Crow hunting.....

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Hawking

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I see very little on this here.....does no body hunt them much?

After a few years of hunting with a shot gun along flyways and chasing them with falconry birds, I am going to try the rifle this year.

I was reading old articles about folks of yesteryear using lure birds and picking them off with a rifle..........it make sense to me. Being so far from the attraction there is less likely hood of them catching on to what is going on and more opportunity to shoot.

The plan is to use an owl decoy to attract them and then have at em from a good 100 to 150 yr away. The original thought was to use a live owl, put out behind a bullet proof backstop, in a open area, with no close trees. The crows would tend to perch on the top of the backstop and ground area around the owl, giving lots of good, safe and open shots using the ground(based on angle of shooting from raised area) to catch the rnds. I am not sure on the legality of using the live owl yet. I expect it should be legal as crows are not considered game animals and there is no prohibition according to falconry regs but obviously I would finalize the legality before trying it.

So guys, surely there must be other crow hunters out there.....give up your tricks of the trade. Some say they are a waste of a good bullet but I think they are worth every bit as much effort to chase as anything else, if nothing else you do conservation a favor.
 
I guess it depends where you are from, we mostly have Raven here and they are protected. Hunting them comes with a hefty price tag, not one I would want to pay. Not sure how it works ells where in Canada.
 
We are opportunistic crow hunters. We used to just shotgun them when they came to our walnut trees but now it is much more fun to use the .243 when they are out in the field at 100 to 200 yards. We have a mountain backstop on the property, so we have no background issues. It is good practice and they provide more opportunities than the local coyotes. It is just too bad that they haven't been in the safe part of the field for a few months. Oh well, spring will be here soon.
 
My favorite time of year is coming up. Crow/raven hunting in the calving pens.

We use shotguns and hunt them in the farmyard around the cows. The best method is for one guy to circle way around and the next guy to scare them over you. Of course, they're really smart so it doesn't work out everytime, but usually we get around 6 a day each. If we use a rifle and take the long range ones out, they tend to leave the yard completely for the day so you can only get one or two a day like that.

Owl decoy didnt work for us, but a MacDaddy call works pretty good if you have a good hiding spot.

Enjoy! Very challenging hunting!
 
Havent actively been crow hunting, But last year during shotgun season and not seeing a deer all morning I broke out my e-caller to see if I could atleast get a shot at a yote. I set Cottontail distress and the crows went nuts.
It was fun getting some shooting in on a relatively boring day.
 
I've always wanted to get one crow ... just to have him stuufed to display him in my house ... but I just can't ... No idea why, but crows are probably my favorite bird and I just can't bring myself to shoot one. One day maybe ...
 
Hawking said:
I see very little on this here.....does no body hunt them much?

After a few years of hunting with a shot gun along flyways and chasing them with falconry birds, I am going to try the rifle this year.

I was reading old articles about folks of yesteryear using lure birds and picking them off with a rifle..........it make sense to me. Being so far from the attraction there is less likely hood of them catching on to what is going on and more opportunity to shoot.

The plan is to use an owl decoy to attract them and then have at em from a good 100 to 150 yr away. The original thought was to use a live owl, put out behind a bullet proof backstop, in a open area, with no close trees. The crows would tend to perch on the top of the backstop and ground area around the owl, giving lots of good, safe and open shots using the ground(based on angle of shooting from raised area) to catch the rnds. I am not sure on the legality of using the live owl yet. I expect it should be legal as crows are not considered game animals and there is no prohibition according to falconry regs but obviously I would finalize the legality before trying it.

So guys, surely there must be other crow hunters out there.....give up your tricks of the trade. Some say they are a waste of a good bullet but I think they are worth every bit as much effort to chase as anything else, if nothing else you do conservation a favor.
Click to expand...

We hunt them quite a bit with elec callers, tried decoys, let us know how u do. Ours r will educated most times we r lucky to get one to fly in and when we stop the vehicle to get a ground shot they fly away before we can get off the road. They r smarter than a yote.
 
The crowbusters site is good. I will try and get some pics up of my birds and hopefully some really dead crows:dancingbanana:.....................
 
Hawking said:
No, infact I am not sure what you mean exactly about joining crowbusters? I stumbled across there site a few years back and appreciated a lot of the info available.
Click to expand...
You can join and gain access to advanced articles and techniques.

Further to your OP. If you want to shoot crows with a centre fire varmint rifle then follow these directions. You must also have an electronic caller preferably with a remote. Place caller in a small group of trees under the tallest dead tree of bare branch. Set yourself up in the shade or some desirable cover at a distance you feel comfortable shooting at. I like 125-150 yards should there be little wind. Rest the rifle with crosshairs pointing at this dead stub (crows always land on the highest point and on a branch with little on no foliage on it). Turn caller on to a fighting crows or dying crow series. Crows will come screaming in and circle for a while until they get tired of looking for all the commotion Soon one or two will land to survey the situation, giving a fine sitting target. Upon shooting they will take off a ways and sometimes a couple will return where this can be repeated...as long as they don't see ya. All safety precautions must be adhered to when shooting above the horizon as well. Good luck with the pink steam.
 
I have shot literally hundreds of Crows with my 222 and my 220 Swift.
They are quite wary, and began to recognize my vehicle.
They would scatter at sight of it, most often landing too far away to shoot.
So I started talking my friends into taking me to areas they frequented.
Works for awhile, but they soon wise up.
They also learn how far away they have to be to be safe from a rifleman.
I would always start with the 222 Remington.
Once they learned what the practical range was, I would change to the Swift.
The extra 200 yards of reach surprised quite a few for the first while.
I'm always anxious for the new batch in the spring..less educated, lol.
Regards, Eagleye.
 
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