Crows?

[Nick_T]

Anyone else hunt these feathered varmits? I know that Dep6 ain't scared to sling a few rounds at'em, but ain't heard of any others mention about targeting them. Come on out of the closet, there's others out here in the same boat. Might need to form a support group.

Been a few times this year so far trying to help the local farmers save some of their schley pecans from further destruction. Per a UGA study, crows can consume 15lbs of pecans a month and destroy 3x that many by dropping them or knocking them off. So far 57 crows have hit the ground around my caller. Using the UGA figures we've saved a pile of money for the growers plus had alot of fun in the process. The weather has been perfect to take my 3 year old out with us, and he loves it.

So, go ahead and raise your hand if ya enjoy making black snow.

Nick T

[Arrowslinger]

I love blasting the varmints myself but to keep everyone on the lease I hunt happy my rein of terror doesn't start till after deer season. :clap:

[willbuck]

Is there a season for crows??? OR are they similar to yotes and hogs and can hunt them anytime.

[Nick_T]

Season is from Nov 6th thru Feb 28th. unless your helping the farmers out with crop deprivation problems, then it's open season on them.

Change my total to 69 as of this morning, another dozen found the orchard floors the hard way. Need another influx of northern birds, these around here are getting a little shy.

Reg. season I'm gonna hit the local WMAs for some run and gun action. Should be productive. Looking for a total count of 500 by the end of Feb.

Nick T

[Nitro]

My phone must be broken............

[beretta]

Nick shoot me a pm, want to give it try.

[Nick_T]

AG, ain't forgot about ya. We actually started a bit late. Had one place that was holding several hundred birds for a couple weeks, got one good hunt off of it weekend before last and got 23, then they just disappeared. Haven't been able to find a concentration like that again yet. Once I get some numbers hemmed up Tracy is gonna come down and show me how to do this right. He's saying that he'll have me leaving the ecaller at home and going strictly with a hand call, that's gonna be a feat though. When we get things lined up with him comming down you'll get a call. We had to work pretty hard for that dozen this morning, first 2 sets pulled 5 and 7, last 2 sets yeilded nuthin. We only missed maybe 3 birds.

Beretta, we'll hook up after deer season goes out. Got a couple of places lined up that I can't hunt 'til after everyone gets done chasin Bambi.

Bring on the fresh birds! Gotta contact a couple more landowners this week so if the migration doesn't make it by Friday we'll have some fresh locals to poke at.

Nick T

[LIGHTNING]

Hey Nick,


I've got mornings free. Hint Hint

[Nitro]

Nick,

Send me your mailing addy here via PM or at GWF- I have an extra Darrel Gibson call that is DEADDLY on Crows.

I will be glad to give you a calling lesson, while we hunt of course ::gone:

I will really look forward to going along.

Love Blastin the Varmits. We'll leave it to Tracy to eat em.

AG

[Nick_T]

AG, PM sent!

Lightning, I'll keep ya in mind when we get some fresh birds down. I can't make any promases but we've been doing pretty well, not by the pro's standards but having a good time learning the ins and outs. This is my first year and it ain't as simple as crankin up the tape and watching them just pour in. Dek placement and stand location are key to gettin them to come.

Nick T

[gobblestopper]

yep, I have a nice stand of pecan trees at our hunting lease that make for good shooting after a first of the morning limit of woodies. Already a good pile of them hanging around and seen transiting between roost area and the pecan grove.

Built an electronic caller with parts from radio shack for about 50 or so bucks, beats spending the large coin for the commercial grade deal.

Nothing like winging the scout and leaving him flapping out front as a live deke to bring in his family and friends

Andy, good to see you still around somewhere. Cant track down your email addy, shoot me one dwamer@bellsouth.net

[Dep6]

It been fun so far!!

AG,
Good to see you around there sir!!

[gabowman]

Hey Nick, the guys are telling ya right about the mouth calls. One trip with them in feed areas and your totals will jump drastically if you got uncalled birds. Instead of calling groups of 15 birds or more in at a time for 2 or 3 times and it's over, you'll see two's and four's coming in all morning long giving ya ojne heck of a shoot. Let me know how it goes for ya.

This morning at daylight I saw maybe 150 crows leaveing a roost headed to a fresh cut corn silage field. The landowner's son is still deer hunting the edges of their land so I gotta wait a couple more weeks until I hit this area. It kewl though, the wet ground has suspended his cutting so there's still PLENTY of un-cut food for them that should carry this one spot all the way up to warm weather gets here (or turkey season) next spring.

Talk to ya later,

GB (Caw)

[dbodkin]

Whats the weapon of choice? Is it long range stuff since those are some smart birds... Especially the one's on that Windex TV commercial ::ke: I've shot a few when groundhog hunting but never tried calling them in....

[gabowman]

dbodkin,

I'd say that depends on a few factors. But in general if the birds youre hunting have been hunted go with a mod choke. If these are fresh birds an improved cyc. will do fine. Just make sure you have a well constructed blind in a good feed area so the crows dont see movement as you're twisting/turning in the blind. Camo to the ground cover/surrounding scenery. I use a spread of 2 doz. dekes but one dozen will get ya started. Something I've found useful is some type of motion decoy too. If moving from spot to spot (running and gunning) go with the imp. cyc. since the crows youre calling will be coming in hard and fast. (No need for decoys in this type hunting.) My load of choice is #8's or #9's loaded at 1300 fps in 12 ga.

GB

[Nitro]

My shotshell of choice for years has been Remington's Nitro Mag 2 3/4" 12 ga 1.5 oz #4. It will absolutely bust their rearends.

I also use Federal Premium 2 3/4"1.5 oz #5 copperplated when I can find them.

Most often through Mod or Light Mod choke.

It's great sport for certain.

AG

[Nick_T]

Caw, good to hear from ya. Hope your season is going well up there. Agarr and myself are going to be treated to a hunt with a fellow that is very profecient with the hand call on some fresh property after deer season goes out. We're going to be "camping" at a club the evening before which will give me plenty of time to pick the brains and get some first hand instruction on how to use them correctly. I haven't bought any instructional tapes yet due I'm hoping that the first hand experence of that hunt will give me a good foothold on what to do when. I've duck hunted for years and have come pretty profecient with a mallard call but crows have 3X the vocalization that ducks do. Agarr sent me a Gibson that sounds excellent but other than making a series of caws with it that's about the only crow sounds I know how to make, and I really don't understand what I'm saying to them then. I had a couple of situations where getting the birds to trickle in would have been a huge benefit earlier in the season. Hopefully the birds wil bunch up in that same area next year and I'll be able to show them a new bag of tricks.

Didn't really get to hunt this weekend, went close to the house and made one set and only one bird was seen and it came right on in. He probably became 'possum food last night. I'm somewhat pleased with my body count for the year seeing how it's only my first season. I've learned alot in the past 2 months, but got a long way to go. Had the guy that leases the orchard drive up on me yesterday and he was impressed with my set-up, maybe that'll open up some new orchards for next year. I gotta get some business cards printed.

dbodkin, haven't done any rifle hunting on these things, shotgunning over a fight set-up only. Caw and myself are along the same lines as for choke and shot size. I use Lt. Mod with 7.5s and 8s most of the time.

Nick T

Body Count - 117

[dbodkin]

Thats some serious crow hunting. My experience have been by chance. On a number of occasions while groundhog hunting I've had a few come in on dead hogs for some pickins. That was my opportunity with a long range shot. Usually 22-250 or 223....

[Nick_T]

dbodkin, I have been an avid waterfowler for over a decade. I have traveled all over the state and have taken in the best the state has to offer and have had some great times. Over the past few seasons the climate and in my opinion no-til farming practices has kept the birds in numbers well north of GA. I've got several places local that I can go and shoot a woodduck, but the limit on them is 2 and there is a very slim chance that I'll get anything other than a woodie in there to get better than a 2 bird limit. The place that is closest to my (public) that I can get a better chance of putting more than 2 birds at a time in the freezer is 80 miles round trip, but even down there with the weather factors and no birds moving the chances are pretty slim. Now the "promased land" of GA duck hunting is the GA coast, and I can pretty much take a limit of birds in variety down there on any given day is a 3 hour drive one way from here, and the fact that I'm an on call firefighter makes it so I can't travel but every other weekend, and I can't limit myself to hunting every weekend on the coast when I'm off call and expect to stay married, so I might get 2 or 3 weekend passes down there a season, but I like to hunt more than that. Add in the factors of the cost of travel, meals, lodging, no-tox shells at $12+ a box, obtaining and upkeep of boats, and all the other neccessities and "got to haves" it has just become over the years not economically feasiable to hunt waterfowl on a regualar basis.

Now on the other side of the coin........

With crows, since I live in an area that is heavy into pecan production getting access to private land locally has been quite easy. Per a UGA study, crows eat approx. 15lbs of pecans per month and distroy up to 3x that amount by knocking them off the trees, so most of the time if you contact a grower they'll give you access to shoot their property. It is beneficial to their wallet. With very little effort I've got 2 different growers locked down giving me access to 8 different orchards. All these orchards are within 8 miles of my house so that takes the travel out of the travel and lodging out of the equasion. You don't have to shoot no-tox at crows like you do ducks so that cuts your shell costs per box by a 3rd. Don't really need a boat but one would be nice for in season river hunting crows, but not a necessity. A good ecaller will cost ya about as much as just 1 acrylic call, and at one time my waterfowl lanyard was worth almost $500, now that same amount of cash would equipment me completely for crows plus probably by my shells for the year. There's always "got to haves" in every sport but seems that there's more in conjunction with waterfowling than most others, with crows there's just not near as many.

Let me give ya a for-instance....

Last weekend 3 of my friends left here for the coast at midnight and got there at 0300, launched the boat to get into a spot before anyone else did. Set up and hunted 'til 1200 and between the 3 of them scratched down 3 ducks, then loaded up and drove the 3 hours back home.

Weekend before last I got up at 0700 drove about 4 miles, shot 8 crows in an hour, and got back to the house before my kid even woke up.

Use to, I would get all fired up about driving down there and smacking a couple of ducks and turn around and come home. Maybe I'm mellowing out in my older age, hehehehehe. I just don't find it as relaxing as I use to. so, I've found a hunting that fits more of my lifestyle and definately fits the budget a lot better. I might get out there and smack a woodie or 2 at a local hole for the table, they eat mighty good, but I could buy a few ducks at the grocery store for what gas costs to drive 3 hours now.

I'm gonna hush now. That's probably more than ya even wanted to know about why I got started shootin crows.

Nick T

[Buford_Dawg]

It appears Mornings are best, but what about midday and late afternoon? I am thinking about trying it out, run and gun style as I do not have fields or pecan orchards to hunt, basically my deer clubs.

[Nick_T]

Never tried a PM hunt. I alternate my holes every other week to help keep the birds from catching on too quick and this allows for me hit 4 spots in the mornings in about 3 hours. From what I hear the fight set-up works pretty good in the afternoon but not quite as good as it does in the mornings. Crows are a slave to their emotions, and if they hear a fight going on and they haven't been hunted in that area they just about have to come. It's their nature, but ya ain't gonna fool them but a couple of times before they get wise and check out your set-up from altitude before moving on. You have to swap up alot and show them something different as much as ya can or they'll wise up quick.

Nick T

[Buford_Dawg]

Can you crow hunt on them after the deer season ends? What are regulations on that I wonder. Are crows considered small game or what and can you use a ecaller on a WMA or must you use a manual crow call?

[Nick_T]

ecallers are acceptable. They have to set up a season them due to the migratory bird treaty. Season runs from the first weekend in Nov. thru the last day of Feb., but if you have crops being deprivated by them then ya can wack at'em at that site while your having the problem. I've got a few places that are waiting due to deer season, but once it goes out it's gonna be a free-for-all.

Nick T

[gabowman]

Buford,

Years ago me and some buds would run and gun during the summer months just to have something to do. We'd load the cooler and guns up and take off. That many years ago e-callers werent legal so we used mouth calls and just wailed away like crows being killed by something. It worked good enough to usually get a few shots at every stop. Another thing that was real nice was no hunting clubs back then so land was un-limited. The e-caller works well just it gets heavy toting it from the truck so many times.
Pick your sets in short to medium size trees with an opening so you'll have time to react when they come over you. Stand in the shade of the trees so you wont get spotted so quickly. Usuallyn the crows will be around 15 feet or so over the tops of the trees. 15'-20' high trees are ideal as long as there's some type of opening so you have room for the shots as they are presented. Take the shots presented. Act as though no trees are in your way, Swing on the birds and let 'em have it cause the chances of getting them to come back are rare with fight calls. The gig is usually up once they fly over and see NOTHING when they're expecting to see a murder of crows fighting something on the ground. I dont think there's much of an advantage trying to use decoys since it almost impossible to lug all that stuff around when usually a run and gun set doesnt last more than 10 minutes or so each. Good luck and let us know how you come out when you give it a try.

GB