Been looking over google earth and looking for possible hunting areas. In my neck of the woods there isn't a ton of farming, but there is some along the rivers. There isn't more than a few square miles of farming in any one area. Is this a large enough food source to hold a decent amount of birds? Having had a small taste of what is possible hunting from a single blind location I am pretty much ruined on Run & Gunning. Love to hear you guys opinions.
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"If men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be wise enough to be crows." Thoreau.
BH, I live in southeast Oklahoma. I am gonna scout an area north of me tomorrow that has about 5 square miles of farm land. I just read Dick Mermons book and along with all the information I have learned from this site, food source is king. I have a pecan farm close but we already hunted it and I don't wanna apply to much pressure on them there. Even there, where there is a bunch of crows, it is nowhere near what I see guys getting into on crowbusters.
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"If men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be wise enough to be crows." Thoreau.
In our area, the prime spots are in and around peanut fields, pecan orchards, dove fields and/or melon fields (summer). Corn stubble and other crops will attract them as well.
On your pecan orchards, we usually return in 4 weeks, but I’ve seen some cases where they are back in large numbers within two weeks, but this is unusual.
Another possible location would be land that is within earshot or between a landfill and cow roost.
Good luck and keep us posted.
Demi
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The man who thinks he can, and the man who thinks he can’t are both right.
At 4 weeks do you have a problem with them remembering the previous siege or are you hunting the new birds to the area. After our shoot at pecan farm 1 we left the victims laying in the field (land owner said to) After reading Mr.Merman's book I made and error by doing that. From what I gather from his book they don't like that too much and will be harder to get the next time around.
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"If men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be wise enough to be crows." Thoreau.
As I see it, it’s probably a mix of crows forgetting and an influx, but in 4 weeks, expect 85% of what you had before.
Leaving dead birds on the ground is not the best idea if you are returning, but my last hunt (102 TBC) had a couple of crows hanging from the trees. I cut them down first. Would suggest you move your blind to a different section, if you can. That seems to help under normal condition, too.
Demi
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The man who thinks he can, and the man who thinks he can’t are both right.
Dale, since i'm in central Oklahoma i can give you my local experience. Lot's of small groups of crows almost everywhere around here but the most you'll see together wont be more than ten or so. They usually feed along the highway's on the road kills from the night before, They also like the cattle pastures but these are the run & gun set up's that might get you 5 or 6 birds then it's over. THE EXCEPTION, to this around here is the pecan orchard which had 30 to 50 birds seen within a short time. I have permission to hunt near the orchard but not on the orchard , but these birds appear to be locals & catch on to the calling & decoys fairly quick so 10 to 15 birds down is the norm then it doesn't seem like any fresh ones come in. Last year at the end of season i found a flyway & hunted that & that made for a good all day hunt with fresh birds always showing up. THE PROBLEM that i have is trying to find the flyways. sometimes it just turns into a goose chase with birds seen but not keeping an exact pathway. Perhaps trying to find a flyway leading to the pecan orchard would be your best chance, The only time i have seen large numbers of crows on wheat or hay fields is when army worms show up but that is short lived.
This is interesting, I called a pecan grower north of me to see about crow hunting opportunities, The owner told me that last year the government came out & put out poisoned corn that only kills crows. Said it doesn't effect squirrels or other birds. I have never heard of this but if true perhaps that may explain why you didn't see many crows at your pecan orchard ?? So with no peanut farms or an abundance of pecan orchards around here the biggest challenge is finding the birds ! Then let's add the part about every section of land having deer hunters on it which makes getting permission to hunt very difficult until after deer season when it's freezing cold around here.
There have been post's in the past on finding flyway's but i think both you and I could use a very detailed explanation on that. If you make it to central Oklahoma give me a shout & perhaps we can scout some of my area's & try to find a flyway. ( GOOD LUCK )
Back in the 1980's I used to hunt crows in Southeast Oklahoma where there was a roost of roughly 20 to 25 thousand crows 3 miles west of Miami Oklahoma. Had many a shoot in that area in the two and three hundred range. When you spoke to the locals in Miami and asked if they saw many crows around they all would say "no there are not many around here" and this roost was only 3 miles from town! You have to take in to account that these folks were townies and had no clue what was going on! There is a very small roost of perhaps 3,000 crows that I myself would not waste my time on around Tonkawa Oklahoma just west of Ponca City. Get on 77 to Hubbard road and cruise that area and you'll see them late in the afternoon! Good hunting!
I was looking for this roost that had moved understandably. Even for here too many wintering crows. Okay so I cruised up 89 and I forget where I was and began seeing a couple crows lazily drifting south east (on the high side so you had to be looking in that direction) and so I watched and a few minutes later a couple more came along...so anyways I found their flyway and then their roost! Unfortunately this was Lebanon jam packed with left wing wack jobs and tree huggers and postings wall to wall!
Checked pecan orchard 1 out today as I was headed to scout the farm ground out. There had to be 200 that I could see as I drove by. As far as the farm ground in question, not so good. I drove around that that place 3 times and didn't see more than 10 crows.
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"If men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be wise enough to be crows." Thoreau.
Seems we have the same problems. I agree with you that it seems most of the crows in our area live in small family groups and is probably why I was taught to run&gun them. I am planning a trip up to the Kansas line to try and hunt up some serious action. As far as flyways, I literally have one that runs right over my house. There is a small roost not more than 2 miles south of my house, i'd say 200 birds and they are educated. I have been practicing my hand calls on them for 6 months now and we shot the crap out them last year. I get out that way I'll look you up.
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"If men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be wise enough to be crows." Thoreau.
Thanks for the tips, and I can see how a large roost would go unnoticed. I can't find one and I am looking! I am after the 100 bird hunt this year. My 11 year old and I are gonna have to be on our game in the shooting department to get it done. As my old man likes to say "couldn't hit a bull in the face with a bowl of rice" haha.
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"If men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be wise enough to be crows." Thoreau.
I am also happy to report that I have figured out how to not use my hand call for a spit cup. I have my diaphragm working and producing believable crow sounds. Many hours left to get the dialect and timing of individual calls. I understand you are a fan of the Mallardtone call. If you where going to buy a call, which one would be high on your list.
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"If men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be wise enough to be crows." Thoreau.
Mallardtone, Mincey and Gibson calls are all good calls. Just depends on how much you want to spend on one.
I love experimenting with old vintage calls if not too much and some new stuff...the problem I see is inflexible mouth pieces like the Hoosier but they can imitate the calls in the advanced section very well....I also love the HS Strut and Hammerin' crow call. I never go afield with more than a handful myself...naturally Mallardtone often accompanies me alongside Haydells'....
As a teen I used to go afield and just imitate the crows. Then you could make a day of it and I studied crows. I learned a call no one uses I ever heard too. And it is deadly effective too!Later I learned other calls afield while in my blind. Never had to build one however. I looked like some Vietnam sniper anyways but using not a ghillie suit...one piece of camouflage I used was an old WW2 poncho and it worked bonkers!Just stood out there in the open with the foliage behind me!
But anyways being able to talk crow is a huge plus. What happens if your caller dies?(Dead batteries?)
-- Edited by killer Crowalski on Sunday 4th of November 2018 11:53:41 PM
-- Edited by killer Crowalski on Sunday 4th of November 2018 11:55:42 PM
After reading Mr. Mermon's book, listening to and watching Bob A's material, reading all the information on the member side of the site and pouring through the forums there is no doubt you have a leg up on the competition and on Mr. Crow himself if you can get good with the hand call. Much to my brides discussed I have set my mind to learning crow speak.
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"If men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be wise enough to be crows." Thoreau.
I am also happy to report that I have figured out how to not use my hand call for a spit cup. I have my diaphragm working and producing believable crow sounds. Many hours left to get the dialect and timing of individual calls. I understand you are a fan of the Mallardtone call. If you where going to buy a call, which one would be high on your list.
Go to Advanced Calling techniques and the calls there are generally easy to make without the complexity of throat activity...slight growling idea...remember too there is no need to blow like a trumpet or to sound like one...imitate the calling there and espcially that :"CA-CA_CCAAWWW-CAAWW"....So that call -pause-followed by another and shoiulder your arm!