Wanting to go after some Sandhill Crane, whats your best advice for someone thats never been before? If you recommend a guide, who have you had a good experience with? If you would vote public land, where and why? not a Newb to hunting but never hunted sanhills beofe and have no specialized gear for it.

Nothin??

Pretty expensive to get into with decoy prices, I would book a couple of hunts to see how you like it. I can’t think of any public land that would have a huntable amount of birds. If you get your own gear be ready to drive and knock on doors and be told no 95% of the time.

Agreed with the above, I would book a guide a few times. The tricky part can by getting a group together. Most guides want 6-8 hunters.

You need to pattern their flight paths to be successful, or find where they are actively feeding. if you're not very experienced, a guide will definitely help you out the first few times. They are a really tough bird. Body shots are good for a lot of feathers and wounded birds, but not many birds harvested. Pattern your gun and really try for head and neck shots. Since you can shoot lead shot for them here, I like Super XX copper plated 2's. Kills them stone dead. Big mature birds are like dropping a deer out of the sky!!!

Call Tejas Waterfowl
Lubbock TX
Shane will take care of you and possibly put you with another group if it’s just yourself
Give them a call I have hunted with the owner in Arkansas and West Texas.

This is great info. Thank you!

Thank you very much, ill be calling him!

Thank you for the info! I really appreciate it.

Good to know, Thank you.

Thanks for the input. I appreciate it!

West Texas is best location to hunt. Don't use dogs as they will kill them.

Definitely go with a guide or friend who has experience. Final Decent out of Lubbock is who I recommend.

You need access to a lot of land and/or be willing to put in a lot of miles and hustle to get permission from farmers. If you can get the property, you then are looking at a good chunk of change to get decoys, blinds, trailer etc

If you can get a few guys to go in together it makes it more feasible.

You can use dogs, just use common sense. If your dog is trained and controllable, just don’t send them on cripples. Lots of guys use the goggles to protect their dog’s eyes.

I've gone with Open Plains Outdoors the last 2 years. Hunted 3 days with them back in January. Two days were very good and one day was pretty slow. They will do layouts or sit down blinds, your choice. The layouts usually see more action, but I can't shoot worth a darn from them so I go with the sit down blind unless the location demands a layout.

I shoot a 12ga with 3 inch #2 steel and Mod choke. We always use steel in case the geese decide to make an appearance. No geese this year but last year we killed a bunch along with the cranes.

I have never hunted them, but they just look like big dove to me...

I have never targeted Sand Hills for a specific hunt but killed several while hunting geese and others at the hunting lease when their flight path crossed the lease usually flying low enough for a pass shooting situation for those last few #5 lead turkey loads worked very well breaking the necks on cranes just like it does on turkey,

Word of advice from the first goose hunting outfitter I hunted with "treat the heads like a dove" on shooting, breaking the neck on goose, crane and turkey is a great way to take these birds.

Maybe try a sand hill crank mojo.

I meant to say crane, and not crank. Dam I really messed that joke up.

i would love to go on one of these

my advice will be take your first time and go with a reputable guide or outfitter. One of the longest running guides out there is Crane Wreckers in Oklahoma. He runs about six dozen full body mounted birds. we’ve hunted with him three or four times and we shot them with 410s.

If you wanna start doing it on your own, it is a little cost prohibitive. An 18 pack of deception or equivalent full body decoys will run you 1500 bucks. That doesn’t even start to include the cost of getting access to a property that has them unless you know someone who does. we did it with three dozen silosock decoys for several years and never had any trouble killing birds, but they definitely decoy the full body decoys a lot better. if you have access to good real estate with cranes or know someone who does it makes sense to get your own rig. If you don’t, then just go once or twice a year with a guy it’s a lot cheaper.

we hunt them every year in South Texas and Mexico and in all honesty they’re not real tough to hunt. Go watch them the day before and see where they are feeding and be set up there in the morning. Pretty important to have an A-frame type blind, with really good natural cover and head cover to stay hidden. A lot of people shoot them in their traffic patterns, but it’s a lot more fun to shoot them over decoys as they are landing.