# Cranes anyone?



## outdoorser (Jan 14, 2013)

I want to hear some UT crane hunting stories and see some pics!!


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## jbb0903 (Feb 3, 2012)

sry


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## outdoorser (Jan 14, 2013)

Thats not funny jbb. Seriously, I've never seen any crane hunting pics or heard any stories. Theres got to be some of you guys with some experience hunting sandhill cranes.


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## swbuckmaster (Sep 14, 2007)

Do you call them in or do you sneak out in the pasture and blast them while there hunting? Are they good eating? 

I think its kind of unique and would make a cool photo but have no desire to put it on the wall.


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## gdog (Sep 13, 2007)

Where's Goob??


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

All's I know is that they are sometimes referred to as the "ribeye of the sky" and that has piqued my interests. GOOOOOOB!!!!! Where's dinner?!!!


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

I recommend using the UWN search engine. Type in "crane" or "cranes" There's been some good crane hunt threads in the past here. 

I have put up a few boring crane hunt posts and some equally boring crane recipes, none of which count because they come from Wyoming.


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## BPturkeys (Sep 13, 2007)

I can only say that cranes are great hunting. They are a game birds by all measures of the word. They are hunted pretty much like geese...decoy or pass shooting being the most common ways. Tall, very alert birds with very long necks, they're hard to just sneak up on. They're big, loud, and surprisingly fast flyers(so yeah, get out in front of 'em) and when they come down it is pretty spectacular. 
By all means, get out and hunt them, they are really fun. 
PS..I always keep the breast whole and roast it like a beef roast. The legs are suitable for demolition work, so if you are planing on breaking up a driveway or something, by all means hang on the them. The meat is quite dark so it actually looks and tastes like beef to me. Yum!


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

BP is spot on.

They taste like beef especially if they're feeding on grain. Sometimes, for whatever reason, they are targeting grasshoppers in the hay fields and their crops and stomachs will be full of the nasty insects. If that's the case they taste like Copenhagen......a good thing to some.

I process a crane in thirds; two packages of breast meat and one package consisting of the thighs, legs and giblets. The legs are tough to eat. I think they have more tendons, and bigger, than a turkey.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

There's a rancher over here on the Muddy Creek that has a pet Sandhill Crane. They got it when it was a chick and raised it with a couple of domestic mallard ducks. The bird is now full grown and is one of the family's barnyard pets, a watch dog of sorts, and meaner than all get out. It will attack any stranger that comes in the yard. Boy, let me tell ya, you don't want to turn your back to that bird in their yard!

They have a heated bird house for the crane and the two mallards. They are a comical threesome. The crane loves Ritz crackers and a tube of them will keep the crazy crane from pecking the daylights out of you. This crane is also gay. Last spring while all the other cranes were out in the fields calling and mating this guy? gal? stayed in the yard hanging out with it's mallard buddies, just terrorizing anything and everything that came into the yard.


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

Goob, this begs the question: Do gay cranes taste equal to straight ones?


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## outdoorser (Jan 14, 2013)

johnnycake said:


> Goob, this begs the question: Do gay cranes taste equal to straight ones?


 :shock: :lol:


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

johnnycake said:


> Goob, this begs the question: Do gay cranes taste equal to straight ones?


Uh...if that crane pecks me one more time I will be able to answer that question. :twisted:


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

The ranch with the pet crane also at one time had a pet moose. In the winter it would hang around the barnyard living off dog food and WalMart cinnamon buns. They say the crazy Sandhill Crane moved in and ran the moose off.

That crane is just crazy; stop and think about it; it spends the winter here, doesn't migrate south. uh....come to think of it, a cinnamon bun-eating moose is crazy too. 

Here's the moose having some dog food with my granddaughter:


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## BPturkeys (Sep 13, 2007)

Goob, your story of getting pecked by a crane reminds me of the time my brother knocked a crane down while hunting up along the Bear, not to far from your stompin grounds. He made a nice shot and the bird dropped like a rock about 40 yards out and landed behind some tall grass. Leaving his gun behind, my brother jumped up from our hide and ran over to retrieve the bird only to find the feisty critter up on his feet and not about to be taken a live. Now most birds would try and make a run for it, but not this guy, he just stood his ground and kind of hissed at my brother. Well, the two stood toe to toe for a couple minutes before my brother made his move. He lunged and landed on the bird. The next thing I see is my brother trying to get back up to his feet, one hand around the birds neck and the other hand trying to fend off a torrent of beating wings(actually only one wing, other was broken) and thrashing long legs. I thought the bird was going to win the fight for a minute or two as I see my brother go back down flat on his back in a cloud of feathers and dirt and freshly cut field hay, but with a move worthy of a champion wrestler my brother made a quick reversal and was once again back on top. Both hands around the birds throat now...it wasn't long before the red topped grappler gave up the ghost. It was a great day out hunting cranes!


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Great story BP.

A wounded 4-foot tall hissing Sandhill Crane, with wings spread open at 45°, pecking at you with that lightning-fast beak is a formidable foe indeed. The first crane I shot flew off wounded and we had a "standoff" before I put it down....sad really, for such a noble bird. 

I have a friend that had a crane mounted in that defensive hissing mode. For awhile it was in his front hallway, the first thing you seen when you entered his home.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Update: That crazy pet Sandhill crane died this past spring. One story is that it flew into a fence and strangled itself, another story is the ranch dogs took it out.

rip


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## Ifish (Aug 22, 2008)

I enjoyed reading this thread today. RIP crazy barnyard crane.



wyogoob said:


> Here's the moose having some dog food with my granddaughter:


That is a great picture Goob! Looks like a great Wyoming day in Mid-June!


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## LostLouisianian (Oct 11, 2010)

Gay crane and Wyoming...why am I not surprised at all by that combination.... -*|*-


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Hey, check out the crane recipe:
http://utahwildlife.net/forum/26-recipes/68089-sandhill-crane.html

.


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## outdoorser (Jan 14, 2013)

Those are nice cranes there, goob. But the decoy on the right of the gun looks a little fake...


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Put a few dekes out in a just-cut wheat field and yodel on a crane call some.


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## tigerpincer (Dec 5, 2009)

Crane hunting can be quite fun. Most guys will decoy or pass shoot them as stated earlier. Spot and stalk can be difficult but that is how I killed my first crane. It took a very lenghty and stealthy belly crawl to get close enough for a shot. I had an absolute blast working in on the small group like that.

They are indeed great eating. I simply breasted mine out, seasoned and seared them. then I stuffed them into very large Poblano Peppers and finished them up low n slow on the grill. That sweet slighlty spicy pepper taste really soaked into the bird very nicely and it was a huge hit at our table.


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## katorade (Sep 23, 2007)

Never cared to hunt Cranes in UT but I shot a Baby Sandhill, that came into the snow goose decoys. And lets just say next time Utah Crane Apps are open, I'm not just going to by a bonus point!


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## outdoorser (Jan 14, 2013)

Pretty cool katorade! 8)


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## MWScott72 (May 23, 2011)

Goob - really enjoyed the story of the "crazy" crane. They are an interesting bird. We have THOUSANDS of them back home in OK. You can literally watch them continuously for several hour in the morning and evening as they fly out to feed/come back to roost over our property. They are LOUD. Get a couple hundred or thousand talking above you, and it's something - especially if you get a couple flocks flying through each other. I'm always expecting to see an airborne collision, but somehow they avoid each other. Sadly, I only got to hunt them a couple times before moving to UT.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

MWScott72 said:


> Goob - really enjoyed the story of the "crazy" crane. They are an interesting bird. We have THOUSANDS of them back home in OK. You can literally watch them continuously for several hour in the morning and evening as they fly out to feed/come back to roost over our property. They are LOUD. Get a couple hundred or thousand talking above you, and it's something - especially if you get a couple flocks flying through each other. I'm always expecting to see an airborne collision, but somehow they avoid each other. Sadly, I only got to hunt them a couple times before moving to UT.


Are tags hard to get in OK?

The agricultural belt of the eastern 1/3rd of WY has very liberal crane hunting limits and seasons. According to the WY G&F, and my observations, cranes numbers are down in the western 1/3rd of WY.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)




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## swbuckmaster (Sep 14, 2007)

Nice photo wyo


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

tigerpincer said:


> Crane hunting can be quite fun. Most guys will decoy or pass shoot them as stated earlier. Spot and stalk can be difficult but that is how I killed my first crane. It took a very lenghty and stealthy belly crawl to get close enough for a shot. I had an absolute blast working in on the small group like that.
> 
> They are indeed great eating. I simply breasted mine out, seasoned and seared them. then I stuffed them into very large Poblano Peppers and finished them up low n slow on the grill. That sweet slighlty spicy pepper taste really soaked into the bird very nicely and it was a huge hit at our table.


Wow, that has to be a great way to cook them.

.


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## LostLouisianian (Oct 11, 2010)

tigerpincer said:


> Crane hunting can be quite fun. Most guys will decoy or pass shoot them as stated earlier. Spot and stalk can be difficult but that is how I killed my first crane. It took a very lenghty and stealthy belly crawl to get close enough for a shot. I had an absolute blast working in on the small group like that.
> 
> They are indeed great eating. I simply breasted mine out, seasoned and seared them. then I stuffed them into very large Poblano Peppers and finished them up low n slow on the grill. That sweet slighlty spicy pepper taste really soaked into the bird very nicely and it was a huge hit at our table.


Where do you get a pablano big enough to stuff a crane breast into?


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

When I first started crane hunting I thought; "geeze, that's got to be easy. I'll just sneak up and shoot them" Wrong. Cranes are migratory birds so you have to use non-toxic shot and I think they know what the range is for steel shotshells. :grin: And you can't use a rifle. Which seems odd; I mean it's game management. What difference is it if you take one off a farmer's wheat field with a 12 gauge or with a 17 hmr? Anyway, I changed from steel shotshells to Hevi-Shot and don't have any problem up to 70 yards; as good as lead, maybe even a little better.

Some hunters sneak up on them and my hats off to you. Sandhills are a very wary bird indeed.

I hunt on private property usually less than a mile from Utah. I normally use crane decoys and a crane call, although I'm not a very good caller. At first I didn't use decoys and my sucess rate was about 66%. With decoys it's 100%. I find crane hunting to be challenging and exciting. There is an early goose hunt and doves are open during our brief crane season, adding more opportunity and some variety to the hunt.


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## Pumpgunner (Jan 12, 2010)

I've never really considered chasing cranes but this thread has changed my mind, I think I'll start putting in for them this year. Sounds like too much fun to pass up!


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## tigerpincer (Dec 5, 2009)

LostLouisianian said:


> Where do you get a pablano big enough to stuff a crane breast into?


I bought mine at Smiths I believe. Its not something they carry all the time but they were big enough to make work. The pepper didn't completely close up once stuffed but that's all good.


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## Dave Adamson (Sep 13, 2007)

I put the sneak on this one last year on the north end of cutler


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Dave Adamson said:


> I put the sneak on this one last year on the north end of cutler


 That thing is huge! nice picture

.


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## Dave Adamson (Sep 13, 2007)

I decided to piss off my taxidermist friend and had it mounted.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Dave Adamson said:


> I decided to piss off my taxidermist friend and had it mounted.


whoa!!

They are full of pin feathers during our crane season.

.


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## outdoorser (Jan 14, 2013)

Big ole bird there, Dave. Nice job


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