Crow Deception by Bob Aronsohn

I just received my CS-24L FoxPro unit in the mail yesterday. The reason I ordered one is because of the 30 watt TOA speakers. I took it out to test it with the remote and liked the mute button because you can turn the volume on and off with the mute feature. As long as it's muted there isn't much of a drain on your battery. I like this feature for hunting crows because when they are not flying during a lull you can keep this unit at the ready at the flip of a switch. You hit the mute button again and you have the volume level where it was when you first muted the unit. This is a very good feature, especially if you like to hunt with an owl decoy.

If you hunt with an owl it adds a lot more realism to the setup if you turn the unit on for a minute or two and then mute it to see if you get an answer from any crows that might be in close proximity to your position. If there is no response then hit the mute button again and you have the call going again for another minute or two. The reason you do this is because in any situation where you have crows mobbing an owl you will notice that whenever the owl takes flight, all the crows shut right up! The reason they do is self preservation, none of them wants to be singled out and incur old hoots wrath! An owl decoy will work anywhere on crows that have never experienced being shot at. As the season wears on it's a better bet to set you're owl in a grove of trees, don't worry, they will see it! This is part of the deception; it looks a lot more natural in the timber than sitting out in the open on a fence post! It's very important to know what "the crows want to believe" and if the decoy is in a natural setting the deception has worked, they are now toast! I would not recommend this for run & gun types of hunting because it just takes up to much of your time setting the owl up on a pole. But for hunting in the fall, winter and very early spring where you have crows in good numbers and you let the birds come to you, then this would be the best approach in my opinion.

Method selection for the type of crow hunting you are doing is very important. For example, you don't want to lug a big heavy unit into the woods on every stand, you want something light weight like a Fury, Firestorm or a Spitfire unit if you are a run & gunner. It sure can't hurt to learn to use a hand call as well! Now if you plan to hunt from a blind and have the crows come to you then the CS-24L unit with the 30 watt speakers is just the ticket! I do all my hunting from a blind either flyway shooting or field hunting.

Know your enemy and how he thinks! Hunting crows is very much like a military operation, no joke. Think about it? You need to break up you're outline so the crows will not spot you. To plan a good and proper ambush you have to setup so the crows will buy it and come right in! The better you become with a shotgun the less birds will get away to tell the tale! In any good ambush once you're prey is "in there, in the kill zone" it's over with in a matter of seconds, and I don't mean just crows!

An outstanding way to use this new CS-24L unit is on spooky crows! I can't wait to use it on crows late in the season when they will just come "so close" and then fade off without getting a shot. Since this unit has very good volume for hunting in the plains states where the damn wind blows a lot you can put you're speakers way up wind from you're blind to get some of these wild crows. For example, say the crows come into within 50 yards of your blind and then fade off, then what? Sure you can still shoot them but you're only going to get one good shot at them and that%u2019s it! By taking you're speakers and putting them say 50 yards up wind of you, now when they come in they think they are at a safe distance, wrong, they are now toast once again! Having speakers with no speaker wire is a big plus for the 21st century crow hunter!

Good Hunting!