Score from an antique shop

Splash One · Elusive Crow

Score from an antique shop

corvid · Molted Crow

great find Splash, never know what your going to come across in some of those old shops, sadly we cant use any type of electronic or tape calls over here to entice the crows in, and i must admit the hand caller i use is mainly for Jackdaws, and find calling crows in very hard, but if the decoy patten looks good they do come over to take a look, the crows are wise to my flapper and magnet now and im finding it hard to get a good bag of crows, will be when the hard weather comes they might be more inclined to play a bit more LOL.

Gary · Dances With Crows

Trust me, they are worth more than a buck a piece. With each passing day they will increase in value. Great find.

Zeddicus · Molted Crow

corvid wrote:
great find Splash, never know what your going to come across in some of those old shops, sadly we cant use any type of electronic or tape calls over here to entice the crows in, and i must admit the hand caller i use is mainly for Jackdaws, and find calling crows in very hard, but if the decoy patten looks good they do come over to take a look, the crows are wise to my flapper and magnet now and im finding it hard to get a good bag of crows, will be when the hard weather comes they might be more inclined to play a bit more LOL.

Which ones are you using? Can't use electronic calls either, but for calibrating your ears and calls, soundfiles are handy...

Splash One · Elusive Crow

Gary wrote:
Trust me, they are worth more than a buck a piece. With each passing day they will increase in value. Great find.

Gary I had to do a double take when I saw them.. I literally started shaking from adrenalin. The old guys behind the counter seemed to get a kick out of a young guy's excitement over warped 45s. LOL ..........I would have paid ten times what they were asking...

Z. These are amongst the finest wildlife recordings ever made. They were put on tape after this, then later digitized for current eCallers. I will probably never listen to these records (I have the MP3's).. just having/saving the records is enough for me.. I am proud to have them.

Splash One · Elusive Crow

if they are wise to the flapper and the magnet I'd leave them at home for a couple months.. if you are looking for a way to add a different type of motion to your spread you can suspend a decoy just off the ground by a piece of thin line connected to a long pole set at an angle.. the longer the pole the wider field of travel the decoy with have (just like a plumb-bob) I have video of this setup HERE this was taken during 20-25 mph wind so on a mild day you wont get all the crazy movement.. I used 20lb braided fishing line.. I'm not a fan of using monofilament unless it's WELL used.. new mono actually shines in sunlight.

corvid · Molted Crow

ha ha loved the dogs reaction to the decoy Spash LOL, good idea there, and ive got to try somthing different and that could work, trouble is those damn crows do wise up quickly, and i think they even reconise my vehicle when it pulls up now LOL. Zeddicus i use a Primos crow call, and i have used one of sam neyts calls but it didnt do much good for me, also tried a american crow caller but never had much luck with that as well, i do admit my crow calling does leave a lot to be desired, our american friends do seem to have a great chioce of calls far better than we have on the UK market and those electronic callers they have are awsome. i never here any one who has done any good with a owl set ups, but they seem to have good bags of crows using them in the states, i have a eagle owl and one day will get round to trying it out and see if i have any luck with the 'owl' set up, be glad when the leaves are all down off the trees so i can start putting crow decoys up on the branches as that allways pull them in a little better to the crow pattens i have laid out on the ground.

Zeddicus · Molted Crow

@ corvid: My calls were too high pitched too! Here's a trick that I've learned from a friend. Take a piece of string (gardening line) unravel it. Take a few fibers (2-3) and slide em down the mouthpiece above and below the reed thus widening the gap in the mouthpiece ever so slightly. Try different placements of the reeds too. This does the trick for me...

Splash One · Elusive Crow

corvid wrote:
i never here any one who has done any good with a owl set ups, but they seem to have good bags of crows using them in the states, i have a eagle owl and one day will get round to trying it out and see if i have any luck with the 'owl' set up, be glad when the leaves are all down off the trees so i can start putting crow decoys up on the branches as that always pull them in a little better to the crow pattens i have laid out on the ground.

I have pics of my owl decoys... I just forgot to post them..I will put them up tonight.. It's my opinion that here in the states.. an owl decoy is a novelty.. I do know it works.. but I'm not convinced it works so well that it warrants being used on a regular basis.. personally I spread my decoys across the ground up into the trees... more of a "lounging" setup then feeding.

Gary · Dances With Crows

Tried owl set ups a couple times and did not see any difference in a normal setup. Even tried putting a dead crow under the owl as to have the effect of the owl eating the crow. Only thing I noticed was I had to carry more to and from the truck. I do just as well as splash said spreading the decs out using branches in close.