This morning Bill and I made a return trip to a spot where we took 87 birds. We had a North/Northwest wind which I thought would make the blind location I had in mind perfect. We have gotten somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 inches of rain the past month and the road into the field looked pretty dicey. But, there where crows that needed killing so I kicked the chevy in 4X4 and with some speed made it just fine, getting out was gonna be the tricky part.
We where setup and waiting as the crows came off the roost and into the fields. We had action pretty quick as crows where coming in before I even had my hand calls out or the FoxPro on. Very quickly I realized our setup wasn't the best. The crows where coming from West and the Northwest, which was right over our backs and coming in hot riding the wind into our position. I also noticed the birds being extra cautious, (more on this later) as they J hooked in, we where presented with difficult shot opportunities, as the majority of them skirted us at 60 yards. I managed to turn enough of them with the hand calls to get some decent shooting. I spent 44 shells to bring down 20 crows, I struggled pretty bad this morning with the scatter gun but was able to get a double later in the morning. Bill accounted for 12 of the KIA for a TBC of 32.
We called it quits at 10:30 and loaded up and now the only thing left was getting back out of there without getting stuck, which we managed to do. On our way out I noticed a couple crows in a tree but these crows didn't look quite right. So, I pulled out my binoculars to have a closer look at these two conspicuous looking crows. To my horror what I was looking at was two dead crows with their heads tied together and threw in a tree. A wise man told me "the worst thing a crow hunter can have is another crow hunter in his area" this was hard evidence of this most unsettling fact. This also explains the birds being more weary than I had expected them to be.
Things didn't go as planned and the crows might have got the slight edge on us this morning but we had a heck of a good time slinging some lead at the ones that slipped up.
This is what sunk one area I used to go to: other hunters! The first time was great but word gets out and the curtains close! In your region it cannot be helped. How can anyone miss noticing hundreds of streaming crows?
One area was pounded although up here we have nothing like the plains we do have some. Well people became aware of the crows and got to town. Everyone wanted a crack at them! So every time I went I began seeing fewer and fewer until they quit the area, shifting east altogether.
I hope you shot the dead crows out of that tree. That will hurt you a long time to come unless some enterprising big hawk drops by or an owl and cleans the dead ones up?
You could otherwise say that area is fairly educated territory for awhile. Any return visit will be a waste of time!
Crows tied together and tossed into upper branches are an effective decoy system for killing crows in my opinion. Last few years I have been employing the aforementioned technique but have modified this by tying the dead pair by the feet.
I found this to be even more effective as it was found that dead crows hanging in this manner seems to get the crows very upset and they swoop and hover over these obvious crows in peril with reckless abandon.
Dale, I share your concern as I would be mortified to learn that another crow shooter was operating in my theatre of operation! About a decade ago I found several small piles of dead crows while out hunting. I remember my ears were ringing for about 2 days afterward.
Ted
-- Edited by M12Shooter on Thursday 17th of January 2019 04:04:16 PM
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Life's tough... It's even tougher if you're stupid. John Wayne
I agree that a couple crow tied together and tossed up in a tree or put up in a tree with my extendo stick make great decoys. Bert Popowski sure advised it so I began using the technique and have had good success with it.
In my area deer season is rapping up and duck season is also about to end. All this adds up to board hunters and so they turn their agression towards the crows.
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"If men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be wise enough to be crows." Thoreau.
