You know sometimes, just sometimes the hunts where everything does not quite go right; are some of the most fun of hunts.
Okbowhunter from the Texas Hunting Forum met up with me on the Texas side of the Big Lake Thursday morning and we headed to Oklahoma in my truck for a
"Run and Gun" Crow hunt. Right off, my old retro Johnny Stewart caller was dead. I put new batteries in it the night before, but it must have got
turned on by accident when I put it in a carry bag. I had a backup homebrew caller made from a CD player, radio shack amp, and a small speaker. It is not as
loud though and I was counting on the Johnny Stewart caller to help make up for the wind. It was just not loud enough to bring Crows from very far away.
First set up we had one Crow come and not like what he saw and so became a distant Sentinel giving a constant warning call.
On the way to the next location we noticed there were several crows in an adjacent field. We set up for them. The day started with using several Crow decoys,
two mechanical flapping crows, and an Owl. Crow decoys proved to be a problem. The Crows had obviously been hunted in the area. I had heard on the grapevine
that there had been a Crow hunting tournament based in the Town just north of where I was hunting. With at least 40 teams, I am sure some hunted the same
areas the weekend just before our hunt. Ultimately we ended up not using any of my regular Crow decoys and used only my old Owl decoy and one small flapping
wing decoy (Buster II as sold on the Crowbusters.com Website). As for things going wrong. My other flapping wing decoy made from a repainted Expedite wounded
woodpecker predator hunting decoy, bit the dust and stopped working completely. My Buster II also had issues and worked only maybe half the time.
We did pick up a single Crow at the second location, but the next couple places we set up to call just did not work well. Way too much wind. We knew this
going in with the realization that like fishing the best time to go hunting is "when you can". The backup caller just did not have enough volume
and to make matters worse it started to have a problem with a speaker wire plug. So we found a country store with batteries and put the Johnny Stewart call
back in gear. Crows where tough this day. About the hardest Crow hunt I have been on. Each location we would have one or two come in initially and no more.
Did not matter if the first Crow was shot or not, no more would ever come, so we had to keep moving.
Okbowhunter pointing out a Crow. Well not really. We are actually picking up. He noticed we had set up in a spot with trees that were too tall. The Crows
where staying out of range when they came over. We kept hunting with the challenge. Just kept moving with at least a mile between sets and eventually figured
out a particular set up with particular cover that worked well.
Blaze on stand next to me.
Blaze really does not like to retrieve Crows even though I make her sometimes. But she really loves being on the hunt. With all the water retrieving she did
this season, she got confused on one crow. We hunted over the Red River. I had placed her on stand about 30 yards behind me and when I shot a crow that fell
back behind her, she insisted a bird was in the river as would have been normal for duck season. Other than that she did well during the hunt and had a lot
of fun.
Crows can be tough, really tough! We lost some today that sailed to far to retrieve. One was hit by both of us and did a forward flip before falling. We
assumed it DRT. "dead right there". It was gone after that round of calling was over. Could not believe it. Another Crow also hit by both of us
fell out of the Sky as dead. I had unplugged my Auto 5 and like a WWII Bofors Gunner on a Battleship I shot that Zero all the way to the Ground. Later we
found it had hopped far across a sand bar and was at the waters edge. Okbowhunter shot at it a few times, but too far to take enough pellets to stop it. Then
the Crow entered the River and began swimming to Texas. SWIMMING!
Ok, now I normally would not send Blaze to retrieve an injured Crow. They fight back. But Blaze was just dying watching the crow in the water. I never want
any animal to have to suffer. And I felt the Crow could not do much harm to Blaze if on water. So I told Blaze "go on". Besides, Blaze knows how
Crows are and always does a double check on them before picking them up anyway. The Crow did stop swimming and turn in the water to face her. It did stand
it's ground. It was fun to watch.
Now I did end up calling Blaze off with the Crow now with the river current bringing it closer to Oklahoma side again since during the face off with Blaze it
had stopped swimming. So, I moved onto the sand bar, sent Blaze to my right away from the muzzle blast and shot the Crow "three" more times to
finally kill it. Blaze reluctant at first, retrieved the Crow. I did also follow with some repeated retrieves on land to make sure there was no bad effects
from her initial Crow stand off.
Today, we called tons of Vulchers during the Crow sessions. As well there were more than one kind of Hawk. Lots of Hawks visited us actually.
Ok, here is where something really went wrong. Today, I had missed some Crows, passed some shots I should not have because I waited on more crows to come
that never showed. Had some sailers disappear over the trees. This next story was at the last stand of the day. I was on my knees facing forward towards the
Owl/flapping Crow. A Crow crossed around behind over my left shoulder. I am shooting an Auto 5 with the "hump". I twist to shoot this Crow
determined to take it. I hit it. It drops a little, but keeps on keeping on. Okbowhunter hits it. It keeps on keeping on. Darn it, last hunt of the day, I am
not letting this one get away! I am now twisted 200 degrees from forward on my knees. Gun low on my shoulder. Extremely difficult angle to shoot. BAMMM! Gun
butt has slipped under my underarm. Hump hits me straight on the middle of my Nose. I see Black and Stars and let out a (A bad word). Okbowhunter yells
"what's wrong, you got it!" I say "I'm Bleeding!". Okbowhunter starts to get up to see, I see a Crow and yell "No stay
there, there is a Crow, I got a broken nose, its done, can't do anything about it, so lets kill Crows." Realize Blood is gushing out of and off my
Nose as I crank up the caller again.
Okbowhunter made the comment. "At least you killed it with that shot. It would have been salt in the wound if you had missed". I agreed! We found
the Crow off the ground wedged in some brush. BTW, my nose is straight. Though it feels broken, I don't think it actually is. But it did HURT yesterday!
As if it does not still hurt as I type this. I'll live. In a way, it makes the hunt and will be talked about for years to come I am sure.
