I have not seen either one of you on here all season. Have the crows left your area? It can happen, several hot spots have fallen by the wayside over the past 40 odd years but new ones also are created. So what's you're story?
Hi Bob, our fall season ends on November 30th. As you know we have hunted the same spots and many of the same blinds for many years. We depend on the annual fall migration to shoot most of our birds. Things run in cycles some years up some down, '18 was a fantastic fall of crow shooting, '19 however was different. Our fall season opens 8/15. This year from 8/15 to around 10/19 our usual spots produced very few birds, shockingly few at times. The annual migration came late and more birds pushed south in November than I believe I have seen before. I shot more in November than any previous year. Overall I ended up about 20% lower than my ten year average this fall but last year I was 40% higher, go figure. There are many factors that change our shooting year to year, weather especially. One thing I observed this year, during some of the busiest days when big flocks were going south, they were high and stayed high. Birds at 120 yards, some much higher, wings locked into a glide, I knew they can hear the caller, but they didn't come down to where we could engage them. I suspect this is due to very little wind but I don't know for sure. So how did your season go or is it still to come? Have you seen noticeable changes one year to the next. What do you think keeps those migrating groups up high and not come down on some days vs. others where they do?
-- Edited by nhcrowshooter on Friday 29th of November 2019 06:34:17 PM
The last two seasons for my partner and I were way below par because of weather conditions. As you are well aware you can be in the right spot with the wrong conditions and not do much. An example of this was a shoot I shared with my partner almost two weeks ago where we shot 314 crows up until 11:00 A.M. and had a good spot lined up for that afternoon. We needed it breezy with a north type of wind and the weather man got it wrong and it was mainly calm outside. Dick and I did not setup but watched that spot to see if it would have panned out had we got the right wind for that spot. The crows flew right through there (only way to high due to no wind) for two solid hours!
We have had a very good season so far, in the last 16 days we have shot a little over 2,700 crows between us. Some days we only hunted in the morning and other days only in the afternoon. Some days both morning and afternoon while there were two days out of the 16 where we did not hunt at all, just scouted.
In regard to the wind it has been my observation that on morning types of hunts with "no wind, 5MPH or less" you had better be right in there feeding area where they have to fly low. If you are to far from there feeding area with no wind to speak of they are going to stay way out of range and for the handful that you do get you wise up to many others that you never get a shot at. Now on the other hand if it's a little breezy say even a 10 MPH breeze helps a lot, 10 to 15 MPH helps even more when your not directly in there feeding area. You are in business if they have to buck that breeze and "not ride it" During the afternoon shoots the birds act more aggressive if it's breezy and you get the right wind for that spot you can kill a lot of crows in 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours!
I'm now going to get some advise for you and I from the crow expert from Minnesota!
The crow expert from Minnesota lol, even crow shooting has it's con men I guess. Like I thought, wind, you need enough to get them down but not so much that makes a caller one directional. It does stink to watch waves of them going overhead too high to get a shot. I am glad to hear your season is going better and you are out after them. We can only dream of such numbers here in NH but we do probably the best anybody can with what we have to work with.
HERE VERY FEW IN THE AREA IN October and I SUSPECTED November would be the month.....times have changed and in my old stomping grounds crows were practically extinct. So late October shifted to November. Fascinating. I expected a generally good shoot this year but wound up with nothing. Usually half dozen drop by in my immediate neighborhood for a day or two even though I cannotshoot them. So this year was a total zero for me. At least the gentlemen of the eastern part of NH did okay.
-- Edited by killer Crowalski on Friday 29th of November 2019 05:22:53 PM