As many of you know, Michigan has a split season. We hunt crows in the months of August, September, February, and March. There is always crows to be had no matter what month you hunt. I have had varying degrees of success in all of our available months to hunt.....some pretty good and some pretty lame. As hunters we all like to bemoan or celebrate the forces of nature that we encounter during our adventures in the outdoors. It seems often mother nature is viewed as an adversary, however, I do think it is important to give thanks when she tosses us a softball that allows us hunters to swing for the fences.
A few weeks back there were several weather systems that swept through the Midwest (and much of the country) which brought snow, cold, and wind. There were parts of Michigan that received a healthy amount of snow but other areas that were not hit as hard. A couple days after cleaning up the snow around the home front, I told my wife that I need to go for a scouting mission. My crow radar was tingling. I have an area that seems to get better with snow and cold....not always...but sometimes mother nature congregates the birds in conditions like we experienced.
I am glad I went scouting. I found a field that many birds were using throughout the day to feed and there was a drive to the back. Thankfully I was in an area that did not get a massive amount of snow and I could still drive to my hunting location. In case you missed it in another post here on crowbusters, here is a portion of the field I found while scouting:
I gained permission to hunt 2 fields in the area. The second field was about 10 minutes away and was not as hot as the one pictured above but I figured it would still be well worth my time to hunt both locations.
On the day of the first hunt mother nature was again on my side. Her winds kindly blew from a direction that put the wind in the birds face. There were 2 main roosting areas that would be feeding me birds and its always good when the birds have to fly into the wind. Double bonus: the sun was also at my back this day. I hunted from sun up til 3:30.
Inside my blind. That is a 7 gallon bucket. I shot about "6 gallons" of shells. My right hand was pretty dirty from handling all the reloads. I shot #7s on this hunt. My shooting average was 72%.
I ended the day with exactly 400. The flight was really slowing down at the end and it took me a while to get through the 390s. I was starting to get nervous that I would not hit 400 but thankfully it all worked out.
It was a cold day but the rare winter sunshine helped take the arctic edge off the chilly day. I was hunting solo.
I hunted field #2 a couple days later and killed 165. I do not have any pictures of that hunt but it was a fun one. I hunted til 12:30.
I am not sure mother nature will treat me to the same conditions again where the birds congregate in a way that they recently did. I do know, however, that I will be watching when my crow radar goes off.
very impressive ! That's quite an outing. I love the birds in the snow, we don't get that opportunity very often here. But I'm not complaining either. Paul
Jason, stand on the tail gate of your pickup and you will have much better elevation for a photo with lots of them on the ground. Takes me half the day to do that now lol.
How old are you now? Early 40's? Enjoy it, time goes fast I'm here to tell you!
A five gallon bucket holds 500 12 gauge rounds filled to the brim. So you shot roughly 600 trap loads. I assume you had to shoot some cripples over again on the ground during your hunt.
Your hunt reminds me of a hunt years ago, I was in the same spot all day. It was almost dead and I am at 498 crows down and ready to pack it in when here comes two late ones (the last dog) and (the pressure was on not to fold) I got both of them for an even 500. Three days later Drew Moore and I shot 398 out of that same spot in 2001.
The really good shoots like you just had are much harder to get these days due in large part to hunting pressure.
Congratulations BH, some good luck and strong work for sure. In your observations were these crows a concentration of birds that winter over or are they migrating back into Michigan?
You are right, standing on the tailgate does make for a nicer picture. I actually tried to do that but the dang sun was messing with the camera. I did not want to drive the truck off the gravel drive so I had to be satisfied with a non-elevated photo. I needed Dale's kill zone cam!
I will be 42 in June. I thought of you today. I went ice fishing with my daughter this afternoon and to get to the lake we were fishing we have to take a 10 minute hike through the woods. I slipped and busted my rear pretty good on some wet ice on the path. When I got up, I thanked myself for not breaking a rib like you did when you fell on the ice years ago. To top it off, the fishing was crappy. Oh well. : )
I shot 556 12ga rounds. 1oz #7 reloads. The difference between 1 1/8oz and 1oz is not much but when shooting a couple flats of shells out of an 870, I am here to tell ya it does make a difference. Less shooter fatigue for sure.
First of all, thank you (or whatever admin did it) for recently approving my Facebook request to join the crow addicts group. I do very little with FB but I did recognize a few names around there. I was pleased to see that you had an outstanding fall! I didn't see any reports on here though....unless I missed them. I always enjoy the scenery in your photos as you chase the migrators.
To answer your question, these were all local birds because there is no way we were seeing a northerly migration at the time of this hunt. However, they were certainly not local to this area as of 3 weeks prior in my previous scouting mission. Yes there are a decent amount of birds in this area at any given time in the winter but there was certainly an influx into this area when we got the weather fronts moving through. One of the storm systems was particularly interesting, areas 30 minutes south of this spot received 6 more inches of snow and areas 1 hour south of this spot received a foot more of snow than the area I was hunting. I can only guess that between the snow received in the hunting area and the greater amounts of snow received in other areas, that the birds normally spread across the countryside congregated in known roosting spots. That is the best I can figure. Snow obviously is not new to Michigan but this distribution of snow cover was a little unique. Like I said in my post, I may never see this type of reaction to mother nature again but I'll take it if it comes my way. :)
BH
-- Edited by Big Honkers on Monday 21st of February 2022 02:01:07 AM
Agree with your weather observations and the recent uptick/change in crow concentrations. I've always groused (no pun intended) over how they appear to be more crows in OCT-NOV--after the season ends--but not in the numbers you blew away last week, for certain! Perfect storm, eh? I hope my partner and I might get out this week to knock off some uneducated locals. Keep at it!
Also, Let's see a pic of your and your daughter's fish count.
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"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 400 TBC is what I would call EPIC!!!! Congratulations on a job well done. And, even for someone who is 41, sunup to 3:30 is a long day at work, but somebody had to do it!
Great post!
Demi
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The man who thinks he can, and the man who thinks he can’t are both right.
Fish count?....there was no fish to count! Hehe. The day we most recently went out was super windy which makes everything more difficult and it was on the back end of the big thaw we just had. With all that water runoff I kinda figured we would struggle. But, like I told my daughter, fresh air is good air and we went anyway.
Demi,
Thanks for the kind words. You are right, it was a long day but it was a labor of love. :)
Great work Jason!! As mentioned, it is very satisfying when the time, effort, and expense put into crow busting culminates in an epic hunt like that! You know you put all the elements that make for success together just right. Feels good. Congrats!!! and thanks for sharing.
Well Jason, that was a heck of a hunt. And solo, that's quite a pace.
I imagine keeping loaded was a challenge at times?
Like Ted mentioned, good thing you had enough shells.
What was the supply like at the end?
Hope you have a good supply of components to replenish your stock.
And that 165 hunt, that's pretty darn good as well. More fun than a guy should be allowed to have. Good pictures, good report, great work. Thanks for sharing.
