Ribeye of the sky!

[prhunter]

Well done gents!

 

[kansasdad]

I hope that they were calling as they came in. I tend to dream sandhill calls for a couple of nights after hearing them flying and calling to each other.

 

[duckhunt]

Great hunt

 

[Trailsend]

Congrats, never had one close enough for a shot. Have heard they are wonderful to eat.

 

[npaden]

I should have taken that last picture for you!

Your son is quite the shot!

Thanks. I didn't have my phone when I passed you guys heading back to the truck and I should have just used his phone to take the picture. Even without a picture, it is something I think will stick in my mind for a long time. Leaving him with you and having him shoot one without me with my 12 gauge and then him carrying that big crane out with his shotgun really woke me up to how quickly he is making his way toward adulthood.

What do they taste like?

I asked my wife and son and they had a hard time describing it. I think people call it ribeye of the sky, not because it actually tastes like a ribeye steak (it doesn't) but because it does taste like it should be a land based animal, not a bird. I would say it would most closely resemble deer to me. It is very lean and very much red meat. It has a unique flavor and is good, but I would put elk and antelope a little higher on my preference chart. I would put it about dead even with deer. I like deer.

I hope that they were calling as they came in. I tend to dream sandhill calls for a couple of nights after hearing them flying and calling to each other.

Where we hunted is just over a mile from a lake that they sleep at. When they start leaving the lake in the morning you can hear them from a mile away. From what others talk about it isn't like having them come into a decoy spread, but they are for sure talking pretty much nonstop. Another thing that is amazing is when they are flying low you can actually hear their wings flapping through the air, almost sounds like a big windmill turbine blade whistling through the air.

It was a lot of fun, we can hunt them until the end of the month and hopefully we can get back out there one more time and have another day like yesterday.

 

[TLowell02]

Nicely done! The crane hunting is one thing I miss about living in Lubbock, although the easy years of knocking on farmer doors to obtain permission seemed to be fading quickly by the time i moved.