Got a call from one of the A-Team members last Wednesday and he said he could not go on Saturday but how about Friday.He said he found a flock feeding in a peanut field and he had gained permission to hunt there.I was coming off of a bad cold and this was just what I needed to get me over the hump.I picked my partner up at 7:00 am and after a short ride we arrived at the field.I was excited for two reasons.One, I have not had a chance to hunt a field set-up this year where birds were feeding in good numbers.Second I acquired some new decoys that I was anxious to use.They are called assault decoy’s that are wind driven using a ¼ metal rod and a conduit driven in the ground so when the wind blows they rotate accordingly and their wings slow-mo up and down.I hope you can see them among the dead crows in the picture.They work really well as long as you have a 5mph wind or better.Our set-up was about a 1,000 yards from the peanut field in a pine plantation in which the pines were about 30 feet tall and good ground cover.After we got situated and spaced properly apart so we would not shoot the same bird we started calling.It took about five minutes before we heard our first bird.We had beaten them to their breakfast.They came to feed 3,5,10 birds at the time and as we called they came on a string.In no time our spread was littered with real decoys.As we added to the pile the birds responded more aggressively.At 12:00 we decided to go for lunch.At this point we had killed 135 birds.My partner shot 68 and I shot 67.When one of us would get to far ahead in the kill count we would set back and let the other catch up.That is the way to do it, equal shooting is great.After lunch we tried another field set-up but only killed 21 birds.We really wasted too much time here but kept hearing a lot of birds that would not respond.After an hour and a half we picked up and were going to call it quits for the day and on the way back to town I spotted a flock of birds going to roost. We jockeyed for position down wind to where I thought they were heading and drove to the back of a farmer’s field where we found a small pine thicket that was as tough to walk in as they come.I still have some briar holes in my legs!It was 4:20 pm and overcast with a rain storm approaching, so having no sun to cast shadows, we were well hidden.I mouth called one time and they tried to eat us alive.They came so aggressive that we could not keep our guns loaded (with the plugs out).It was 20 minutes of no stop crows.We did turn on our e-caller for back up.We were laughing and shooting at the same time.We had three dead birds in the air at any given time.Short but sweet.40 MIA’S ,What a way to end the day.196 TBC.
