Made my (crow hunting) day once again! Had to watch it twice because of the "Thump" the first three bandits made. There were many other super good, hard hits made too--spectacular Crow Snow (at 5:50) as well. You've got me all juiced up and ready to go for this Tuesday or Wed. (weather-permitting) for our first (belated) hunt this season.
Get em' again!
Craig
__________________
"Arms are the only true badges of liberty. The possession of arms is the distinction of a free man from a slave." -- Andrew Fletcher 1698
A double watch is quite the compliment. I was also wondering if anyone would pick up on the thump, and takes as much entertainment from it as I do.I hope you guys have good weather and give them hell coming up this week.
__________________
"If men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be wise enough to be crows." Thoreau.
I had mentioned once before that Dale is one heck of a shot with the shotgun & you may or may not be able to tell but a lot of those birds were way out there ! At our previous hunts Dale always pulled ahead of me on the bird count by taking those way out there long shot's that i didn't think were even possible.I usually shoot a modified choke but this day i went to a full choke & decided to try those high flyer's. Some of those were way out there & i had to ask Dale if they were doable because i'm just not used to shot's out there past 50 yards let alone 60 & 70 yards. A few were what i called dummy's that came in close & easy but most kept their distance. Dale missed with a few shot's on the video but the norm is that when his gun goes off something black fall's from the sky. That was a real good time, and so were our other hunt's. Dale makes a real good hunting partner & had me on top of my game this year. To bad our season end's soon. Paul.
Nice video, but forget about the thumps...the best part was to see the many "CrowGoPuffs" you made above the trees! Looking forward to future videos next season.
Demi
__________________
The man who thinks he can, and the man who thinks he can’t are both right.
Nice video, but forget about the thumps...the best part was to see the many "CrowGoPuffs" you made above the trees! Looking forward to future videos next season.
Demi
Aw c'mon, admit you love blasting a low & slow one that drops right in front of you with a crash you can feel! (I love crow snow also...).
__________________
"Arms are the only true badges of liberty. The possession of arms is the distinction of a free man from a slave." -- Andrew Fletcher 1698
Demi, that day the conditions where absolutely perfect for "Crowgopuff" footage. A well place load of 7 1/2's through a full choke, nearly flat calm winds, (which ended up screwing us later that day) and you have all the makings for the very satisfying puff of feathers you have so eloquently termed Crowgopuff.
But.... you and Craig have now brought to light a very real dilemma; Crowgopuff VS The Thump. Personally I don't think one can definitively choose one or the other but a combination of the two is where I would have to land on the topic.
__________________
"If men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be wise enough to be crows." Thoreau.
Demi, that day the conditions where absolutely perfect for "Crowgopuff" footage. A well place load of 7 1/2's through a full choke, nearly flat calm winds, (which ended up screwing us later that day) and you have all the makings for the very satisfying puff of feathers you have so eloquently termed Crowgopuff.
But.... you and Craig have now brought to light a very real dilemma; Crowgopuff VS The Thump. Personally I don't think one can definitively choose one or the other but a combination of the two is where I would have to land on the topic.
Dale:
That's why the one at 5:50 was perfect--the best of both: "CrowGoPuffn'Thump."
__________________
"Arms are the only true badges of liberty. The possession of arms is the distinction of a free man from a slave." -- Andrew Fletcher 1698
You've definitely set the bar high with your excellent video work. You and Paul's crow shooting is pretty good as well! I know I'll be re watching those clips this off season. Thanks for your extra effort and keep after 'em.
I am tickled pink that the videos have been so well received, and that makes it a worth while effort. And to be honest all I see in the footage is room for vast improvement haha. My only regret is that I didn't have a camera rolling earlier in the season to get some of our better hunts on film.
__________________
"If men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be wise enough to be crows." Thoreau.
Dale and Paul: Just saw your video!! Outstanding! Nothing in the aviary kingdom that rivals crow hunting!! Having near perfect weather... no wind, birds coming straight for the most part... very hard to beat! As for the "thump" I have researched that sound.. and found it has historical connotations: the sound is Beethoven's "Lost Chord". and is unique in all of bird-dom! Was also pleased to see the various "types" of kills you had: lawn dart, Kamikaze, helicopter, crowpuff and upside down Thunderbird position, etc.!!
I was a little surprised that you could lure many of the birds in relatively close given one, possibly both of you, were not wearing face masks, gloves and seem to be standing in the sunlight. Skin tones and sunlight would flare our crows around here BUT who cares that was one fine video, even finer shooting...hope you can share more of these going forward!
I think (do not know for sure ) but your "quote" about smart birds and humans the credit goes to Bert Popowski and his book "Crow Shooting" published in 1946 in which he said "if all of us were changed into birds according to our intelligence only a few of us would be crows"! This book is excellent! I consider Mr. Popowski to be the father of modern crow hunting!
Holler if you need a 3rd gun or someone else to run the camera while you two bust up the formations!
Skip, I'm glad you liked the footage. I enjoyed it also, not only being there but watching it afterwards. As for the face mask and gloves i was always a beleaver that the more camo the better. Dale however has proven to me that as long as you stay still until you take your shot it's not always necessary. I had my face mask on just because it was chilly out.
As for the 3rd gun or a camera man you have to remember we spent some time with Bob Aronsohn & he says two is company and three's a crowd. Plus we would have to blindfold you all the way from North Carolina to our undisclosed location's !! LOL... Just kidding, I would consider it an honor to be hunting in your presence. Paul.
Skip, I'm glad you liked the footage. I enjoyed it also, not only being there but watching it afterwards. As for the face mask and gloves i was always a beleaver that the more camo the better. Dale however has proven to me that as long as you stay still until you take your shot it's not always necessary. I had my face mask on just because it was chilly out.
As for the 3rd gun or a camera man you have to remember we spent some time with Bob Aronsohn & he says two is company and three's a crowd. Plus we would have to blindfold you all the way from North Carolina to our undisclosed location's !! LOL... Just kidding, I would consider it an honor to be hunting in your presence. Paul.
Couple of winters back, Big Honkers took me on an icy shoot at one of his secret locations in his County (the one adjacent to and north of mine), and I ended up wearing a blindfold on the way there. We killed a few that morning, but his wanting me to put handcuffs on was too much....great wingshooter--just a little weird.
__________________
"Arms are the only true badges of liberty. The possession of arms is the distinction of a free man from a slave." -- Andrew Fletcher 1698
On your second point, I completely agree there is no other foe that can provide the all around target angles and volume of targets that the crow can. My personal favorite kill would be the "lawn dart", although I will take them however I can get them. I am gonna take your word on Beethoven's lost chord being the origins of the "thump", sounds good to me.
In my short and not very illustrious career I have found that movement is the enemy of the would be crow hunter. I have slowly chipped away at the things necessary to kill the avian marauder and the face mask was a casualty of the process. I do like to wear gloves as it is my hands that are moving most but still find it unnecessary in the areas I hunt.
The quote I have pinned to the bottom of my post did, in fact, come from Mr. Popowski's book. He credits the original author who pinned that beautiful saying to Henry David Thoreau. He was a philosopher, poet and essayist. I also agree with you that the book is fantastic, along with Dick Mermon's book. They both will forever have a place on my bookshelf.
If I am ever in need of another gun I know who to call.
__________________
"If men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be wise enough to be crows." Thoreau.
My favorite round for shooting crows through my A-400's is the Winchester Super X in #6, 1 1/8 and 3 1/4 dram. This year I have had absolute hell being able to find it to buy so I have resorted to the Wal-Mart brand ammo for my ammo. Most of the crows shot in the videos where shot with cheap-o 7 1/2"s in 1 1/18 ounce, although I did buy some #6 shot here and there and the real long shots I will take with it.
__________________
"If men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be wise enough to be crows." Thoreau.
Dale.. thanks for your reply..interesting! A study of what ammo is used by us crow hunters has appeared on this board before... not so much a study..but lots of folks reported what they used and answers were all over the board! Your load is slightly heavier than what my gang uses here.. 3 drams with 1 1/8 oz of 7.5 or 8's. We try to limit our shots at crows to 50 yards (as a good shell will always kill a crow at that range if the shooter does his part even with Wal-Mart ammo) but shots further are fine. Got friends in SC who use even heavier loads .. with #6 shot. I sort am from the school IF you are having to take long shots.. perhaps lots of long shots.. you are not hidden well enough OR you have educated crows! At no time do I think high brass ammo is needed for crows!!
Skip
PS Dale did you see my crow TV show that was posted on the CB board several months ago? If not, you might enjoy!
I had lunch with a local ole time crow hunter who is 90 years old still drives and is as sharp as a tack.
He was reminiscing about the crow shooting back in the 1950's before the e-caller was invented. Just pass shooting and using a hand held crow call. He said when he used a hand call in those days from 1952 to 1965 90% of the shooting was under 25 yards and the other 10% was point blank! All he used was Improved Cylinder out of a 12 bore. He said his only limitations were being able to afford all the ammo and raising a young family in those days.
I was curious about the pass shooting you could get in those days. He said there was an open hog yard that he used to hunt in the 1950's where no call was needed, you just pass shot them. He said it was a given to shoot 10 boxes of ammo anytime you went there once you had some good snow cover on the ground. I asked if he could have shot more and he said yes, he could only afford 10 boxes a week raising a family. He said there is no telling how many he might have shot with unlimited resources in those days!
I couldn't help but see the reference to Bert Popowski by Dale and Skip in the above posts.
When I was starting out back in the late 1950's to early 1960's I said to myself " I wanna be just like that guy " and in those days we just hunted them during the summer months in New York State. I can still remember my first crow season at 11 1/2 years old, where I shot a whopping 30 crows all summer long with plenty of holes in the sky! By the time I was 15 I could use a hand call successfully and hunted with guys older than I who had a drivers license so I could go more often. Still just run & gun hunting but now I was shooting a whopping 300 plus during the summer months. I was hungry just like Dale is right now and wanted more shootin!
At 17 I lived in South Dakota for a year and got my first taste of hunting more crow numbers of crows that I had ever seen in New York State. I just used a hand call and on a good day could bag 50 odd crows with a partner. That is where I ran into Boyd C. Robeson for the first time north of Red Lake South Dakota not far from Chamberlain South Dakota. I was watching Boyd and his partner shooting a flyway in the afternoon hours in October of 1965. I went over after he was done for the day to talk to him and his partner. They killed more crows than I ever dreamed of in my wildest hallucinations that afternoon! As luck would have it 7 years later I ran into Boyd once again east of Hutchinson hunting crows. He had just moved to Kansas from Sioux City Iowa and had a gun shop in Wichita. Boyd gave me his business card and said if you come out alone next time call me because " two is company and three is a crowd" and so I did on my next trip to Kansas the following month. I remember our first shoot like yesterday, he said " if we can't kill 300 here, something is wrong " and I about fell over dead with that statement! After that shoot we hunted together every time I came to Kansas alone. I moved to Kansas in 1974 and the stage was set for 20 glorious years hunting with Boyd before his health went south in 1994. Money can't buy those memories hunting with him! In December of 1982 we had our largest shoot together where we both shot 859 crows from one spot all day long just using 20 gauge shotguns.
I hunted alone from 1994 to around 2000 when Crow Busters was first getting started. During those years I had my best season in 1997 where I shot 6,349 crows by myself that season. Had other seasons of over 4 and 5 thousand by myself during that time period. That is where I kept running into Dick Kilbane and in 2002 we started hunting together. Dick hunted in Oklahoma for 3 solid months every year because he was retired. In Dicks best years in the early to late 1990's his best season hunting alone was over 11,000 crows by himself.
So, getting back to ole Bert Popowski now, I never dreamed that I would have shot twice the crows as Bert did during his crow hunting career. To be fair Bert only used a hand call and having an e- caller is a big advantage. Plus, I hunted much richer crow areas than he did in those days.
Bob, its interesting that you mention the first time you were really really hooked on crow shooting. I have a similar experience. Ever since that day, hunting other types of game just isn't as fun as it used to be. Here is a picture of my right hand from that day. I was shooting some real dirty shells which thus made my hands really dirty. I shot over 300 by myself this day. I cut my finger trying to open a shell box faster than I should have. I was bleeding all over the dang place so I ran to the truck, washed my hand in the snow, wrapped up with some electrical tape, and ran back to keep shooting. This photo was taken with one of those disposable cameras that I used to carry in my blind bag because it was before the days of cell phones being the norm.
...hehe, here is another picture of my hand on a hunt last year. I cut my hand on some stinking ditch grass making a blind. Crow hunting is dangerous I tell ya. Sigh...
Good hunting,
BH
-- Edited by Big Honkers on Monday 23rd of March 2020 08:32:20 PM
Dale, caught a few of your videos on YT. Awesome shooting there. Just wondering what sounds you're using as I'm finding spring crows up here in Canada seem to be very reluctant to come near the typical Foxpro sounds.
Ted
__________________
Life's tough... It's even tougher if you're stupid. John Wayne
Now this is what I like to see given my lack luster season as the crows took a different route. Also some one shot out their main roost or they hadn't arrived yet due to mild weather of last year during a time when their should have been a lot....food was plentiful in fact more than even a year before! More corned areas and even the usual had been expanded!
None the less it was great watching that crow shooting video one of the best in clarity anyways.....An A400 now that is serious business!! Top of the line serious business even if a shiny receiver which honestly I never would have chosen to use but it worked out for you.
I like the lack of misses and a steady diet of crows in small groups of 4 or 5 and the endless singles-how good can it get? Not much shooting like that on video either!
That A400 was handled like a pro! I learned a new crow call too-we can be sure I will incorporate that one this fall into my verbal repertoire of crow language!
Not sure of the number of decoys you two used but clearly the shooting was beyond reproach! While it worked for you two I never would have left my face uncovered or my hands. But it worked for you two. How much ammo do you two take to any given shoot?
A decent pair of work gloves would save your hands from getting cut up while brushing up your blind.
That's a lesson either my partner or I usually forget once a season. When either of us hear, "#%#$# it, I've got a pair of gloves in my back pocket", the other knows what happened.
