Had a very nice visit with Dale and his son Colt. Paul rode with them from Oklahoma to Kansas for a tour of the crow museum. Paul gave me some deer sausage from a white tail that he shot this season. Dale paid for lunch so how can you beat a deal like that.
First, I want to say thank's for your hospitality Bob. That was TIME WELL SPENT ! Had a super great time.
Yes Bob you got free lunch & the summer sausage but none of us left empty handed. You can see I got a signature on the back of my Blondie plaque. I was also able to come home with a nice souvenir from Bob's crow blind. With Bob's permission i clipped a couple pieces of his camo off the blind to tie onto my blind as a good luck token. Lord know's how many crow's fell from the sky with the help of those burlap strips.
Bob, I was still chuckling about the story we were told while at the gun shop about back in the Hutchinson roost day's that the fellow was hunting in the nudist colony !! You'll have to tell that one. lol.
I knew while preparing for our visit that i was definitely going to be out of my league being around Bob. My year's & number's on crow hunting are minimal to say the least compared to Bob's. But that was short lived once we got there, Spending time with Bob was just like being with one of the guy's. We were sitting around chewing the fat having a good time. Bob's a real down to earth guy.
Then while outside looking at some of his equipment, two crow's flew over us and gave us a good look. Dale and i said Bob you missed a few, maby there are still some opportunities here in Hutchinson. Bob said hang on & went inside and came out with a pair of mouth call's, When he blew into those call's it was as if time had stopped ! I was expecting the skies to clear and the water's to part ! What came out of those call's was the most impressive sound of vocal's that i will probably ever hear in my entire life. I'm no crow and i can't fly but if i heard that from a distance i'd certainly try. Bob, That's got to be the high point of the visit for me. That was certainly impressive ! I'll never forget that. That was a great day, enjoyed it and i realy like your crow museum. Lot's of neat stuff. Paul
Glad to see that all of you made it home safely. You must have got back around mid-night?
The photo of the back of you're plaque turned out better than I would have thought.
The decoys Dale got you can't find anymore. Did you feel them to see how rugged they were? They don't make them like that anymore if you compare them to any of the new ones of today. Perhaps you and Dale can get in a couple of more licks this season with those crow decoys.
Before I forget I will share the nudist camp story with the other members.
Paul, Dale and Colt (Dales 12 year old son) were in a local gun shop and the gunsmith came out and was telling Paul how it used to be here in Hutchinson when the crows were here in huge numbers. The gunsmith went on to say that he and his friend got permission to hunt crows on the nudist camp ground very close to the roost back in the day. So I said not many guys wanted to hunt with the gunsmith because they didn't want to hunt in the nude in the late fall and winter months! Paul found my twisted humor rather funny so he is as deranged as I am.
The gunsmith was mentioning to Paul and Dale that he has been repairing my guns for decades! He was telling Dale and Paul of the wear and tear that he fixes on my crow guns.
Bob, It's a good thing i left Hutchinson with a copy of your hand calling CD . After listening to it i realized that mourning call reminded me of the sound of a dirt bike i had as a kid running thru the gears followed by a few caww's. I practiced yesterday & felt confident.
So this morning i paid a visit to the place i did the Hawk setup just a while back. With rain / ice coming & the end of the season just around the corner i figured i'd hit it again. I took 3 dead birds with & threw one on the ground & put 2 on some branches. It was 21 degrees out so i worked fast since my finger's were getting cold. I gave them some Johnny from the foxpro & had a few come investigate & they fell to the ground. After a while they wouldn't come see what Johnny was making all the noise about because every time one did he never returned.
So my stock was working loose on my gun & i walked to the truck & took it apart & tightened it up and also walked out about 250 yards to retrieve one that flamed out. When i got back to my hide it had warmed up enough for me to get on the mouth call's. One took the bait right away & i dropped him & went to the mourning call. Man did i get a surprise !! Six showed up & they were right on me ! As i would shoot one/ two they would leave and i got on that mourning call & they came right back ! I was shooting / calling & reloading pretty much all at one time. I realy like the Derrell Gibson for that call. Ended up with 18 for the morning.
Yes, We made it back ok thru some freezing ice when we left your place. My Blondie made it home in perfect shape. Dale must have picked up a bug along the way & said he was sick as a dog. Not me, I'm killing crow's with the mourning call ! Thank's Bob, Paul.
I have had a rough past day and half but am on the mend now. Colt is still jabbering on about how much fun he had at Bob's house. The kid absolutely hates riding in a vehicle for any length of time and is ready to come back to see you Bob.
I been laid up and Paul has been laying then in the shade it looks like.
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"If men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be wise enough to be crows." Thoreau.
I learned the "mourning call" from a tied down crow and man oh man does it ever work! However where I used to go there was a steady influx of crows for what that is worth around here but here again-how many can you shoot?
Thanks Bob and that's a pretty big complement. He likes to plug them, he just doesn't like ole dad shooting more than he does. The excuses vary from his gun not shooting far enough to it was his turn to shoot haha. Never EVER shooter error, of course.
If I could only fit Bob in my blind bag or around my neck on a lanyard the crows would die by the thousands. Since it is highly doubtful he would care for that too much I will continue annoying the hell out of my household with my practice of the mourning call. As Paul already stated, it is really something to hear such awesome crow language coming out of a handcall.
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"If men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be wise enough to be crows." Thoreau.
