sandhill crane hunting saskatchewan

Wise to have crane decoys, find out where they are feeding AND BE VERY STILL. They are quite wary and have super vision.
The net result of a good hunt will be one of the best of the fowl.
 
Was there the first year that is was open to non residents, and many times after that as well.

They have the BEST eyesight of any waterfowl. Even though I made a Sandhill Crane rig, and hunted over it many times in many places. I much prefer Pass Shooting, between roost and feeding field so that neither is much disturbed. Find the flight path and pick your shots carefully, and enjoy the show. Their calls will fill your ears and mind for many days, if not years.

In very special places, where some are feeding with geese and ducks you can have very good decoy shooting.

Have shot them with a 3inch 12 ga. when lead was still legal, and with steel shot as well. I prefer the SP-10ga., as a wounded Sandhill can and will do one helluva job on a dog or man. You want them dead pronto.

Does not take much to bring them down, but on 2 good legs they can outrun many dogs and any man.

My buddies male Chessie would lower his head and bowl wounded ones over, and finish them off. His best female Chessie made the mistake of stopping short. The crane coiled like a snake and nailed her good. It was many years before she would retrieve one again.

Bring a stout carry strap as you may have a long walk out, with a heavy load.

They are delicious, as camp cook I wasted no meat. The legs make very good Crane Leg Soup in a large crock pot, that does wonders after a hunt.

Enjoy yourself, it is one heck of a experience.
 
Recommended hunting fields that are fallow first if they have them in the area you are going. Typical waist high fields where the stalks have started to dry with shorter weeds growing in the 1 to 2 foot range. Lots of bug forage for them seems to be the best. If you have access to large fields that are cut corn, millet, or etc (rice of course is what is hunted over the most in Texas) that has not been bush hogged over with stubble or other similar grains I would use a small snow spread or Canada spread off to the side about 50 yards with hand a hand full mixed into the crane decoys. I have hunted them both ways outside of Eagle Lake, TX the past 5 years. I have 5 dozen Silosock decoys but recommend more does not hurt. Winglocker used to make crane decoys and a lot of guys on the lease have 4 to 5 dozen of those a piece. Of course the numbers around Eagle Lake are also in the 1000s by the time season is open. We usually hunt 300 to 500 acre rice fields with up to 15 dozen in late season scattered randomly with landing zones opened up within shotgun reach. If you have any type of snow goose call learn to yodel through the call instead of buying a crane call with creating back pressure with your hands. They will respond to calls. Once significant sound you will hear from cranes when they call is what I call the long, laughter yodel where they will sound off for 2 to 3 seconds long. They are searching and are in a happy state. You may hear that sound a mile plus away and on non-windy clear days even further. In between they will make a "knock" sound which you can just make with your own mouth every once in awhile. I believe this is kind of a "I hear you". Several of us in the hunt will all be making either the yodel or the knock sound at once for minutes on in to get the birds in range. Once in range if they do a short yodel significantly shorter, cut back calling and only respond when they long yodel again. Unlike any other bird I have hunted the will maple leaf out of the air into the tightest spots of your spread sometime versus hitting open holes. Recommended shot size in 3 to BB in range any gauge your prefer for steel and Hevi-Metal Shot. I literally just shoot my 20 gauge with Hevi-Metal 1s or 2s all season anymore for everything and it does the job. I have shot them with #5 hevi shot out of the 20 with no problem (but hevi shot is pricey). Like diver duck hunting for ducks keep shooting until they collapse dead before you or your dog goes to pick-one up. It is not so much sling 4 feet of body and 5 feet of wing span during the the neck ringing as the danger of being punctured. Use all the meat you can off the bird for leg stews, breast steaks, back steaks, and neck soup (heart and gizzard is not bad either). Most of the meat on the bird is literally just short of the best ribeye you have ever cooked.
Regards,
Kristan
 
Done it a few times. Used a guide service called whose name escapes me right now I believe. Father Son duo that worked hard to put your the birds. If you are interested, I'll tax my memory a little more.

Sandhils and geese in the morning ducks in the afternoon. Don't let them feed you snow goose burgers. Not good.

Remembered the guide service: http://www.prairieroseoutfitters.com/index.php Wow, have their prices every climbed. Used to be significantly cheaper many years back. Don't look like the original owners either.

Mark W
 
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The following technique has worked out for us over the (10) ten season we've hunted there.

Govin/Nokomis region


Buy yourself several dozen of the silosock crane decoys.

Observe the route in the morning where the birds are coming off roost. If not disturbed, the cranes will normally spend all day feeding & watering in the same location.

Hunt a field in direct line from the field to the roost, about halfway between the two.

The cranes will lift off in small groups & fly directly to roost.

Let the first (3) three groups pass overhead. It's tough but it will pay off.

Hammer the next couple of groups & let the bird lie in the field.

Let several more groups pass by.

Repeat hammer time!!!


Now if the birds look like they may work, let them land. More will follow.

Also, "DO NOT" use a dog when hunting cranes. The first year we used a guide & was advised not to use a dog because the cranes will fake being dead, jump up & attempt to blind or spear the dogs in the eyes & body. We were on in mixed group & we elected to take the guides advise. One of the other parties hunters elect NOT to follow the recommendation.

Long story short, hunter shot bird, it looked like it fell dead, hunter sent dog, crane stood up, crane speared dog with beak between ribs causing internal bleeding, dog dies in owners arms.

That was the suckiest hunt of my life and still can't get the poor look of that dog as he faded off!!!
 
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I've only hunted them once, but having spoken with some very wise, seasoned crane hunters, many suggest using "fine shot" and tight chokes to shoot them in the head. In other words, #2-3-4 steel.

Shots are usually close if you scout a decent field and hide decently.

My dog was new and steady so she hunted with us but I didn't send her for the cranes. We walked out to pick them up together. She picked up the geese.
 
Thanks, hunting southern sask. have seen just a few small flocks around while duck hunting previous years not really into the snow goose frustration game, so this year bought three dozen decoys and after hopefully locating some this October give it a whirl. Going out for about three weeks with some big game and fishing also involved, anyone want to go along?
 
Was going to mention something about how dangerous it is for dogs to retrieve them. Jeff has already talked about it. A wounded one is very dangerous. Don't under-estimate them.
Al
 
In my opinion,"The Snow Goose Frustration Game" has become much worse due to measures allowed to hunt them now. Most of the dumb ones are DEAD and the survivors are smarter than ever. Much like the Sept. Nuisance Canada Goose Season, made the Giant Canada "problem" only worse. So now eggs are oiled and geese killed and processed by professional exterminators.

Mega decoy spreads, unplugged guns, electronic callers with many White Goose shooters, is not my idea of Hunting. I like to know which bird I shot, or missed. Big piles of dead geese and a bunch of smiling shooters do not impress me in the least.

Your wise not to get caught up in such BS. Again, in the right spot you can have grand Snow, Blue & Ross pass shooting for you and your dog. Many places are famous Passes for that reason. Practiced correctly, it seems to be a lost art in today's Killem Dead Smack Down mentality. When did waterfowl become our enemy?

Sorry to swerve off subject, but I did my time setting up large spreads. Enjoying very good decoy shooting for White Geese, with only 2, max 3, hunters, prior to the new solution. The best eating waterfowl in Sask. are young Snows...pink meat like chicken. Makes a delicious Snow Goose Sangwich.

Back to Sandhill Cranes - You must watch their Feet as well as their Beak, or you will pay a price.
 
Hello, I will ad my bit about how dangerous cranes can be. My wife and I hunted them for nearly 20 years in Sask. We made certain we never had our dog with us on crane hunts. And if cranes came over while goose hunting with our dog, we made sure we didn't shoot at them. I once had a cripple crane charge me when I went out to pick it up. It came running, with wings outspread. I can assure you I was doing some fast backtracking before shooting it again. In one of Ernest Thompson Seton's old books, he wrote of an Indian in Manitoba killed by a crane. The bird hit the Indian directly in the eye ball. Finally, I can only image how powerful a crane's bill could be. Back in my trapping days I would always catch a few great blue herons in my muskrat sets. Once I wasn't careful in holding down the heron's head while taking it out of the trap. It hit my arm, went through a heavy coat, and broke my skin enough to bleed. Best, Worth Mathewson
 
fortunately on the cranes anyway I don't have a dog any more , wife sick, and it looks like I will be mainly solo, very little confusion as to who shot what, although old as dirt I still feel very blessed and happy to be out there. I did not fully appreciate how tough cranes were, everyone sure they don't want to go along? I'm not a high volume killer rather as comfortable and graceful at it as a Pollock can get, also think I have a pheasant hunt in Aberdeen on the way back.
 
If you opt to go the decoy and call route, I would encourage you to pick-up some carry-lite full body decoys to augment your crane spread. Kristan's adivce on calling is pretty spot-on. We use a mix of commercial crane calls, which sound more like a kazoo than a sandhill crane. I made 135 hand painted crane silhouettes over our first three years of hunting cranes. We use the full body decoys deployed as about a quarter of your spread with mud-washed fully camouflaged Final Approach layout blinds interpersed. I modified some Tim Grounds cocobola long magnum honker calls via reed manipulation, to funcion as crane calls. They are deadly accurate in reproducing the "woody" knock/yodel of a sandhill crane. I have tried the silo-sock decoys in NoDak hunts with mixed success. Wind speed averages 13 mph on the Missourri Cateaou area of NoDak. Flapping silo-socks are a deal breaker in high/moderate winds to get cranes in. I also eventually painted the interior fabric with auto primer grey to get rid of the white "hole" that flairs birds working the spread in the upwind quadrant.

As others have mentioned a spread of cranes with a seperate spread of geese has worked best for us. I routinely see intermixed species flocks on the ground, but the birds don't decoy as well to a spread set-up that way.

If they are giving you the long yodel as they approach or fly-by, hit them with the same call. When they turn and break your way, if they continue to emit the long yodel, just match each call with a similar response each time you hear them call, i.e. don't over call them like excited geese on the ground. If is nothing to have a flock set-up at 100 yards out and start to coast your way with their wings locked and then drift off to the side at the edge of range and circle again. Like geese when they are quartering directly away from you, hit them with frequent long yodels or the dispute yodel call. Inquisitive and cautious birds, particularly in small family group flocks will break into the short knock call that Kristan mentions, this is just a truncated yodel, but it signals to you they are looking hard, frequently picking-up movement in the spread or something that looks amiss. When this happens, just give them that same short call in response each time. There is another call that essentially is the long yodel done in sequence which sounds a bit like the spit-note comeback call. I call this the dispute call. This occurs usually when two cranes or more engage in a food or feeding spot dispute. It works well on distant birds to pull them off their flight line. It is not an easy call to mimic. If you can make it, it is another call to hit a flock that has broken-off to circle again and set-up to come in.

If you can get a small flock, with multiple birds in the air working your spread at varying distances out, to commit and land, you will be rewarded, even if they jump prior other birds coming in. A flock landing is the visual trigger for these birds to readily commit to decoys.

Juveniles emit a nasal drawn-out peep, which you can easily imitate on a standard Roy Gonia dog whistle. In fog or poor visibility conditions, this call works well. Cranes will sit-out most foggy mornings, waiting for the sun to burn it off. If birds are moving, family groups respond well to the juvenile "peep". I've succeeded in pushing birds off the decoy spread routinely with their feet down and dropping, when I have used this call in good visibility conditions...why I mention it last! It is not a finishing call!

We hunt in hilly rolling terrain, preferring to set-up in harvested wheat fields at least a mile out from a roost. Avoid setting-up in line of sight with their roosts. We like to set on the highest point in the field where birds are feeding. We keep our ground blinds below the hill's crest and try to site them in the sun shadows of the terrain, if the wind direction is cooperative. Face masks and no shiny eyeglasses/jewelry without a hat brim over them is the requirement. IF you have permission and don't have a ground blind, you can set-up by digging a shallow foxhole about knee deep to enable you to lower your silhouette. Brush yourself in well to match local vegetation. In a pinch I have used ditches and hale bales for blinds. We usually drop the decoys and blinds and then designate our younger hunting party members to drive the trucks well away from the spread site, easily 3/4 of a mile.

Birds are usually off the roost and out feeding by 11:00AM. In NoDak, hunting for cranes ceases at 1;00PM and there is no shooting allowed over water. If you have not limited, sit tight. The birds will lift-off in smaller flocks down to family groups and start drifting around. We call this the "Looky Lou" flight, as birds move around to socialize and interact. These birds are looking for company, as well as lost mates for single birds moving around; they are very willing to decoy. Fewer eyes on you, as several have said, equates to a better probability of success, so don't pull your spread too early.

Lessers are normally what you will encounter, some migrants originate from northeast Russia in the western Canadian provinces and Alaska. NoDak Fish and Game "slides" their season around each year or two to try and allow the vast majority of the smaller population size greater sandhills through the State prior opening the season. Greaters are huge birds, a true trophy. They all eat well...very hard to wreck crane meat. You can brine the legs and thighs to tenderize them, prior grilling, smoking, etc. Great soup and sausage birds from all meat scraps. It was nice to read that somebody else pulls all the meat they can find off their bagged cranes.

As several others have said, cripples can be quite dangerous birds. we use the same touch them with the muzzle of a loaded gun technique you would on bears. The only time I have used a dog to retrieve a crane was a dead bird on solid ice. We still fired a load of #2s into its head/neck prior sending the dog.

Heavy Shot B, #2, or Federal steel BBB are preferred loads. Heavy shot #2 on decoying birds will give you clean consistent kills with low crippling losses. They can take a lot of shot and still fly. If you do not break a wing or deliver a fatal shot charge, they will coast a long way prior impact. This makes for some very long walks and an hour or more of looking, since you can't take advantage of a dog's nose. We usually make a point of driving and glassing the section around where we hunt for cripples, if we are done early.
 
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Mr. Mathewson - Your experience with Great Blue Herons is spot on. In my years afield & stream I would consider Herons one of the best winged predators. I watched one take a fish from a Osprey once, and the Osprey could not get out of harms way fast enough. Herons stalk prey like no other bird, in the air, on land and water, and are the Best Fisherman on any body of water I've been on. If I fish one of their prime spots, I've had them fly straight at me and give me Heron Wholly Hell.

My daughter and I watched one kill and eat a 12"-13" Crappie. Stabbed it to death with it's beak, then tossed it in the air to swallow it head first. With head up and neck stretched, we could see it slowly swallow the fish. The bird stood there for 20 mins., before it could fly way.

I read years ago in DU magazine, where tracking chips were implanted in Wood Duck ducklings. The results were almost all the ducklings were killed, and eaten by Great Blue Herons. Sandhills from what I've seen, are very good hunters when need be as well. They both use their beak and feet as weapons, to do as God intended.

Like a pig and a wild turkey, Sandhills don't die easy like a lamb. They take it real personal and put up a good fight...
 
wow that is really helpful, I will get online to find recordings as I have only heard them a few times. Have 6 really expensive full body, 1 doz self inflating 2doz silo's and a dozen flats, I think. still need to get a call too. thanks. have final approach blinds.
 
everyone sure they don't want to go along? I'm not a high volume killer rather as comfortable and graceful at it as a Pollock can get, also think I have a pheasant hunt in Aberdeen on the way back.
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There is no pheasant season for non-residents. A couple of winters ago the pheasants had a really tough time and they have closed the season to all except SK residents. And since I live next door, Saskatchewan is on my list for Oct 8 - 13. Will be hunting ducks and geese on the eastern side of the province.
 
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Alan - Thanks for the invite, but the crossing into Canada can be a real PITA now, especially when they target Waterfowlers. I do plan to go back to Sask. and then drop down into Montana for upland birds, like we used to. Have freelanced in ND & SD for upland and waterfowl many times.

As dry as it has been, you should get some Sharptail & Hun action in Sask. "Chickens & Waterfowl" are mighty tasty in the WOK. Pack the Peanut Oil, and make sure ya stop in a local bakery for some of the best bread in Canada, and North America.

Ya really don't need a call, just do yer homework... tain't like further south. There will be so many birds, that they won't be able to hear ya anyway.
 
Alan - Thanks for the invite, but the crossing into Canada can be a real PITA now, especially when they target Waterfowlers.
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Don't believe for a minute that the border guards or anyone else targets waterfowlers. Everyone up here recognizes the value of hunting tourism.

On the other hand, do understand the gun laws and abide by them. This is Canada and we have relatively strict laws compared to the nice folks south of us. Provided you respect the gun laws and are open and honest with the folks at the border you won't have any trouble. I have a lot of friends who travel back and forth all the time without issue.
 
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