I need some expertise on crow behavior. Can anyone tell me if I can drive off a large group of crows that use a couple large maple trees in my backyard. I have killed two in the last two days with a pellet gun, and when I do they raise holy hell for a few minutes and are scare for the rest of the day. I started by just knocking some feathers out of them, but they didn't go away so I started pumping the pellet gun up to max to take the gloves off. Short of a full attack with a rimfire and shotgun, can I make them choose a different gathering place? I can't use anything that will make any noise because I am well within city limits, and must be discreet with the pellet gun as well.
These birds act like they have never been shot at before and havn't learned alot of the behavior that wary crows are famous for, I am willing to do anything short of involving the local law enforcement community. Any suggestions?
I am on a mission.

Crows are a protected species during the spring and summer. So be careful with the law the nosey neighbors. Since your using a "gun" you don't want a patrol car in your driveway.

You might try a sling shot and keep at it. At some point they may move on if you make your place less fun than another for them.

Now if they are roosting there at night that would get to me. The noise in the morning in particular. I have this marine flare gun with a lot of practice rounds to shoot off! Not having done this of course myself to seagulls or any thing but that would send them into permanent orbit with a flare going off while they sleep!

[ 04-26-2003, 23:11: Message edited by: Savage99 ]

I am surrounded by houses and would feel uncomfortable lofting marbles with a wrist rocket, as that would break windows or injure people when they came down, as to the the flare gun, I have a 15mm pistol that is made for scaring birds off, but the "whistler" ammo would certainly garner too much attention, and yes they roost close by and the noise is what is getting to me first thing in the morning. I may be out of luck, I just tatered another one and the crows returned within minutes. It looks like I need something that will work without shooting at them. Ribbons, decoys, or poision, if I can make sure that the crows are the only thing that get the bait. Help

Just harass them. Just like preventing burglury you make your place harder to get at.

You could lay spotlight on the ground under at tree and plug it in late at night. Or just walk back there in the evening. Crows roost early so that would bother them.

Don't use poison. Some Peta rat will turn up somehow.

Someone told me once that if you hang your pelletgun kills in the tree where they roost that they will get the hint, I haven't tried it so I dunno.

good luck,
Ruger #1

Ruger#1 is correct. This does Work. Also,let the crows see you with the pelletgun after you nail one. That will also help educate them. They are not dumb and can figure things out fairly quickly. Fred

low-tech

Buy some Beeman Silver Jet magnum pellets. They are expensive but accurate and very effective. When I lived in an urban area I killed numerous crows with my RWS 45 in .177 with these pellets.

Why try to frighten them away when they provide you with live target practice? West Nile?

Shoot a few and hang them in the tree. It will only take a couple hanging corpus delicti to educate the rest. Crows detour my house by at least a quarter mile.

If you want quiet try the Aquila Super Colibri .22 rounds. No powder just the primer and a 20 grain .22 pellet. These things are silent. I think they make less noise than a pellet gun. All you hear is your firing pin and the pellet hit. That is if you need more power than your pump up gun. These are like 500 fps.

Don't know about the dead crow in the tree thing. Shot one a couple years ago and it stuck up in the tree. Came back a couple of hours later and there were three or four more crows eating their my now fallen comrade. Just my .$02 worth. And I got one of them too!

just an update, after the forth crow in less than a week, crows have become somewhat rare within a hundred yards of the house, as a matter of fact, when I leave the house and there is a crow within sight, he calls a few times(warning?) and takes off. I got the last one from inside the house at 5 in the morning, after that don't see them at all in the two trees that I have been shooting into, I guess that takes care of that. As a bonus I ordered a left hand Savage bolt for the Agulia supers that were next on the list. The supers were too loud out of my Ruger MarkII pistol 5"bull barrel. Always good when you find a good excuse to buy another gun(as if I need it).
thanks for all the replies
JLS

Jacobite, could you please tell me where i can get the Super Colibri 22 Rounds? I have been using the CCI CB Longs.Not sure what weight they are but they Chrono at 730fps. Those Super Colibri's sound perfect. Thanks Don.

I just unleashed the savage bolt action with aguila supers and 4 crows in just a few minutes, that doubled my output for a week with the pellet gun. longest shot was the first one, 35 yards, open sights. What I can't believe is how quite this setup is!! My girlfriends dog is super sensitive to loud noises, or noises of any kind, I could shoot it within feet of him and he doesn't care. After my initial sucess the crows had returned, I picked up my savage last night from "the Wall Mart" and after a few test shots in the garage into a phone book, I was all ready to go. What a perfect setup for crows, as quick as they learn I wouldn't be suprised if they don't avoid my house by a long ways. Here's to hoping.
JLS

ps savage mark II LH, everything just ok, the magazine is very sloppy when inserted in the gun, but what do you want for 130 bucks? it's like shooting a high end pellet gun, but quiter, and quicker

I have killed crows with 22 stingers and 12 ga shotguns, and that is the easy, but noisy way.

Killing a crow with a .177 pellet gun takes a head or neck shot.

The 22 rounds with so little powder that the there is no super sonic gas ball when the bullets escapes from a long barrel have too much trajectory for me to hit the crows.

Shooting crows from a blind in the garage works for me with a benchrest setup pointed at a pile of grain in driveway. I have a patio type lattice with the muzzle poking through. I just sit on a chair in the garage reading a book. Crows are smart. They will learn to avoid your house.

[ 05-10-2003, 21:31: Message edited by: Clark ]

The aguila rounds are very quiet but foul my barrel pretty bad. I push a dry patch through my barrel every four or five rounds. This seems to help overall long term accuracy; but the first shot will be about 1/2 in high @ 15 yds. I have a 45 ft range and shoot "a few" aquilas. As an aside; mounting an inexpensive red dot gives more dusk and dawn time.

Low-tech: How about hanging an Owl decoy in plain sight of the tree and also hanging a dead Crow in less plain sight of people but clearly in view of the flying/roosting Crows.
Having investigated countless Crow Homicides in a big west coast city I might advise you to gather any fallen Vermin and put them in a sealed bag and dispose of them ASAP not in YOUR garbage can but in the garbage can down at the 7-11! If you get my drift!?
I hope you can get to sleep in sometime soon!
Good luck.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Old&Slow

I don't do a high volume of shooting, but it is a messy round.
I have succeded in getting rid of most of them, but there is one, he is my bane, I have marked him with a poorly place shot, a hole in his right wing I can see everytime he flies over me an calls, and calls, and calls. He won't shut up. At first light I sneak out of the house, before any concerned citizen is likly to be around, he sees me, I don't shoot. He laughs. I bbq, he mocks me, my neighbors know when I leave before I start my car, he sits in a tree down the street and watches, all day, don't they have to eat?
I have done foolish things, in my youth, but I'm am old enough to keep myself out of trouble, right? I have a plan, but it is risky, if the local police get a "man with rifle call" they will not be amused. I could do a drive by, but it is only one crow, I would being willing to a cease fire, if only he would shut up, is this karma? Is this crow like the "Raven" of Edgar Allen Poe? Come to remind me of my misdeeds? He is under my skin and there can be only one.
JLS

VarmintGuy, good advice, to quote (insert any B gangster movie) "they will never find the bodies"

Maby pop a screen the night before,,and leave the window open in antisipation,Has cured a bunch of pests for me in the past,,before I went goofy and got married.Good luck,,Clay

claybuster

wish I would have thought of that before I shot it's a rental, besides replacing these screens needed to happen anyway, they are ratty.

But seriously, this SOB is on to me, I can't get out of bed he doesn't know it, floor creeking or something. All I can say is, this is one lucky crow, he is well within shotgun range, but too noisy. It has been educational though, I can watch the growth of his feathers, as the hole gets closer to the trailing edge of his wing.

I have a new respect for crows, but I will still bust any noisy sucker that I can.
JLS

low-tech,

Crows are very smart it seems. They can learn, they can mimic human speech (my friend who had one as a pet some 3 years ago swears they know when to apply the appropriate phrases!), they can recognize individuals even at a distance (his would fly off for a snack or something and come right back to him even if he'd moved a couple of blocks or more from home.), and, they can hold a grudge (my grandfather had a dog that couldn't go outside without being attacked by his local crows. Apparently the dog had killed a chick that had fallen from a nest a couple of years earlier.).

Have you seen "The Birds"?

YEAAAAA!!!

I got the sucker, with an admititly lucky shot, 60 paces from the base of the tree to my front door. He had "jumped the string" and got about one flap up and the little 20 grain Aguila put his lights up. I put the distance at 60 yards even.

and there was much rejoicing

VarintGuy,
The crow carcass disposal problem is real in the city.

When I lived in the sticks, if crow saw a person 1/4 mile away, he changed his flight path.

Now in the city, the are much braver. I got one in the neck with a .177 pellet and threw his body in a wooded park to return his bio mass. My wife and kids found it and brought it home