Eagles and Ospreys and Crows Oh My!
Chuck fired up the new NCPHA Crow Demolition Unit last Saturday and scored 9 confirmed kills.
Chuck manning the NCPHA CDU
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First stop was "the hole," a nice several acre stand of 10' - 20' pine near Butner. It was early morning so Mr. Owl with Buster 'in the grasp' was used to good effect, keeping the attention off the pair of 1100's spewing hot lead. The pairs and trios of Black Bandits trickled in to our Wounded Crow Duet, played on a custom Darrell Gibson bamboo and burl call and an antique call that I'll have to get Chuck to remind me who the heck turned it. I'm getting old and suffer from CRS. (Can't Remember Stuff.)
Mr. Owl with Buster 'in the grasp.' Chuck's 16 gauge 1100 was just the ticket for scoring on crafty crows.
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Chuck outscored Barney 4 to 3 on the first stand, a harbinger of things to come.
Barney picks up 3 points
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From there we headed up to the state line, picking up Steve Oldfolks on the way. Steve and Chuck wanted to treat Barney to their secret honey hole where they scored bushel baskets full of crows a year ago.
Chuck and Steve learned that big murders of crows don't necessarily hang around the same place from year to year. Or maybe the crows learned that they shouldn't hang around Chuck and Steve if they want to stay out of bushel baskets.
Barney learned that you can't shoot 'em if you can't see 'em.
Barney was well hidden but suffered from CSS. (Can't See Stuff.)
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Chuck shot the scout, scoring the only kill. We called in five Red-Tailed Hawks at this stand, one of which scared the crap out of Barney when he let out a "screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeawwwwwwwwwwww" right over his head. Barney used to like Red-Tails. Now he's not too sure.
On to Virginia for a fine example of gas station table fare. Three double cheeseburgers and a cherry 1940's F-100. Why go all the way to Virginia for a gas station double cheeseburger, you may ask? Well ask all you want cuz I sure couldn't tell ya. Although to me it was worth it just to hear Steve's stories. And the burgers were actually pretty darn good. Go figure.
Hunting in the heat of the day generally doesn't bring much, but our trio had an awesome surprise at the next stand.
Steve hunting snakes
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No, a rather large rat snake was not the surprise, it was an adult Bald eagle! We were doing our best crow distress when Steve said, "Hey I think that's an Eagle!" Sure enough, he came in low and slow, treating us to a close up view of his regal bright white head, and we could plainly see his bright white tail glinting in the sun after he glided past.
It wasn't till later that I realized that I had my camera sitting on the ground next to me the whole time. I guess I was just too awestruck by this once in a lifetime (for me) close up view of our National Emblem flying by in all his majesty. The three of us were just pumped up by it.
Steve says, "Did you see that? !"
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nice shirt btw
Back to work. Steve and Barney teamed up on a bandit, ruffling some feathers, but he simply turned and leisurely flew away. We later recollected that he threw a look over his shoulder and winked at us, but it's possible that we recollected incorrectly. Well maybe probable.
Chuck packing up
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Our next stand had great long range visibility and lines of fire, but unfortunately there weren't any crows around.
I'm well hidden on 3 sides
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but have a nice field of fire out towards the deke.
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By this time the morning glories were showing signs of heat exhaustion, as were we. Steve had another commitment, so we said our farewells, and B & C headed on down the road.
morning glories
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On to our next stand, where we called in a pair of ospreys and some crows that I never saw. Another case of too much concealment and not enough line of fire. When will I ever learn?
Chuck pulled some fancy shooting by twisting and turning and killing a hapless crow that was over his head and behind his back and over his right shoulder - what a shot.
On to a completely different type of stand, an old dove field. We set out our dekes
setting out dekes
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and were promptly busted by a scout, who continually flew a circle around us, sounding the warning call out of range of our guns.
"Oh crap, we're busted!"
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Luckily there were plenty of crows too stupid or too ticked off to care, as our dueling Foxpros sounded crow fight and gave us several targets and four more "good" crows.
Got 'em
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Two more for our Fearless Leader and his now legendary 16 g 1100
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This stand produced the shot of the day - a long range (much longer than we thought) kill where both 1100s spoke at the same instant and downed the bogey on the far side of the field.
Tracking the victim of our twin 1100s
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On to the big field that we had been saving for the concluding chapter of our crow odyssey, hoping to cap a great day of calling with a humongous mob of crows offering a bewildering variety of targets and crow carnage as yet unseen in this state.
The Final Field
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See all those crows we called in, in the above photograph? Well neither did we. In fact, if we did call in any on this, our last stand, they were those legendary invisible crows. Legendary invisible silent crows.
But our spirits were far from dampened. We left footsore yet refreshed by great fellowship and a renewed appreciation for God's creation and the beauty of this great country of ours.
The long walk at the end of the day
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Final score was 9 - 4 in favor of Puppypopper.
Next time, we will be taking out our new Coyote Demolition Unit! Stay tuned!
The other NCPHA CDU
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