Crows for rifle practice

[ckaberna]

"So question is. Can I decoy them? Post up in a area with a buddy, hidden, with a rifle and scope, do some calling with some decoys and get enough of them coming through to make it an enjoyable afternoon?"

Regulations aside, hunting crows can be a challenge. Crows are pretty smart. After they are shot at they become pretty wary and more difficult to call in. However, if you have different areas to shoot you could try one area then move to another.

Yes, but more than likely only one shot. Not sure on legality of it in your area.

 

[EWaugh]

Camouflage up real good, set up an owl decoy, need a cheap crow call. When the scout comes in don’t shoot him just keep calling at a higher pitch. Wait until they start swarming over head. Enjoy
I found the 1100 with an extended mag tube works really good. Now I use the Saga with 10 round mag and a red dot. Not sure about the regulations. Did not know they existed for pests.

 

[Snuggie]

Me and a long gone buddy used to load up some “anti aircraft” 12 gauge shells. Go out in the piny woods and start the call. They would come in like kamikazi’s and we would mow em down while laughing our asses off! Weird thing is if we came back the next day that the hundreds that we had dropped were nowhere to be seen. I guess the crow mortician came and picked them up, LOL! Really miss both my buddy and the fun....

 

[Dgd6mm]

Florida has a Crow season just like Dove. I've shot plenty of them with my 1100 down south. Here in North Florida they are a bit bigger and with a crop field on the north side of my property my place gets full of them. On one of the 1000 yard ranges that I frequent the fella that runs the place airs them out regularly with a .223 AR.

 

[TheOtherZilla]

Wes, you might want to look under this. There are weird laws and regulations on crows. I would share my opinion but that would get me into trouble. They are fun with shotgun or rifle. Love to see the red mist and feathers. I hate crows,put them in the same category as coyotes, but they and the coyotes sure are fun to hunt. My dad used to tell me they (crows) could tell you where you bought your shells. They are very smart animals. Do your check on regulations before you hunt them.
https://www.fws.gov/birds/management/managed-species/migratory-bird-treaty-act-protected-species.php

It's Ravens that are protected. Round here crows are open game. And I have never seen a crow here. only Ravens.. SW Wyo.

 

[markT]

Crows are the easiest birds to kill IF they have not been hunted / educated with a da$n e caller. They want food!!!! Hunt them where they are in feeding set up! All you have to do is observe them when they are feeding and duplicate the set up. A few decoys And a sentry bird is all you need. Throw the dead in the spread and they don’t care. Make sure to get all downed birds picked up that are outside the spread. Call them with a mouth call to a feeding situation exactly like ducks. Caw, Caw, Caw is the feeding or come here call. Just keep still And hidden. Full cammo,nothing shinny and do not move until you are ready to shoot. Number 6’s in a 12 ga.
This is what we shot this morning.

 

[laangler]

Only allowed to hunt them Wednesday, Friday Saturday and certain holidays in north carolina minus nesting season months of March - May. Fun shooting with rifle watching the feathers fly but some stay still others are walkers.

 

[rebel]

Rifle - ghillie up on food. Suppressed rifle. You can get as many as 3 if patient. I've only done that once.As teenagers we used to ride around with rifles and a few cold beers and shoot them from farmers fields. Never got nothing but a "Thanks boys." from various farmers. Now you would have to deal with a deputy and a game warden

 

[CT10ring]

Crows seem to be able to look at me and know when I have bad intentions! Which seems to be most of the time. Lol

Paul

Pretty sure a crow can tell the difference between a rake and a rifle over your shoulder. However.
When they land in a fresh cut field about 125 yards away- a Tikka .222 report is the last thing they hear.

 

[Sieg]

Crows are very smart, alert, and cautious but.... they've got nothing on Magpies.

 

[Brians356]

It's Ravens that are protected. Round here crows are open game. And I have never seen a crow here. only Ravens.. SW Wyo.

Crows are federally protected exactly like Ravens. The States may establish seasons for hunting them (I believe under federal guidelines) and issue depredation permits. In Wyoming the crow season runs Nov. 1 -- Feb. 28, using firearms, archery, and falconry. Bottom line: Crows are not "open" (unrestricted) like starlings, house sparrows, rock doves (pigeons) etc.

Here in Nevada crows have a split season (fall/spring) but only shotguns may be used.
-

 

[markT]

There is a crow season in SC. It’s open now. But crows can be hunted under CFR 50-21:43. Basically sates that crows can be hunted anytime and any how when doing crop damage. Crows do a lot of damage to song birds in the spring. They steal the young out of the nest and go down the throats of the new born and eat their hearts and vitals. Crows destroy turkey eggs and eat them. Crows peck open peaches and go after worms. Crows eat or destroy up to 7 lbs of pecans per season. So when is a crow not doing damage? Maybe when eating fresh road kill?
Intelligent animals, just use their intelligence to defeat them.

 

[Brians356]

Probably you can kill crows freely in agricultural areas on private property depending on how states choose to enforce or not enforce federal and state laws. Here you can applying for a depredation permit for crows and ravens, but in other states I suppose blanket waivers are in effect as a practical matter.

In Nevada the state has conducted eradication campaigns against ravens in selected areas (BLM desert) where sage grouse have suffered egregiously from their nest predation. But I am not allowed to shoot a raven myself in one of those very areas. I could get away with it 99.99% of the time, but it ain't legal, and the penalties are not insignificant.
-

 

[sscoyote]

Missed one at 500ish couple years ago off a dead cow using my AR 69 TMK load, juts a hair over the top. Dying to get the picture but next time I guess.

 

[K9TXS]

Rifle - ghillie up on food. Suppressed rifle. You can get as many as 3 if patient. I've only done that once.As teenagers we used to ride around with rifles and a few cold beers and shoot them from farmers fields. Never got nothing but a "Thanks boys." from various farmers. Now you would have to deal with a deputy and a game warden

This is all very true. If you can shoot them around 200 yards +- you may get a more since they don't hear the rifle report as loud. They can still hear the zip of the bullet going by as well. However, when their friends start falling, they don't stay around long.

I have also found the crow remembers the call. If you bag several of them in one area and go several hundred yards away, they will not respond to the call. A scout will not even come by to take a look.

An owl placed high with several decoys in the area works well. My decoys are 1/4" plywood painted with gloss black paint. Have them facing different directions so whichever way they come in, they'll see the profile of your decoy. After a little use the gloss paint will dull a little but not to the point of flat black.

 

[wboggs]

I learned to shoot long range on crows. Started with 22LR and followed that with a .222 and finally a 22-250. Great fun and experience. Had little money so that forced me to learn reloading.

 

[Joe Maisto]

Background: I have a rather large dove field, and we shoot every other weekend for the first season. There are a lot of fields in my area, so we hurt the population pretty good.

While we are between seasons and hoping doves still migrate; showing up for 2/3/4th seasons, we have crows. Not a few. Hundreds and hundreds.

What I know about crows is, that they will eat just about anything. Obviously sunflowers, but bugs, road kill, corn, wheat, oats, but my question is how to keep them around so I can turn a rather annoying thing into a real afternoon of fun.

All the crow hunting I have ever done is with a fox pro and a shotgun, in deep cover shooting straight up. I know people shoot them from time to time with a rifle. However, crows are funny about humans. When you walk around the house or in the field, they scatter, much less fire off a rifle round. Which is fine and to be expected.

So question is. Can I decoy them? Post up in a area with a buddy, hidden, with a rifle and scope, do some calling with some decoys and get enough of them coming through to make it an enjoyable afternoon?

( I don’t think there are baiting laws on crows, I need to look into that, but they aren’t a federal migratory bird, so I’m thinking you can probably bait in addition to the sunflower field) maybe a corn pile too?


Or maybe you have a better idea.

Wes

Wes,
If there is a tree close to your blind, do as I used to. Put a large owl decoy in a tree branch close to your blind. If you have a dead one to tie to the feet of your decoy, for heavan sake...DO THAT, as we do. The smart locals will send in a "scout" to look things over, ( if your calling ability is proper)
and he will immediately summon the others, saying...OWL !!
Best thing of all is... all we needed to bring to our blind was plenty of ammo and a thermos of coffee ! It doesn't get much better than that .
Joe

 

[2506]

It has been 40 years ago when I lived in east NC. I would go out and get in one of my deer hunting shooting house that was off the side of peanut fields just after they would dig the peanuts. Crows were everywhere. I had a Ruger 77 Varmint barrel 220 Swift. If the wind was not blowing they were in big trouble waaaaaaaaaaay out there. I was shooting Speer 52 gr match HP with a good dose of IMR 4064 and when you hit a crow it looked like you had set a hand grenade off in them. As long as the food was present the crows would be around. It might take any that got spooked 15 or so minutes to come back but they did come back. Secret was shooting them at long range.

 

[Brians356]

It has been 40 years ago when I lived in east NC. I would go out and get in one of my deer hunting shooting house that was off the side of peanut fields just after they would dig the peanuts. Crows were everywhere. I had a Ruger 77 Varmint barrel 220 Swift. If the wind was not blowing they were in big trouble waaaaaaaaaaay out there. I was shooting Speer 52 gr match HP with a good dose of IMR 4064

Those old Speer match HPs are damn good bullets. Bet you don't see many 77s chambered in 220 Swift around.
-

 

[CT10ring]

It has been 40 years ago when I lived in east NC. I would go out and get in one of my deer hunting shooting house that was off the side of peanut fields just after they would dig the peanuts. Crows were everywhere. I had a Ruger 77 Varmint barrel 220 Swift. If the wind was not blowing they were in big trouble waaaaaaaaaaay out there. I was shooting Speer 52 gr match HP with a good dose of IMR 4064 and when you hit a crow it looked like you had set a hand grenade off in them. As long as the food was present the crows would be around. It might take any that got spooked 15 or so minutes to come back but they did come back. Secret was shooting them at long range.

Near Plymouth or Roper or Edenton NC? Mackey's Ferry? 220 swift is trouble. shot plenty crows around there in NC.