Any Crow hunters here?

[Treerat-sniper]

One of my favorite targets with a rifle or pistol is the big black corvid. Surely I'm not alone in my pursuit of this intelligent critter! I've smoked hundreds with my Hornet & .22 LRs, what do you guys use for blasting them? Any favorite calling or decoying techniques or tactics?

 

[cmillard]

ar-15 in 223 with 77 grain bergers and for further out, i like my 6BR with 107 sierras and varget. testing 105 vld bergers soon. they are smart critters, and they tend to know how far out you can shoot with your rifle

 

[bigcatdaddy]

Don't hunt them, but I kill 'em if they become a nuisance. Up to 150 yds reliably with the 17HMR. Amazingly intelligent critters.

 

[Steve Blair]

I once happily hunted Crows and Ravens in San Diego County. Crows are now limited to a 124 day season from December to April. There is a 24 per day limit. The problem is that Ravens are protected despite their well-documented predation of Desert Tortoise young and other, protected bird species. There is a stiff fine and it is now generally not worth the risk of inadvertantly killing one.

When I did, I used three rifles. A Rem 788 .223, Rem 40-X .22-250 and a Rem 700 6mm Remington. The .223 was used out to ~250 yards. The .22-250 out to 350-400 and the 6mm past 400. A 58 V-Max launched at over 4k is a quick way to dispatch a Crow.

 

[jonbearman]

I had a friend who used to bag and freeze the dead birds and use them for decoys.It worked with a caller to make noise to attrack them.You want to bag them good so you dont get any germs on your food.LOL

 

[1000yardstare]

No closed season or bag limit here in southern Ontario.

Go into a cedar thicket and find an open space. Set an owl decoy on an edge cedar and give a few calls. A scout will come over shortly to investigate. Sits in a higher cedar and starts calling. The main squadron comes over in quick time and starts dive bombing the owl decoy.

Shoot 12 gauge until ammo is gone or gun melts. Have to wear ear muffs. Old time shooters didn`t and are all stone deaf.

Go to a corner cafe for lunch and come back to rescue the owl decoy. The dead crows will all be gone next morning - skunks, racoons, coyotes, fox, feral cats.

 

[JLDavid]

Just as 1000 yard stare said, set up and start calling. In Oregon, they come to any distress call. Let the scout land and then kill the rest. The scout will stay for a lot of the action. If you have a decoy with any action at all, even in the breeze, they just keep coming. If a coyote sees a crow, they will come too. Keep a few 00 in reach just in case.

David

 

[pauls]

As the other poster stated, "smart birds". I started with a Kimber Custom Classic .22 LR with a Leupold 4X rimfire scope, upgraded to Cooper JSR in .17 HMR and .22 WMR's, then to a Ruger #1 custom in .17 Ackley Hornet with a Leupold 4.5 to 14 AO scope. I like the extended range that the .17 AH gives to me. A buddy and I have had afternoons of fun calling & shooting ( especially when you wound one and he calls in the rest of his friends ).

I've never hunted them with a shotgun, however.

Kentucky also has split, limited seasons.

Fun hunting.

 

[deadlyswift]

I haven't shot a crow in awhile!!! Going on almost 1 1/2yr now since I've exploed one. Need to make some time to get out and enjoy a relaxing day of shooting crows. They are much easier to find than Ground hogs here in NC. Well it's easier to find a place to shoot crows than hogs, plus they are more abundances. More shots down the tube!

I agree! They are very smart!! Witch makes things more fun when trying to match wits with them! I'm still to this day amazed at their ablitly to adapt, eyesight, and sixth sence! They do communicate with one another very well! They have a language they understand, but very hard for me to figure out at times! I'd have to say its about like matching wits with a "wiley" old whitetail buck!
Mark

 

[40X Guy]

Its an absolute hoot to whack em with a .220 Swift that is moving out at hyper velocity, I've probably have never laughed harder in my life. A very violent explosion! ;D Also have set out decoys with owl decoy in a small tree and crow decoy on the ground and succeeded in calling some in with electronic caller and whack em with my 10 gauge. The rest of them go nuts, Very tough to keep up reloading my H&R 10 gauge single when they are PO"ed. :-X

Frank

 

[JLM]

I hunt crows a lot. With buddys we call. I have an old Johnny Stewart with a rigged amplifier and great big horn speaker. The crows around here go nuts for the owl and crow fight. It's so loud after hunting with it everybody tells me when they close their eyes and try to fall asleep that night they can hear the caller. I've got some old light tent poles that I fasten some decoys to for movement. Get them warbling and start the caller. Ohh have an owl decoy too.

By myself it's usually the 6br with 107 smk's and varget. I've got a couple fields I watch. If I can time it with the farmers cutting wheat the action can be unbelievable. It also helps it seems I'm on a flight pattern for them. It's not like it was 20 years ago. You didn't need to call then just sit in the zone. I have a Savage FVSR in 22 LR that I'll try this summer.

Jeff

 

[HillbillySniper]

I've shot a handful but never really set up to just hunt them. I usually use my 223AI with the 75gr Amax but depending on what kinda mood I'm in I. My have my 6x47 Lapua with the 105 VLDs.

Hillbilly

 

[killahog]

I thought I was the only hunter here crazy about killing the CROWS I set up a foxpro caller under a snag playing the crow and owl fight to get them coming and when they get close I use the remote control to switch the call to a dying crow. When the chickens start circling I turn the sound down lower and lower and this will force one to land where my 22-250AI shooting a 50G Vmax moving at 4085 fps will eat them. If I set up far enough away I can usually smoke 2 and every now and then a 3rd one before they get the word out. If you like crow hunting go over to crowbusters.com I picked up a motion decoy there it's called buster,and make sure to read the hatemail.

 

[nfhjr62]

This was very enjoyable reading as every couple days have a LARGE flite of CROWS fly past my house making all kinds of NOISE only problem I CAN'T SHOOT AT THEM AS I LIVE IN PHILLY Pa and people in blue frown on people shooting in city limits.
BUT I WOULD LIKE TOO !!!!!

 

[ChosenFrozen]

Wow, crow hunting, that takes me back. Grew up next door to a rookery. I got 30 to 40 each summer with my 10 pump Daisy BB gun. Then I moved up to a 12 gauge. When you have 2-3 thousand targets flying into a thick cedar grove every night, it can keep a fellow busy every day. You have to adapt all the time because they are so bloody smart. Last time I went home to visit, had a ball shooting them with my .204 while they ate corn out of the freshly spread cow sh#@. Thanks for asking the question, causing a trip down memory lane.

 

[MildBill]

I call them in with my Foxpro Fury and some decoys and shotgun them.

I'd like to rifle shoot them, but I do not believe that to be legal here...

 

[killahog]

Hunting the King of the black bird is always fun, I have 2 guns custom built just for the crow's a 223AI with a 20" barrel and a 22-250AI I also have learned how to speak some of there language and can call them with a mouth call very easily. I call them using a dying crow sound and get them to land while squirell hunting and snipe one at a time using Subsonic hollow points. It seams that as long as I am hitting what I shoot at they will not fly away but as soon as a shot misses and makes that distinc crack (anyone who has pulled targets at a shoot knows the sound) they are gone for good. One trick to calling them is to decrease the voulme of the sound when they get overhead, They just seam to say Caw Caw I can't Caw ***king hear so they land for a better look.

 

[rebelbell24]

I killed 6 of them on my driveway one day last week. I called in probably 35-40 of them using a foxpro cs-24