I've just started trying to kill crows for depredation reasons in my family's orchard. I bought a J.S. caller that came with a Crow Reveille tape. A friend let me borrow his decoy heart with crow sillouhette. I hunt them about three times a week after work for about an hour. The first week, I would get about 15 crows overhead very soon after starting the caller and nail a couple of them with a 12 gauge. The second week the number of crows dropped considerably, but I could still get them to come in. The third week, they had gotten smart and would not come in. I ordered up three crow decoys, one Owl decoy, and a crow fighting owl tape. They will come to this, but seldom come low enough for a shot, and when they do get low, they make one pass and bail, while the high crows will hang around for quite awhile.

I'm trying to get rid of enough of them that my father-in-law will not resort to poison that could get to my dogs. Not to mention, I'm starting to feel like the damn birds may be smarter than I am. I'm looking for advice or suggestions as to what I may be doing wrong, any help will be much appreciated.

"Death Cry of A Crow" is THE crow tape,bar none.

Swap to a 22lr with CB caps in it(I dig a 39A due to it's capacity and accuracy),employ the dekes and allow yourself a good hide. You can slick up the whole outfit in possibly one setting that way.

Be sure to bust them hard,if a cripple peels out,the rest will folow him and the jig is up.

The stealth of the CB's report,the new tape,a coupla good decoys and a good hide, will allow you to really put a hurt on them.

Wish I was there!.................

Check out www.crowbusters.com for some other good tips! Good luck,Clay

Try looking at a crow trap. See some of the other post about crows in small game hunting.

Johan

knightcrawler00

I am in the Tri-Cities, and I have an aunt and uncle with an orchard, vineyard in North Prosser, PM for a technique that will not endanger your dogs.

knightkrawler00

I see this forum doesn't have the private message function, got it confused with other forums I use, sorry. The technique is to soak split peas or other suitable bait in water to soften, and instert a small stiff peice of wire, when injested the wire will pierce the crop and kill the birdy. This will kill any bird that eats it, so you must control what eats it, you don't want to just scatter them around the landscape, I suggest feeding the crows for a few days with cornbread or whatever, until you have a spot you can predict, and then salting the ground with a few(dozen) of the peas with wire. I read this in a book callled "Bushcraft" it was a book on surviving in the Australian bush, I have not tried it. It could be that crows are too smart to fall for something like this...but it is a possibility that won't kill your dogs.

It may not be as much fun as shooting them, but if it works, it will be more effcient, and I have seen how many crows you have up there, clouds of hundreds, or thousands it seems, all over the place. They are especially hard to get to when they raft up in the middle of a hop field.

Johan, the traps you speak of, I have used them and never got a crow inside of one, although they work very well on magpies.

In case anyone is wondering, these birds, in numbers can and do damage crops signifigantly, and the cherries are what we are concerned with in the near future.
JLS

Thanks for the replies. We do have the traps, and I've had the same experience, lots of magpies and no crows. I have been using my 223 for about a week now, hopefully they will forget about the calls after awhile and start coming back to them. I've looked at crowbusters, good information, but I havent bought a membership yet. I think I'll try some more decoys and see if they come better with more "birds" on the ground and in trees.

I killed 86 in one setting with the CB caps and over 100 multiple times,though it required a hide move and altered setup.

You'll freak out on the effectiveness of the stealthy load(at least I did!)................

Big Stick

How do you cover your movement in the blind? how much camo is required for those sort of results? Do you use electronic calls? There are lots of shooting opportunities in Central Washington, and if you are on a farm, legal.

As with any critter,concealment can never hurt results.

After you get to playing with them for awhile(practice on a couple "herds"),a guy can pretty much coax them into any desired shooting lane and that type of control works to aid the concealment factor.

Just like Ducks coming into dekes,you want to present a ripe opportunity they can't ignore,while keeping as much control of the situation you can. To keep from getting Pearl Harbored by some sneaky backdoor bastard. My focal point is to get them ALL.

I like a good camo covering that matches the surroundings(fleece my favorite,though I doubt it truly makes a shit) and look to put myself in the underside of some heavily limbed trees that has the shade in my favor,so the shadows again aid in my concealment. That means they are coming at me with the sun at my back and in their eyes,while focused on an appealing sound("Death Cry of A Crow" or bust IMHO and that's a JS offering). All of that offers more concealment cushion(see a trend there?!!?).

I generally Hunt just a few dekes and they needn't be fantabulous recreations,but rather something for them to focus on while I'm taking them out. Cardboard silhouettes painted flat black,suspended on 6lb Maxima Chameleon dangling in the limbs above me,just might work well(grin). It only takes a couple,to get the required attention.

The electronic call is the key,as again it aids concealment because a guy isn't dicking around with unwanted movement on a hand call,when he should be shucking shells and putting a good lick on them.

I favor a scoped sighted 39A and CB shorts,because that is the most firepower a guy can get,while being stealthy(noise). She'll hold enough to wipe out 25 or better in the first wave,before a reload. Again,that saves movement,which ='s concealment. No trick to stealthily work the lever next to one's person,to hide that movement and do so rapidly.

So I don't really go building a blind,as I let the circumstances dictate my hide. I believe in getting low in the shadows and having an opening they can land in,directly in front and above me.

Often the range is under 20' and it is hard not to do well in those circumstances(grin). Shit really starts happening,when you have some open ground and the dead ones can be seen from the air. A guy can't load fast enough and I sometimes tote a brace of 39's,because it is all about numbers and being methodical before the jig is up. A 2.5x scope suits me,because a guy can stretch out and bust one in a key location,to give them another visual on the ground in order to again keep focus away from me.

You do NOT want a cripple getting away,or they'll follow him oftentimes and the jig is then largely up. No point educating something,when you can kill it. That'd be a good train of thought.

If Hunting farm land as you touched upon,then I would do some scouting and thinking,long before I fired the first shot. In that situation I'd again be looking for a tree to call from(hardwoods are great,coniferous stuff, a smidge tougher to work with)and focus on the setup,as that is what will make you or break you.

I like the call itself,just a little in front of me and on the ground. They will focus short of my hide and on the dekes,as well as the sound,that leaves much in my favor.

Other than that,there ain't much to it. I used to have a pretty good hard-on for Crows and spent a little time scratching that itch(grin).

Your mileage may vary,but that approach never left me wanting. Good Hunting................

Geez Stick,

And here I thought the .375 H&H was your chosen weapon for crow elimination. Your 39A just couldn't be as spectacular as the big bore for taking out noisy black flying objects. I would vouch for the effectiveness of your choice of tapes, though. Nothing beats "death cry of a Crow" for sheer attraction. (grin)-

No flies on the 6-bits for taking the fight outta an annoying sqawker now and again. But for heap big body count,the 39 is my favorite tool of the trade and I've tried most them in the pursuit of "perfection".

Satisfaction can only come in smoking the whole outfit,in one setting. I guess it's a numbers game for me?!!?

Get that 223AI barking with some 40 or 50 V-Max and it is rather impressive vehicle for launching high speed black-feathered debris in spectacular fashion(grin)......................

Stick,

I'm getting very close. The stock is ready for bedding (finish can come after sage rat season). Brass is prepped, primered, and ready for powder 'n pills. Just have to mount a scope and drag Spike out to Eastern Oregon for an old fashioned showdown. On top of that, I've been seeing an awful lot of crows and Rock chucks in Central Oregon the last couple weeks.
Guess I'll have to try some of them V-max's. Since I have ready access to Nosler, I've been buying up all the Factory seconds 40 Gr. Ballistic tips I can. They sure shoot good in the 22-250, guess I'll find out how they do as fire forming loads in the AI. Maybe this weekend. I'm thinking a full house .223 load should form that brass just fine, especially if the pills are just kissing the lands a bit. Bought a couple of pounds of H335 just for the purpose. What do you think? - Bob