Just wondering if anyone has any tips, I havent seriously targeted them yet but recently bought a primos old crow, crow call to try out and was wondering if anyone had any tips on calling them, and if anyone has had experiance in using deacoys to bring em in closer. Just trying my call out they seemed to come within about 50-60 yards but not quite close enough for the shotgun to whack yet.

Most of my crow shots are out on the farm at a few hundred yards range. However, a couple of friends come over from time to time and use 2 different e-calling units set up along the south side of the woods. They use a use a couple of down trees that are about 50 yds out in the pasture and just beyond the crest of the hill from where the crows are approaching, as a blind. I've been in on a couple of these shoots and it's amazing how fast these guys can smoke a bunch of crows. Crows seem to come from miles around. Yes, they do put out a few decoys and sometimes a plastic owl on a fence post just to really aggravate them. It seems like once a few crows are down that the shooting really picks up for a while! 5-gallon buckets full of shotgun shells have been consumed on some of these outings!

i shoot most of my crows with a 17hmr our of the bedroom window when the bas--ds wake me up about 5 am. I believe snoring might be the best crow call

We always used to shoot a few, stick sticks up their butts to prop them up to use them as decoys.

Use the fighting crow call; it's absolutely amazing how they will just circle while you unload....

Thanks for the tips I will do my best to put them to good use.

Now that the ducks are mostly gone south the crows are looking tastier and tastier.

So far I have mostly watched gut piles with a rifle from 100 yards or so, but id like to get some more wing shooting in with my 12 guage this year.

Crows and Owls are deadly enemies. Set an owl decoy up and a crow in distress call. Before you know it you'll be shooting them out of the sky with a shot gun.

Keep a road kill gut pile stationed on the edge of the property and there will be all kinds of critters on it.

I've never eaten crow!

If there's a dump within a reasonable drive and land nearby open to hunting that's where you want to go.

quote:

Originally posted by Bernie P.:
If there's a dump within a reasonable drive and land nearby open to hunting that's where you want to go.

Exactly.

As kids we used to shoot them around a dump just north of town. Kinda hunted them like ducks and even helped train the retreiver I had at the time not to break on the shot (long leash around my waist that stopped him cold when he broke).

We would gather tumble weeds for a blind and when we saw some passing, started calling with our hand calls. Just like when hunting ducks, we learned a lot about communicating to them by listening to what they did. After shooting a few, jamming sticks up'em to prop them up for decoys, the shooting really gets hot. The distress or fighting crow call makes them circle in a tornado shape. They call back.

I have silent super 8 video of my best friend and I hunting and a lot of good kill footage!

Thanks for posting. It brought back those memories!....

Lessons from years of shooting crows.
1) Owl decoys on fence posts or visible from some point are valuable!!
2) about a dozen of the generic crow decoys placed in proximity to the owl is good
3)Electronic (old Johnny Stewart cassettes still work) "crow and owl fight" or any distress crow sounds work.
4) Use of mouth callers in conjunction with the electronic calls just adds realism to the scene
5) #5 and #6 shot (1.5oz) loaded over about 33.5 grains of LONGSHOT will reach out and touch a bird!!
6) Above load from a Full or Modified(my personal choice) at close range can make the crow seem to move "backwards" in the air with a direct hit!
7) For some real S's&G'S, have your little 15 year old hunting buddy steal his Daddy's 3.5" copper plated turkey loads and shoot a crow that must have been 70 yards out.........AND KILL IT!! And you ask him, "Issac!! What kind of shell did you just shoot!!!???? "My ears are ringing!!!"............."It was Daddy's"!!
8) You need to give a few days rest(week is plenty) between set ups at same place.
9) Crows multiply really fast!! Shoot one and 6 more come to his funeral!!
10) Crows count "2 for 1" when counting varmint hits(groundhogs) during normal varmint seasons!
11) NO!!! That 371 groundhog kills from me and chuckmusher this past year only was for groundhogs!! Chuckmusher made the only crow kill(pictured in the forum somewhere)on our outings.
Enjoy the feathered black varmints!! Hope your shoulder gets black and blue!! More fun than "eatin beans"!!! GHD