Deer hunting has taken up most of my time recently, and some work around the place. I’ll likely get a couple of crow hunts in before Thanksgiving. Then waterfowl season. February and March will be when I do the most crow hunting. Our crow season ends on March 15th. It’s crazy how I can sit in a tree stand with a bow and hear every crow near the woods saying “come and get me”. This new crow hunting passion has got to find a place among all my other passions.
Seems like there are good groups of crows in my area, even more than last year. I’ve got 4 cases of shells and probably a case of mixed. I don’t think I ever went through more than two boxes of shells per hunt and I figure I’m good on crow ammo for the rest of this year and the start of next but I’m hoping the ammo shortage gets fixed and that the gas prices come down. My truck likes gas and I liked paying under $2.00 per gallon just a little while ago. Now we’re seeing prices up near $3.50. My leases and permissions are within a 30 mile radius of the house so that’s not too bad for driving. If I can look into the future I might see that my passion for crow hunting will probably expand and then so will my range but that’s how it goes. I’ve only been going after crows for a little while now. If I knew it was this much fun and this much excitement I might have started decades ago.
Bob, I just put on 900 miles on the truck for a 3 day outing only to put 80 on my clicker. Always seemed to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Couldn't get permission at most places so had to deal with what we were given. Learned a lot and would do it again in a heartbeat ! I think the word persistence comes into play on these places.
Bob, I just put on 900 miles on the truck for a 3 day outing only to put 80 on my clicker. Always seemed to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Couldn't get permission at most places so had to deal with what we were given. Learned a lot and would do it again in a heartbeat ! I think the word persistence comes into play on these places.
Paul,
I think the biggest challenge, on a safari of that distance, is scouting and being able to to get at 'em. Even if a guy does his due diligence, there's a chance somebody gets to them before you do.
I'd agree that persistence is the key. If you learned and had fun, things will fall into place.
Lack of birds plus have some locals caught on at a few of our good spots. Could be other hunters not sure. Only know we shot a place a week ago that had a hundred plus average and we struggled to kill 30. Birds had been shot. Numbers here have changed a lot since the hurricanes a few years back, plus since baiting deer with corn became legal about the same time I think this has kept a lot of crows from congregating. There's literally tons of corn on the ground here now scattered all over the state. Just another wrinkle to figure out. Who knows with all the feed (corn) on the ground here we might start pulling some crows from up your way! Just kidding. Always up and down years but this is starting to concern me as we might not have many more 150 shoots left here.
Randy, usually Dale has the details on video but I don't think he's pulling out the camera's until the action picks up because it's been pretty disappointing. What happened is they changed patterns on us. They didn't have their craving for pecans like they normally had done, instead we found that a farmer was disking up a bean field & that appealed to them more that day. By that time it was getting late so we decided to get ready for the evening flight which we had decided that we wouldn't set up until we saw the flight path but somehow we broke that rule & set up early and missed it by a bit over a mile. It wouldn't have made a difference since we couldn't get permission there anyway. So we kept one place as our trump card because it's almost always good for 100+ birds but not that morning so we pulled out early with rain coming & a few miles down the road was a stream of crows what appeared to be several miles long feeding in fields & pastures. That's when you get disgusted ! It was almost a situation where a guy needed to do his scouting in the morning and not set up until you confirm where they are. But with that said I squeezed out 80 on the clicker ( not at one location ) and I suppose Dale was close to 100 or so and I did pull off a scotch double at the same area I did last year although it wasn't intentional. Some times Mr. crow wins. Paul.
I have tried for 3 damn years to get a Scotch double, I can't tell you how many times I have waited patiently for a pair of victims to line up in just the right order in which I might pull off the miracle shot, the Scotch Double. I have let them line up one on top of the other and try and hit the lower one with half the shot pattern saving the other half for the bird above, I have let them stack up for a more horizontal shot and tried to split the difference and still, I set here empty handed in the Scotch Double club. My esteemed partner on the other hand seems to get them every time he pulls up to shoot (sarcasm is intentional). One could say I am a bit butt hurt about it and you would be correct. To add to the misery I had to inform Paul that he had, in fact, got another one because he didn't see the second bird fall.
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"If men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be wise enough to be crows." Thoreau.
I have tried for 3 damn years to get a Scotch double, I can't tell you how many times I have waited patiently for a pair of victims to line up in just the right order in which I might pull off the miracle shot, the Scotch Double. I have let them line up one on top of the other and try and hit the lower one with half the shot pattern saving the other half for the bird above, I have let them stack up for a more horizontal shot and tried to split the difference and still, I set here empty handed in the Scotch Double club. My esteemed partner on the other hand seems to get them every time he pulls up to shoot (sarcasm is intentional). One could say I am a bit butt hurt about it and you would be correct. To add to the misery I had to inform Paul that he had, in fact, got another one because he didn't see the second bird fall.
Dale,
It seems when we try to get cute, things don't end as well as they would have if we'd of just played it straight up. So I concur with Bob, just let'er rip and if it happens, it happens.
I've never got a scotch double, my partner got his first last season. Several years ago he had a near miss, stoned the main target and drew feathers on the secondary. Hit him good enough he staggered and started to fall, but regained his balance and made it out of sight. My partner never saw it as he was acquiring another target. Keep after 'em.
Availability of ammo and more guys hunting them have contributed to less enthusiasm this season for many who are old hands at this game. Just my observation is all.
Let's go Brandon.