# Crow Hunting Techniques



## carpy7b

Maybe I didnt look hard enough, but I didnt see a topic only about crow hunting techniques in general so here it is. It'd be good for newcomers to see such a broad variety of ideas, so if you read this then let us in on some successful techniques you've used. Yeah, that means you, Bob A!

I think a good tip to consider is if you are hunting lots of fields, don't expect the crows to cross it from the other side if you don't have decoys out. They will probably circle the trees on the other side of the field, but it is unlikely that they will fly straight for you. If trees are on your backside you might get them to come from behind, but crows are smart enough to see that something is up when they hear it, but don't see it.

Also, if you see an error in a technique, or have a way to add onto it and make it better, post it!


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## Young'in

www.crowbusters.com all ya need.


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## Bob Aronsohn

Hello Carpy,
Good morning, at least it's morning here in Kansas.

You brought up a good point when you mentioned that crows don't like to cross a big open space before they get into range. The reason isn't so much that they don't like it as much as they have to much time to look things over "before they get into range" and anytime you give a crow a chance to look things over for very long your chances get less & less. The best shot your ever going to get at them is to draw them out over the top of low cover that dosen't exceed 100 feet in height. Now you can kill them quite handily quite a bit higher than that but my style of crow shooting is to get them in close. This way it makes getting doubles and sometimes triples far easier if they are very close to begin with. If you don't have good cover "surrounding you on all four sides" then it makes your job all that much more difficult! At the very least have good cover out in fromt of you when the birds make there approach.

Bob A.


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## pennsyltucky

Young'in said:


> www.crowbusters.com all ya need.


great except ya gotta pay for it............. no thanks.

heres a good tip for newbs and pro's alike....

when hunting with dekes, make sure u locate any houses or other places where people may be, and DONT put ur decoys between u and that location. idiots like to try hitting crows at a distance with their rifles. u dont want to be in that line of fire.
make sure u set up to the side....... outta the line of stupid ******* fire!!!


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## carpy7b

Bob,

I see what you're talking about when you say that your chances of getting them to come in are less and less when you let them look things over. But let say that you are set up on the edge of a field and crows are circling the opposite side 100 yards away looking for what it is they hear. Do you have any tips on how to get them in, other than decoys?


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## WingedShooter7

dude getting crows to come in is like impossible i called for 20 minutes minutes rests and they hang out at 200 yards or maybe a little more :x

SHoot me a PM somone before the season closes!


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## Bob Aronsohn

Hello Penn,
Everything on Crow Busters is "free" except for the "Members Section" where they have the Advanced Articles.

You can use the Bulletin Board, read all the Beginner Articles, read the hate mail, see photos of all types of Piebald crows in the "Oddities Section" and on and on!

Bob A.


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## Bob Aronsohn

Hi Carpy,
Let us say you are on the south edge of a field that is 80 acres. The trees are at your back and the wind is in the south. If I understand you correctly you want to know how to lure the crows across the field into range because they are just not interested? If this is the case you have two options, 1. if the trees in back of you are not to tall to shoot over I would move back into the trees a hundred yards and call them over the trees. This way they can't see exactly whats going on until they get over the trees! 2. I would let this be my first choice if it were me, I would move to the north end of the field so the crows don't have to cross it. I would pick a spot where I had cover 360 degrees around me. Whenever you can draw crows over trees into your guns it's a very good way to hunt because they don't spot you near as easily as being setup out in the open!

Bob A.


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## FlashBoomSplash

If your not sure were there going to come from ground blinds like the Finisher blind you can sit in the middle of the field. Dig your blind in crows come in slower than geese and that gives them more time to check out the spread before they are in range so camo is important.


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## carpy7b

Bob,

I was wondering, is there a bad way to make a distress call? For example, if you use the wrong tone or variation of tones, is there any chance the crows will see it as an unnatural distress call and not come in? I ask this because today I was just walking a mountain while calling (crows are the only if not one of the few animals you can hunt on sundays in PA) and once i got a few crows fired up, I gave a distress call and they didnt respond the way they usually do. The crows were relatively unresponsive all weekend long, so maybe it was just another bad day. Next weekend is the last couple days of the season until it opens back up in July, so the break in the action will be good for the crows. And I can't wait for those young ones that should come in like nothin'.


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## Bob Aronsohn

Hello Carpy,
A good distress call consists of having a very pleading cadence to it. It is very important to keep at least one hand wrapped around the barrel of your crow call. Your hand position should be towards the back end of the barrel of the crow call, this way you can manmanipulate your four fingers in muting the call at differen't intervels. All this does is control the air flow through the hand call to make it sound more real!

If the crows are unresponsive to your calling it could be that these birds are very call shy or your calling isn't good enough yet to fire em up to come over for a look see. If you can call the young crows with your hand call that is a very good start, you just have to build on that and keep getting even better, the learning curve never ends!

Bob A.


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## pack999

You guys make crow huntin sound hard. I pick up roadkill with a shovel and throw it in the field by our house. I look out the window every once in a while and check on it. Once i see a few crows me and my son go behind the corner of the house. I have an old .22 that i have zeroed in to the exact spot i put the bait at every time. And my son has my 12 guage with cheap target loads in it (no need to waste good shells). I pick the outside most bird and me and my son count down and shoot at the same time. The shotgun usually gets most of them. If not my son gets them while they try flying away. It takes no set up really. It takes 2 seconds to set up and you can hunt the same spot all day. You just check out the window every once in a while. It is that easy. No camo, blind, calls, time, or money required.


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## Gohon

That's not hunting, just baiting and sluicing a bunch of birds on the ground. Decoying and wing shooting crows is a lot of fun and good practice for other types of bird hunting. To be proficient at actually hunting crows it does take camo, calls and some form of blind. If I wanted to sit on the couch and occasionally check the field behind the house I could but personally I'd rather go hunting.


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## pack999

crows and pigeons are nuisance birds. They are loud, ugly, and scare away the good birds like robins and gold finches. I was just saying how easy it is to kill a few crows. I stand in clear view of the birds. They just look at me and continue eating. If i get too close they will fly away. As long as you dont get to close to them they dont care if you are there. They are domesticated, and they see people all the time, they dont care if you are there. Its not like i just kill crows for the fun of it. I use them.


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## pack999

If you want to GO hunting get out and find them on highwires. It is really easy. Just keep walking up to them and once they fly away shoot them. I consider it a form of spot and stalk hunting. Except the crows are to retarded to care if people are there. You can approach a feeding crow within maybe 50 feet in plain view. How close could you walk up to a deer in plain view? I know I sound like some unsportmanlike hunter. I do go hunting for pheasants. I never shoot at them while they are on the ground because pheasants are GAME BIRDS. I guess it is unsporty for 12 year old kids to shoot pigeons up in lofts of barns or in trees with a bb gun too then? When i was young my grandfather gave me a quarter for every crow, blackbird, or pigeon i got with my bb gun. All farmers were happy to get rid of them.


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## Gohon

With all due respect, hog wash. The crows I hunt and I've hunted them for many years cannot be approached in the open any closer than 100 yards before they take to the air. Also, I never shoot anything perched on a highwire which we call electric lines. I don't even shoot towards those wires. Can't think of a better way to put the neighborhood in the dark or get someone electrocuted. And yes I can argue that crows are not stupid as you would have anyone believe. They are one of the most intelligent birds you can match wits with. You either have crows confused with large black birds or you have never hunted them. I suspect the latter.

Maybe you might want to drop in over at crowbusters.com and fill them in on how easy it is to hunt crows. I'm sure Bob Aronsohn over there would be amused at your Iowa crows.


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## pack999

i dont shoot them on the electric wires either unless i am using a bb gun. I also sit on my deck of the house and shoot the crows off of the tree tops with a .22. I have never called a crow, used a decoy, or ground blind and i still have gotten rid of lots of crows. Crows are smart birds, they realize that there are alot of opportunities for food in roadkill. You can approach a crow that is eating within shooting distance.


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## pennsyltucky

pack999 said:


> You can approach a crow that is eating within shooting distance.


right, its that easy.

u can drive by a crow thats eating....... u cannot walk up within 100 yards of one


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## pack999

I have done it before. You can atleast get 1 with a .22


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## Bob Aronsohn

Gohon,

I can tell by the way that Pack 999 writes is just ludicrous. Especially the part about shooting them with a BB gun!

I've shot crows in Iowa and Illinois and they are as smart there as anywhere.

When Pack 999 says he shoots some over bait I'm sure he does pot a few like this with his .22 long rifle. This is his style because it dosen't require any leg work or any real effort on his part. He think's because he kills a few like this is, that crow hunting is easy. This is because he has never really hunted crows!

He is completely clueless about what it takes to shoot crows in good numbers. Scouting an area, securing permission, picking the right spot where you are not out of position when the crows come in. Camo, shot size, choke, not to mention shooting ability and field experience!

Bob Aronsohn


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## pack999

I don't actually go out and hunt crows because they arn't worth my time. If I can't eat them they arn't worth putting much real time and efffort forth. I do bag a few because they are loud and poop all over our deck.


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## brownitsdown

If you can stalk a crow with a gun then you must be invisible. Here in PA the crows are smart and they know when theres a threat. you can drive right next to a crow but you can walk up to it.

i was recentlyout in the feild standing outside my truck listening for crows. i saw 5 land in a tree about 200yds away on a treeline. and i walk around the truck and watched them for a few minutes and shut the truck door and they never budged but as soon as i pulled that gun out they were gone in a second.

so if anyone one has some tips it would be great


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## smallGamehunter

how I shot 5 in one week not a great amount but i wasnt baiting,calling, wearing camo, or even hunting that much, was i would look out and see crows bout 150 yards out in are field so i would grab my old mossberg .22 and bell cral in this little low sopt up to a small hill were a sewer tank was buried and i would shot them off it. I was shotting longrifles and shorts. I hit on at 49 yards with a short. That or i would walk in the timber when then are just starting to roost and slowly mov tree to tree and shot them out of the trees with shorts.


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## clampdaddy

I grew up in a rural farming area called Crowslanding--yeah, we've got alot of crows. I've found that in my hunting spots the crows useually leave thier roosts and fly with the sun to their backs to the orchards or freshly planted fields that they'll be feeding at. I always want the sun in thier eyes when they're comeing into my decoys so I usually set up a couple hundred yards away from the feeding grounds and not directly in their flyway so they have to turn into the sun to come in. Another thing I've learned is that sometimes a big decoy spread isn't realy nesiccary, a crippled crow decoy with an owl right next to it works pretty well. Then again owl decoys seem to only work well for me in the very early morning and late evening. I like to aim the speaker from my electronic call at the ground. It seems to make the sound spread instead of it sounding like twenty crows in a box in the middle of my decoy spread. Anyone who thinks that crows aren't worth hunting has never slamed 60 or 90 of them in a morning with a couple good friends. If you do it right it can be an unbelieveable experiance. Belly crawling to get a shot at a crow with a rifle is an admireable way to take them and is hunting. You probably wont get a whole bunch of them but the stalk is the fun part. Shooting a few off of a gut pile that you watch from the house isn't hunting, it's shooting.


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## clampdaddy

I'm not trying to pick on anybody, I step outside and drill one once in a while with my .17 or .22 mag. I'm just saying good crow hunting has to be earned.


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## cbo36305

The best I ever did killin' them was in a 8 year old pine plantation bordering a peanut field. Lured them in with the electronic call and flat wore them out...and they just kept on coming!! I've never seen anything like it. They couldn't see where the noise was coming from which made them that more intrested. It was unreal.


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## sharpshooter_boss

Hm...I think everybody needs to relax a bit. Everybody has their own version of the sport. Yes, shooting crows off of the manure pile IS a sport. Just not one that alot of hard-core hunters like. I personally like shooting from a distance, but i DO take into consideration where houses and such are located, so that I'm sure not to endaged anyone. And it IS a sport, because there are alot of things that u have to take into consideration to actually score a hit on somethin that far away. Not everybody can do it. Not everybody likes to get up early and sit in the cold calling birds. I don't even deer hunt anymore because I really hate sitting in the cold. lol


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## Estaban

I sgree with sharpshooter-boss. I also think that instead of arguing between each other we should accept different approaches to hunting and save the arguing for teh non-hunters who constantly want to puta cabash to all forms of hunting. Band together hunters and speak with one voice!!!! :beer:


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## Bgunit68

My buddy and I have gone out the past 2 nights and hunted crow. First time trying. I have a FoxPro FX3 with 4 crow sounds on it. We got 12 in about 2 hours on Sunday and 10 last night in about an hour and a half. We get under some low pines on the edge of a field, full camo and play the FX3. The best call by far is the crow fight. I just let it run and stop every now and then just to listen. Any crow withing earshot came over to investigate. The coyotes will eat good this week.


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## OBSESSED

did u shoot all of them in the same spot?


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## Bgunit68

Most. We had only 2 stands. We got 2 out of the one on top of the hill and the rest on the bottom. We got hit with 24" of snow last Friday. I'm not walking all over the woods in that much snow. I think why they're pretty easy is that no one around here hunts crows and there are thousands upon thousands. Plus, we hunt on a dairy farm and when they spread the manure it's like a Golden Corral for crows.


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## Bgunit68

My two friends and I went out Saturday and Sunday. Saturday was the best with about 40. Sunday we got a little less. The two day total was 68. If I can figure out how to get pictures on here I will post them. We hunted out of the same blind on the edge of several very large fields. That FoxPro FX3 was incredible. Most of the time the would just come in. But if we were spotting them out in the field with our Bino's we'd play the wounded crow or the crow fight. The would b line to us. Sunday when we came back. We were shy a few birds. Looks like the yotes had KFC Saturday night. But, I would have to attribute our success to the FX3. If someone would tell me what I need to do to upload the pictures I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.


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## DVXDUDE

wow, I bought a johnny stewart hammin' crow call today and these things work amazing. I'm standing the middle of the bush and i hear some crows over top of me. I call about 4 times on the call and they all start going crazy. sqaukin like crazy non-stop flying in circles directly above me but they couldnt see me. every once in a while one would land and i'd pop em with the .17hmr haha. walk about 100 yards and do it again. Got 7 crows today and about 50 more out there i know of. pretty fun


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## DuckMN

Crows got me to where I am today. They taught me to dress for the weather, hide myself well in a hurry, design a clutch setup based on many factors, and most importantly, shoot under pressure. I kill most of the ducks I do because I crow hunt, and that stupid quartering away shot that pheasants sometimes give me is no longer a nightmare.

Anybody who says crows are easy to hunt has never tried to hunt them over decoys. They are smart enough to ignore farmer brown and his pitchfork, but don't make crow sounds. It's been established by many that crows can tell the difference between a shovel and a shotgun. Add in calls and decoys, now they are suspicious. If you hunt them once over decoys and slay them, try those same birds again in two days. You'll get my point.

If you sit still enough in the right spot to get crows within 10 yards you can shoot any duck or any goose. It's not just crows. If you can outsmart a coyote the deer don't stand a chance. Even if it's not a trophy whitetail or big northern greenhead, you learn something every time you go out. If you keep going after smart game you only improve your own skills.


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## Bgunit68

We use 12 crow decoys and build a blind on the tree line of a field. We're about 200 yards from the flyway. The FoxPro FX3 calls them right to us. The best sounmds are the "injured crow" and the "crow fight". This is last year's photo. I haven't brought my camera out yet this year because the weather has been so messed up. I am the guy on the right. That was 100 lbs ago.


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## polishpheasant

Hey guys, 
Have done tons of research in books and in the field as well and am working on becoming 1/100th of the crow hunter that Bob A. is. Have a question pertaining to one of the new devices I've just acquired.
Just looking for some help here. I recently purchased mojo owl and found it is so small, unlike mojo crow the battery does not go inside but rather has a plug with little alligator clips to hook the battery up outside of the decoy. This seems like alot of extra work, but I love the spinning wing decoys. Any ideas or info on fixing this critter to put a battery inside? 
I need to modify shortly as the 2008 late season begins next week. I'm getting better and all the tips and pointers have me well on my way. The foxpro and decoys help too. Good luck, will post our results after next saturday

appreciate any help, Chef Brad


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## Feather Freeks

The BEST way to hunt crows, is to find their roost, (normally a large stand of white or red pines), sneak in there as quietly as u can, and turn on ur electronic caller. ONLY use the crow in DISTRESS tape or setting when using this tactic. If u use a crow fight tape, with lots of crows vocalizing, they may get suspicious, because their roost is usually quiet. I have killed so many crows this way it's not even funny. they just come tearing through the trees.


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## Bob Aronsohn

DRC,

It is not good idea to shoot directly in the roost because you wise em all up that way. You will kill many more throughout the season if you hunt either the flyways leading to the roost or hunt them in there feeding areas.

Bob A.


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## wolfdog101

I have shot ows on my propperty in Patterson. I sat at the end of my feild at the tree line,with a river on the otherside of the tree line and called them from across the river. Way harder than is sounds.They circle and circle and if you get them pumped up they come over the tree line hugging the tree tops and if you have good camo you can get a couple shots off and use the dead crows as decoys.( Iv proped their heads up with a stick,and it seemed to work pretty good) i all so have one dead crow laying on its stumach with its wings spred with proped up crows surrounding it as if it was an injerd crow being defended by its fellow crows. with alittle caw and dristess call hear and there you can bag a few birds. I have allso learned that after ou down a bird or two you can actually call them back with a distress call. Now it dose NOT work ALL THE TIME,BUT it has worked in the past for me and has helped me bag a few more birds than i would have


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## dfisher

Well, I've had good luck with a hand call by immitating a young crow in distress. Any distress call will get their attention and they love to come and see what's up. You better be hid very well though. I've done most of this in woodlots where I was very well hidden.

Besides that, an owl decoy set out where they can see it will bring them. Fighting caws on the call and maybe a crow decoy will get you some shooting too.

They have very good eyes so not moving and being well camoed and hidden is pretty much a must.

GOood luck, 
Dan


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## Bgunit68

Last weekend we had the best "crow in distress" call you can get. I have a FoxPro FX3 with 20 crow sounds. We use the distress calls most of the time. But the best didn't come from the caller. Right around noon one of the crows we shot earlier stood up and ran away. It got about 50 yards when a large Red Tail Hawk came out of the sky and pounced on it. It let out a scream. Within a minute there were hundreds of crow above it. So we hit our caller. We downed 7 crows in about 5 minutes off that one bird. The Hawks there are getting more and more used to us. We leave all of our crows in a pile just off the edge of the woods. Every time we come in there are one or two just sitting on the pile eating.


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## dfisher

Yeah, I have never done it or witnessed it, but years ago, when my dad and his hunting buddy use to shoot crows...where there were a lot of them around...they would take a winged bird and twist a wing to get him to cry. Really draws them, they said.

I've had good luck with that young crow in distress call too. Sorta sounds like a predator call in a way. Brings them looking for the woundded bird pretty good.

Good luck and great story.
Dan


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## james11

Hello. Im new to crow hunting i was just wondering if anyone had ever crow hunted in the canadian shield (eastern manitoba or western ontario), or any other similar terrain (heavily wooded with high rock ridges). Any tips would be greatly appreciated. thanks. :sniper:


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