A friend and I were hunting crows yesterday in a pecan orchard I’ve hunted many times. Our blind was backed into a hedge on the property line and we were waiting for sunup and the crows to start calling. While sitting there in the dark, we suddenly heard a large animal snort just behind us...this was no deer so it gave us quite a start! Hearing it again, we realized we had set up right next to a new horse corral. There were two horses and a couple goats to entertain us during the hunt.
The horses didn’t get too upset with my calling, except every time I blew the growl call, it set them off running in circles around their pen! So what would happen when the shooting started?? Not much, actually. They just stayed at the far side of their corral while we hunted.
We quickly forgot about the distraction due to several groups of crows descending on our decoy layout. We got a late start on the shooting, which is normal for this orchard and shot until about 10:00.
As things started to slow down, I received a text from the orchard owner saying the neighbor called to complain about the disturbance to the animals. With that, we packed up and left, but not before scouting out a blind location for future hunts on the opposite side of the orchard.
The owner later explained he has had other problems with the neighbors and with their horses getting out. He also said they shoot guns near their horses. Oh well.
We ended up with a total of 36 crows. All things considered, it was a good hunt
Photo 1: Final tally. Photo 2: “Disturbed” horses.
-- Edited by Island Shooter on Saturday 19th of October 2019 02:41:41 AM
That's quite a combination, horses and goats. Neither very high on my list of livestock. So disturbing them while having great fun shooting crows wouldn't have bothered me a bit. Nicely done.
