeps their focus because i decided to quit & start gathering up my stuff, I was standing in the field getting ready to pick up my speaker when i saw one coming a few hundred yards away about 15 feet off the ground. I was sure i was spotted but i ran behind the blind anyway. He came in focused on the mo jo & i got him !
Another lack luster outing with only 12 down. The issue is that the tree's behind the blind are to tall & it keeps a lot of the birds up high. I have better spot's on that acreage but with wet conditions it makes for a very long walk with to much gear to tote. I'm going to use better spot's in the future. location, location, location.
Two interesting events today, If you look at the pics you will see a one footed crow ! It had been that way because it's healed over. Also was picking up at the end and one still had a little life left in him. I grabbed him without gloves & those talons put the death grip on me & would not let go ! I had to sedate him to get him to release, didn't draw blood but came as close as you can get. Won't do that again. No triple didget's but already have last year's TBC beat.
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