Crows, crows, crows

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Lefty SRH

New member
Recently I have gone a little shotgun crazy! I put my shotguns away several years ago and recently found a rekindled flame.
I hear crows out behind my house most mornings. How would one try and call these guys into shotgun range? What sort of call and sequence do you use? Is there a decoy of some sort to use also?
 
when i call crows i have a couple different calls i use - usually "crow frenzy" or a crow fight is my go-to call to get started though. then a crow distress call. i aslo have a single crow sound labeled "orion" on my caller that seems to at least locally get some attention as well.


they're smart as [beeep] and have amazing eyesight, so i find having some kind of decoy out will help distract them from you. i have plastic non-flight decoys that i use... usually i'll put something on the ground right in front of my decoys (one or several both work) as if they're there interested in it already.

i also recommend hiding if possible - if you have a clearing, set your decoy's up there, and hide just in the treeline, etc. around me the crows are educated by someone - if they see you point anything even remotely resembling a gun at them they usually bail - quick like. about 75% of the crows i've taken have been from some kind of cover, or from a quick step out from cover to do some shotgun work on one circling closely overhead.


once in a while i even get lucky and have a dumb one that will actually land on the ground or a low bush and can actually be shot with a rifle.

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i was coming from looking for groundhogs over by the barn with my ar when i walked around the corner and caught this fella sitting in the bushes at the edge of the swamp behind the house looking away from me. a 55gr vmax at 75 yds hollows them out pretty well.

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They are a natural enemy of crows for water ever reason. One of those plastic crow decoys(realistically painted ones) used for scaring pigeons and wood peckers has worked in the past very well for me.
 
Go to a store with a large gardening department and buy a plastic owl. I set the owl up and a couple crow decoys higher than the owl. I like to call in an area that is surrounded by with good cover. My experience is they will come in just over tree top level if it is an opening in thick cover. Seems they tend to circle more at a higher level if it is an open field. They get educated fast.
 
I like to freak out my wife while hunting in a box. Going crazy with a rabbit distress call will call in a bunch of crows if they can't see you. Pick the ones off in the trees first.

 
Maybe its time to start checking out the assisted living options. I meant owl decoy yet typed crow twice. [beeep].
 
I shot a few rounds of skeet this past saturday with a guy that crow hunts. He told me you have to kill the first few birds that come in or else they fly off and warn the others. Is this true? I feel like he was yankin my chain......knowing Im green and all.
Lol
 
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A really good resource for crow hunters is the website called "crow busters." Just add a dot.com and enjoy.
 
If you have access to an ecaller, Try this no CROW calls at all.. Use nothing but hawk screams.. The crows respond recklessly and don't wise up as fast
 
Originally Posted By: lowtempguruIf you have access to an ecaller, Try this no CROW calls at all.. Use nothing but hawk screams.. The crows respond recklessly and don't wise up as fast

I'm going to try that. Sounds like one heck of a curve ball to throw at the semi-educated to educated crows around here.

How 'ya doing lowtemp? Well I hope.
 
hmm... the only hawk sound file i have is a crow and hawk fight.


anyone got a good hawk scream they care to share? pm me if you do
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Well, I got my first crow today! Man, I can see this tunring into another hunting addiction. We stood about 2-3 rows inside a corn field. I only have two decoys right now but they seemed to work. Twelve more are on the way, lol.
It took a little calling to get them to come in but they kinda snuck up on us! A small group of them were close to us but we never heard them call to us, only the distant one would answer.
Nonetheless we both had fun and pln to try again once the "flock" arrive on the brown bus.
 
We don't have enough crows to become any kind of expert or even experanced. I have read of guys saying when you attract several the first one or two are scouts and you have get them or your about done at that spot. The single best call I ever used was an old Johnny Stewart baby crow in distress cassette
 
Funny you mention crow distress today. I was helping a friend pattern his shotgun in my backyard when I recognized (by sound) a crow in distress in the neighboring pasture. I couldnt see exactly what was happening but it sure sounded interesting.
 
Originally Posted By: Lefty SRHRecently I have gone a little shotgun crazy! I put my shotguns away several years ago and recently found a rekindled flame.
I hear crows out behind my house most mornings. How would one try and call these guys into shotgun range? What sort of call and sequence do you use? Is there a decoy of some sort to use also? I've got a Fox Pro Shockwave that had a pre-programmed "dying crow" sequence on it. That works really good around here.
 
I use fox pro's "Dying Crow" also!! I can not even see crows and that sound pulls them in and make them crazy!! If you have not tried it I highly recommend it!!!!
 
Originally Posted By: viperI use fox pro's "Dying Crow" also!! I can not even see crows and that sound pulls them in and make them crazy!! If you have not tried it I highly recommend it!!!!

I live right in the middle of town and of course it's not legal to shoot here. We have a lot of crows and it looks like a free barbecue behind a tractor plowing a field of night crawlers when you run the 'dying crow' call. Imagine this , I can take the caller out the back door and turn it on just to demonstrate to friends what it does, within just a few minutes the trees around the house are full of crows, easily 200 plus and more still looking for a limb to land on. I've done the same thing, but with less crows, at a couple of friends houses that are out in the boonies. I've switched to different crow calls that are on the Shockwave and haven't got near the response that the 'dying crow' brings in. If you don't get them with that one there just aren't any around
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Originally Posted By: Lefty SRHI shot a few rounds of skeet this past saturday with a guy that crow hunts. He told me you have to kill the first few birds that come in or else they fly off and warn the others. Is this true? I feel like he was yankin my chain......knowing Im green and all.
Lol

You may be just a little green but It sounds like you are learning fast. The guy that told you about the crows warning the others is NOT yanking your chain. The first one or two crows are Scouts as others told you. Yes they will tell the others and you will not see them anymore. You can also educate them very quick. The crow decoys are great and I have even done this: Take a black nylon sock like Old men wear, and stretch it over a clothes Hanger. Then shape the hanger to mimick some wings and hang them in branches and set them in front of an Owl. I have even used red food coloring mixed with Karo syrup for a real looking Kill. ( even did the ketchup once) If the crows see this, and you have it looking like the Owl has got a crow, and you are calling the distress call, then you got the makings of a big bunch of Crows coming to the rescue. Don't kill the sentry at first,,, let them call the others to the rescue. You have to see this. When you get bombarded with 50 plus crows, it gets exciting and fast and furious. They will light in the trees, and start calling, or barking so to speak at that Owl, trying to scare it off.
The crows have somewhere between 27 and 31 different calls and syllables. They are smart. This is also part of what makes it so addictive. Trying to out smart them, Getting some kind of blind is a big help for you. I really like #6s cranked out to 1400 FPS or my 17 and have used a 22-250 for the long shots. 40 grainers screaming at 4000 FPS hammer them.
The Hawk is just about a whistle. But it works too. If you can shoot a Sentry or Scout then you can call a distress and use the Hawk call. Sooner or later you will have to mix up the game so that they do not become so educated that no matter what kind of calling you do, they will not respond. Good Luck !!! Oh for some wild shooting you might be able to look up crow shooting on Kansas. On the West end of Kansas is some of the heaviest bird concentrations I have ever seen.
 
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