Crow height??
- Thread starter Lone Hunter
- Start date
Spring corn planting season is one of my favorite times of years. Have at least a dozen farmers with fields from ten to several hundred acres plant in corn. Once it begins to sprout the crow will often come in hundreds to pluck the sprouts as they pop out of the soil. I am in Northeast Georgia and have mostly your generic American crow which I hunt with 22 Hornets, 223/5.56 (turn bolts and repeaters), 22 Nosler custom built AR 15's, 22-250, 22-250 Ackley Improved, 22 CHeetah and various 6mm's from 243 turn bolts, TAC Six AR 15s, 6XC (in turn bolts and AR 10's) and more.
I am very methodical and spend more money to kill crows than most do taking the family to Disney World. May show up with a Hornet and range card or work from series of blinds using annenometers, pre placed wind flags, laser range finders and military style ballistics tablet to calculate my dope on long shots. Have found if figure 12" from ground crow is standing to top of his head your darn close. Mature males can go 14" to 16" and young females 10" or slightly shorter but twelve inches puts you real darn close and can dope from there if first shot is off.
I usually try to wound one which keeps all in hearing range coming in to help and may have to wound another as first bleeds out. On most fields I hunt the farmers help me keep a blind or three ready to take residence as a serious invasion can force them to do a total replant losing a lot of time and money. Most days in a blind will have at least two turn bolts and one or two repeaters. A 22 Nosler AR 15 will heat up and burn throat out fast if not careful so have a matched set. Same with 22 CHeetah turn bolts. Five shots in short period and better set your CHeetah to side for cool down. Nothing like hitting a crow with a 50 grain bullet running at 3,600 to 4,300 fps based on distance and watching it turn into a mushroom cloud.
Remember to true your muzzle velocity and your bullets B.C. rather than use makers published as there is a varieties from rifle to rifle then adjusting your ballistic computers data for the algorithms to run and it's amazing how much my first round cold bore hit percentages have gone up especially using Tubb Precision Blended Boron Nitride on your projectiles the first cold bore round misses almost are a thing of the past almost totally eliminating a fouling or warming shot to get rifle on its sight in mark.
Apologize if the new guy sounds like he is trying to sound like an expert among real shooters but when found this thread and forum as researching the habits of crow just got excited. Nice to meet you all and hope to learn more from y'all as anything that helps me get another tenth or quarter MOA is just more varmints left to draw in the coyote at dusk....
I am very methodical and spend more money to kill crows than most do taking the family to Disney World. May show up with a Hornet and range card or work from series of blinds using annenometers, pre placed wind flags, laser range finders and military style ballistics tablet to calculate my dope on long shots. Have found if figure 12" from ground crow is standing to top of his head your darn close. Mature males can go 14" to 16" and young females 10" or slightly shorter but twelve inches puts you real darn close and can dope from there if first shot is off.
I usually try to wound one which keeps all in hearing range coming in to help and may have to wound another as first bleeds out. On most fields I hunt the farmers help me keep a blind or three ready to take residence as a serious invasion can force them to do a total replant losing a lot of time and money. Most days in a blind will have at least two turn bolts and one or two repeaters. A 22 Nosler AR 15 will heat up and burn throat out fast if not careful so have a matched set. Same with 22 CHeetah turn bolts. Five shots in short period and better set your CHeetah to side for cool down. Nothing like hitting a crow with a 50 grain bullet running at 3,600 to 4,300 fps based on distance and watching it turn into a mushroom cloud.
Remember to true your muzzle velocity and your bullets B.C. rather than use makers published as there is a varieties from rifle to rifle then adjusting your ballistic computers data for the algorithms to run and it's amazing how much my first round cold bore hit percentages have gone up especially using Tubb Precision Blended Boron Nitride on your projectiles the first cold bore round misses almost are a thing of the past almost totally eliminating a fouling or warming shot to get rifle on its sight in mark.
Apologize if the new guy sounds like he is trying to sound like an expert among real shooters but when found this thread and forum as researching the habits of crow just got excited. Nice to meet you all and hope to learn more from y'all as anything that helps me get another tenth or quarter MOA is just more varmints left to draw in the coyote at dusk....
That’s a big crow!
Don't think they come in some specific height or weight.
No, they are not all the same height but have to work from some sort of average then use personal judgement to determine if looking at an average, juvinial or overly large mature bird. If ranging in a MRAD or MOA BDC scope these judgement calls are important. If use a quality laser rangefinder then size of varmint matters not except does your combined equipment have enough inherent accuracy to hit the chosen target at current range or do you need to call them in closer. Have recently purchased a higher resolution, longer distance rangefinder but previous unit is now my backup keep in truck 24/7 for varmints of opportunity is a SIG Kilo 1600BDX. It does start throwing error at 500 to 600 yards based on reflectivity of target and specs claim 750 yard maximum accurate range on deer. Unless specifically carrying a tack driving rifle capable of better accuracy than my SIG 1600BDX leave the new one at home so reduce risk of damaging it exposed to heat, cold and bouncing work truck.
Building my business is in is 90 feet long or 30 yards. Went to front doorway and kept ranging to rear wall and was sure my range finder was out of calibration as kept giving me a 29.7 or 29.8 yard reading which was frustrating me as reading directions and trying to figure out why I had a two to three tenths yard error in 30 yards till suddenly realized building is 90 feet outside dimension with eight inch concrete walls so punching buttons on calculator determined from standing even with outside of front wall by using open doorway when subtracted the eight inch thick rear wall math came out to 29.777 yards and range finder instructions clearly said it gave readings to closest 1/10 yard. Was not designed to split a 29.7 and 29.8 yard reading but give whichever was closest and when moved back from door jamb just four inches it locked at 30 yards and stayed till moved 14" from door jamb and it hopped to 30.25 yards.
Took same rangefinder to closest football field in the city park where local high school played, set a cone on one goal line, stood on another and it locked on 100.00 yards. From goal post to goal post it locked at 120.0 yards and held stable. First trip to range kept getting 200.5/200.6 yards on the 200 yard range from the official 200 yard line to target stands. Figured I was finally finding some error when range master asked what I was up to and said verifying my new rangefinder and apparently had error showing at their maximum range when he told me the contractor who built range missed the actual measurement 18" as they had measured it dozens of times with different devices and always came out 600 feet 18 inches. From leading edge of shooting benches and target hangers.
My newest rangefinder is a SIG Kilo 2200LRH BDX which claims a 1,300 yard accurate reading in deer and 3,400 yard range on highly reflective targets. Have verified it to being dead on ranging an orange target posted at 500, 600, 1,000 and 1,200 yard line of a range where owner is a miner and serious long range shooter and had his surveyor lay out the placement for benches, range flags every 100 yards and a 500, 600, 1,000 and 1,200 yard line with permanent target holders. Like my riflesmith who has 500 yard range out or his shop and shoots 1,000 yards often, owner of private range am allowed to use when have time to drive to South Carolina (3 hours each way) and he is free both can take my rifles and shoot 30% to 40% smaller groups at 1,000 or more than I am able as just don't get near the practice they do past 400 yards.
Building my business is in is 90 feet long or 30 yards. Went to front doorway and kept ranging to rear wall and was sure my range finder was out of calibration as kept giving me a 29.7 or 29.8 yard reading which was frustrating me as reading directions and trying to figure out why I had a two to three tenths yard error in 30 yards till suddenly realized building is 90 feet outside dimension with eight inch concrete walls so punching buttons on calculator determined from standing even with outside of front wall by using open doorway when subtracted the eight inch thick rear wall math came out to 29.777 yards and range finder instructions clearly said it gave readings to closest 1/10 yard. Was not designed to split a 29.7 and 29.8 yard reading but give whichever was closest and when moved back from door jamb just four inches it locked at 30 yards and stayed till moved 14" from door jamb and it hopped to 30.25 yards.
Took same rangefinder to closest football field in the city park where local high school played, set a cone on one goal line, stood on another and it locked on 100.00 yards. From goal post to goal post it locked at 120.0 yards and held stable. First trip to range kept getting 200.5/200.6 yards on the 200 yard range from the official 200 yard line to target stands. Figured I was finally finding some error when range master asked what I was up to and said verifying my new rangefinder and apparently had error showing at their maximum range when he told me the contractor who built range missed the actual measurement 18" as they had measured it dozens of times with different devices and always came out 600 feet 18 inches. From leading edge of shooting benches and target hangers.
My newest rangefinder is a SIG Kilo 2200LRH BDX which claims a 1,300 yard accurate reading in deer and 3,400 yard range on highly reflective targets. Have verified it to being dead on ranging an orange target posted at 500, 600, 1,000 and 1,200 yard line of a range where owner is a miner and serious long range shooter and had his surveyor lay out the placement for benches, range flags every 100 yards and a 500, 600, 1,000 and 1,200 yard line with permanent target holders. Like my riflesmith who has 500 yard range out or his shop and shoots 1,000 yards often, owner of private range am allowed to use when have time to drive to South Carolina (3 hours each way) and he is free both can take my rifles and shoot 30% to 40% smaller groups at 1,000 or more than I am able as just don't get near the practice they do past 400 yards.
I used to kill them but I don't anymore. They are really smart birds. Gary Gore
Their intelligence is part of what makes them fun to hunt. If just want to hit small objects a long ways away can shoot dirt clods at a big construction site or set soda cans on stumps at a timber cutting site. Have a nephew who loves to ride dirt bikes and on occasion will take him to a 500 to 5,000 acre tract my logging friends are working and on days the mill is closed and they are not cutting give him a backpack of soda cans and plastic bottles which he rides and places them at various distances uphill and downhill from my shooting position.
His goal is to place them where viable but thinks it's an impossible first shot hit without having to dope my miss and take another shot or more. As my technology has gotten better, had better rifles built in newer cartridges it has become quite the game. He usually works as spotter which have told him learning to spot is over half the training needed to shoot long range. That in current sniper teams it's usually the better shooter doing the spotting and calling dope for the teammate squeezing the trigger.
Let him range, judge wind at muzzle, target and if there is a cross wind mid shot that is different than at our location or target. Will also dope the shot myself and then shoot using his dope then let him shoot using my dope. He is usually closer till I shoot using my original call where run a very high percentage of first shot hits. Have really learned how to properly use range finder, annenometer, watch downrange for differing cross wind and put a round from one of my 6XC rifles dead center of a soda can he placed.
He is learning to both shoot and spot and in the process knows spotting is the most important part of the shot. He has really learned if gets angle of shot off 1° in elevation how high or low it can throw a shot and learning to take his time using the range finder to determine precise angle of fall or rise to a shot as well as gauging wind at target visually and not just using number populated from annenometer into shooting algorithm via Bluetooth link. Truing his velocity based on temperature and bullets BC based on rifle, humidity, etc is a big deal past 400 yards. Some day he will be the one who keeps our farm varmint free or highly reduced and teaching his kid to follow.
Amazes me how crow will put spotters in tree line looking for hunters and predators while some members of the flock eat then swap lookouts and flock members in rotation in almost as timely a manner as if had watches and timed guard changes. Many will only have half the flock in field at a time. Especially a field that is actively used by crow hunters.
Why my first goal is to wound a crow as entire flock will go in panic mode trying to rescue the injured and calling bird. Have wounded one, had flocks come in wound more to which more respond and swear at times have had flocks that didn't even know each other flying in on rescue missions. When it goes right and am able to kill a couple dozen or more in a short period of time is very rewarding to me. I feel crow can be the hardest varmint to effectively kill in enough numbers to really help a farmer.
Last spring three friends and I set in on a field that was perfect as sprouts were popping out of the dirt as the sun warmed the earth all day and crow kept coming. All hunters were good long range shooters and with a four man crossfire on this field nobody had over a 600 yard shot unless wanted to take a shot in another person's zone. We use hands free headsets with radios to communicate and that one day we killed so many crow the owner had to use his backhoe to dig a hole big enough to bury them and luckily one of the guys had four dogs that would go clean up areas of large kills when we called cease fires. A farmer who has had entire crops ruined and replanted two or three times sees over 250 dead crow piled at corner of his field is a happy farmer.
We are nothing like these guys who seem to kill huge numbers just to kill.
http://www.10000birds.com/rip-van-winkles-crow-killing-contest.htm
We mostly only crow hunt during corn planting season and then occasionally as it gets close to harvest if one of our farmers has an issue with the birds eating mature corn but it's usually black birds rather than crow doing that and mixed in stalks of mature corn trying to kill the smaller black birds without killing ears of corn ready to harvest is another kind of challenge. I kill any coyote or ground hog I see and can take a safe shot, kill crow over fields and unfortunately looks like aggressive hog killing is going to become necessary as are within 14 miles of my house and are thick in that area which until about a year ago 20 miles north was about a close as we had a problem so we are already organizing fall hog hunts and I have purchased four more thermal and two more Starlight scopes to use as loaners to get enough people out so we can see if it's possible to push this move toward town back into the hills.
His goal is to place them where viable but thinks it's an impossible first shot hit without having to dope my miss and take another shot or more. As my technology has gotten better, had better rifles built in newer cartridges it has become quite the game. He usually works as spotter which have told him learning to spot is over half the training needed to shoot long range. That in current sniper teams it's usually the better shooter doing the spotting and calling dope for the teammate squeezing the trigger.
Let him range, judge wind at muzzle, target and if there is a cross wind mid shot that is different than at our location or target. Will also dope the shot myself and then shoot using his dope then let him shoot using my dope. He is usually closer till I shoot using my original call where run a very high percentage of first shot hits. Have really learned how to properly use range finder, annenometer, watch downrange for differing cross wind and put a round from one of my 6XC rifles dead center of a soda can he placed.
He is learning to both shoot and spot and in the process knows spotting is the most important part of the shot. He has really learned if gets angle of shot off 1° in elevation how high or low it can throw a shot and learning to take his time using the range finder to determine precise angle of fall or rise to a shot as well as gauging wind at target visually and not just using number populated from annenometer into shooting algorithm via Bluetooth link. Truing his velocity based on temperature and bullets BC based on rifle, humidity, etc is a big deal past 400 yards. Some day he will be the one who keeps our farm varmint free or highly reduced and teaching his kid to follow.
Amazes me how crow will put spotters in tree line looking for hunters and predators while some members of the flock eat then swap lookouts and flock members in rotation in almost as timely a manner as if had watches and timed guard changes. Many will only have half the flock in field at a time. Especially a field that is actively used by crow hunters.
Why my first goal is to wound a crow as entire flock will go in panic mode trying to rescue the injured and calling bird. Have wounded one, had flocks come in wound more to which more respond and swear at times have had flocks that didn't even know each other flying in on rescue missions. When it goes right and am able to kill a couple dozen or more in a short period of time is very rewarding to me. I feel crow can be the hardest varmint to effectively kill in enough numbers to really help a farmer.
Last spring three friends and I set in on a field that was perfect as sprouts were popping out of the dirt as the sun warmed the earth all day and crow kept coming. All hunters were good long range shooters and with a four man crossfire on this field nobody had over a 600 yard shot unless wanted to take a shot in another person's zone. We use hands free headsets with radios to communicate and that one day we killed so many crow the owner had to use his backhoe to dig a hole big enough to bury them and luckily one of the guys had four dogs that would go clean up areas of large kills when we called cease fires. A farmer who has had entire crops ruined and replanted two or three times sees over 250 dead crow piled at corner of his field is a happy farmer.
We are nothing like these guys who seem to kill huge numbers just to kill.
http://www.10000birds.com/rip-van-winkles-crow-killing-contest.htm
We mostly only crow hunt during corn planting season and then occasionally as it gets close to harvest if one of our farmers has an issue with the birds eating mature corn but it's usually black birds rather than crow doing that and mixed in stalks of mature corn trying to kill the smaller black birds without killing ears of corn ready to harvest is another kind of challenge. I kill any coyote or ground hog I see and can take a safe shot, kill crow over fields and unfortunately looks like aggressive hog killing is going to become necessary as are within 14 miles of my house and are thick in that area which until about a year ago 20 miles north was about a close as we had a problem so we are already organizing fall hog hunts and I have purchased four more thermal and two more Starlight scopes to use as loaners to get enough people out so we can see if it's possible to push this move toward town back into the hills.
Don't know how well the OP is doing with his reticle-rangefinding but that's something I've done a lot of research with over the years due to the passion I have for it. If I were trying to range crows with a reticle I wouldn't use the total height of the bird, but instead the bellyline to top of head as a birds foot is going to be difficult to resolve if it's walking in grass. The smaller the unit of subtension you're using the better, and if I were using a mil-dot reticle (or even simple plex) I would use it at the optic's highest power to allow for a finer subtension unit, i.e. if you're using a 6.5-20X scope whose mil-dot is "cald" for say 10X, I would use it at 2X the magnification to obtain 1/2 the subtension (subtension is inversely proportional to magnification).
Something else I'd do is to "reverse mil" the target size in your subtension formula ("milliradian formula") after lasering the range on several different crows. That way you can get a more accurate tgt. size by leaving that as the variable in the equation.
Something else I'd do is to "reverse mil" the target size in your subtension formula ("milliradian formula") after lasering the range on several different crows. That way you can get a more accurate tgt. size by leaving that as the variable in the equation.
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