stubby Posted January 5, 2011 Report Share Posted January 5, 2011 (edited) in my never ending quest to have a good day on the crows that fly across my permission, I had a quick read up on the crowbusters website, now as the crows crossing my permission are not feeding there, but coming to and throw from a local land fill site, crowbusters recomended a few tips for a successful day firstly building the hide, twice as thick/good as you would for pigeons, something Ive not done in the past secondly, using the large owl decoy, along with crow calls, to get them into a fighting/mobbing mood, now I have tried this before with little succuss, but Im hoping with the added 3rd tip, success may come the third tip was to place a couple of crow decoys in a tree, overlooking (higher) than the owl decoy, now as I wanted to try all this out this coming friday, ordering the hangers for the deeks via the internet,wasent really an option, plus Im tight, if I think I can make it myself, so using some 6mm studding I had in the garage, I carefully put some mild bends in, taking care not to snap it by doing sharp 90 degree bends, and put together two crows and a magpie hanging deeks, sprayed the studding black, and tried them out on the washing line, work great, even with the breeze we had today, so fingers crossed, with all these tips in place, I'll have something to report friday afternoon Edited January 5, 2011 by stubby Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kenny Posted January 5, 2011 Report Share Posted January 5, 2011 Worth a try. I too have one of those useless owls so will be good to know if we have a use for them now all Good luck I might try this out as well thanks for the Idea Cheers Kenny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stubby Posted January 7, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2011 well the bloody rain put paid to this mornings planned shoot, but they reckon dry saturday, so Ill give them a go in the morning, cant wait, as Ive another thing to try out, a small video cam that straps to the barrel, and gives about 2hrs of video and sound, although Ill have to edit out all the misses Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rascal_2005 Posted January 7, 2011 Report Share Posted January 7, 2011 how do you lift them up? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_b_wales Posted January 7, 2011 Report Share Posted January 7, 2011 I've got a crow shoooting DVD from America, and the shooter ties two crow decoys together, then throws them over the lower branches on trees. They just dangle, and they do look good. How the hell he gets them back down, is another thing! Steve. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stubby Posted January 7, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2011 how do you lift them up? Ive got 7 x 4ft sections on old garden pergoda, that slot together, so the crows will get put up at around 28ft high, then remove a section and put the owl at around 24ft high, when removing, I have an old funnel that I tape to the end of poles, making it easy to get the rod inside the pole, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scully Posted January 7, 2011 Report Share Posted January 7, 2011 It doesn't matter how you hang your decoys....they wont taste any better! Sorry....couldn't resist. We tried an Eagle owl decoy once,one or two did actually 'mob' it,but it wasn't the success we hoped it would be. Better results were with one of those cheap plastic magpie decoys and a split rabbit carcass.They did come down for a better look,which brings them within range.You may be able to rig up a cheap lofting pole with canes from B&Q or somewhere similar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silver pigeon 3 Posted January 7, 2011 Report Share Posted January 7, 2011 Sounds like a plan to me , I have done ok with an owl decoy before by placing it on a fence post in the open, the crows really seam to take a dislike to them. Hope the weather holds out for saturday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigstevouk Posted January 9, 2011 Report Share Posted January 9, 2011 Well..... how'd it go? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stubby Posted January 10, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2011 well, good and bad at least it did'nt rain, but it was blowing a gale, force 10 I reckon, firstly, I think crows are bloody intelligent, they must know days of the week, as they fly over my permission to feed on an adjoining landfill site, 5 days a week when the lorries are bringing new stuff into dump, theres at least 200 plus crows overhead, to and fro all day long, come the weekend when the landfill is shut, NOTHING, well, ok maybe 15 to 20 in a 4hr period, so I lofted the crows up around 20ft, the owl around 18ft, made my hide, yes crows came in for a really good look, not mobbing, but very slow fly by's, my first shot missed its mark, but definetly took some wing feathers as you could see as it flew away, a quick blast on the crow caller and he turned and came back, Ive never seen a crow return once spooked, so the deeks/caller must work, at this point, the force 10 gale I was on about, bent one of my hide poles and the hide came down on top of me looked like something from abbot & costello. so, tally for the morning, ziltch but, Im not giving up, Ill try again this friday, see if it will work on a weekday, fingers crossed I did however get to try out my gun-cam, works well, and will hopefully get some good footage of my misses , thats me missing the crows, not my mrs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigstevouk Posted January 10, 2011 Report Share Posted January 10, 2011 Nice one.... looking forward to the gun cam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stubby Posted January 10, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2011 Ive edited the footage down, to show the image when firing, bit shakey, but will try it again on pigeons, downloading and uploading take forever, much simpler done on a mobike phone http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A33eh_Bwbw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.