Crows got smart on me.

J

James Lauman

New member
This is my first year trying to kill crows. My family owns an orchard and I am trying to get rid of enough of them so that my father in law will not have to poison. I hunt about three time a week for about an hour after work. I picked up a J.S. caller that came with the crow revielle tape, and was using a friend's decoy heart with a crow sillouhette. The first week, twelve to fifteen would come in right away, I'd blast a couple with a 12 gauge and they would be gone. The second week, less would show, but I would still get a shot or two. The third week, nothing. I picked up the crow and owl fight, three crow decoys, and one owl decoy. They came into this okay, but would stay real high. The ones that came in low would make one pass and be gone.

I wear a faded green hooded sweatshirt, black pants and gloves, and a camo face mask. This seems to blend in well in the thick cover of the cherry trees. I have not camo'd my gun, yet, but it is not shiny in any way.

The cherries are getting ready to turn, and I need some help. Right now I am using a 223 since I can usually only get as close to 100 yards of them, but it scares the rest away. Any help or suggestions will be much appreciated, thanks.
 
James,
I can not get any closer than 200 yards to crows out at my pasture. They have very keen eyesight and they know who the “Iron Pony” is. You have educated them well. The first time I called in crows and was wearing camo the sky turned black and I nearly got my eyes picked out of my head. After unloading my M1300 with an unplugged mag I could see the sun again. The key is letting the scout come in. He is the one that fly's high and is the first to respond. He will check out the area and let the others know if their is trouble. Good luck! They might be one of my favorite things to hunt as they are very challenging after you have hammered a few
 
Thanks for the replies. I have been to the crowbusters site, I don't know if I am going to buy a membership yet, maybe I'll have to. Both times that I have used the owl fight setup, the sentry will fly too high for a shot. The first time, he stayed up for about ten minutes before another came in. I smashed that one, and the sentry stayed there for about another ten then flew off. The second time, the sentry stayed for about ten, then one came in, couldn't get a shot, and they both flew off. How long should I wait for the sentry to come in? Also, will the birds forget about what the call means eventually, if so, how long?
 
The job of the first crow in is to warn the others. Your job is to grease him before he blows the whistle on you. Go to Wally World and get yourself a camo net. Stay under that in your cammies. They probably can see you from above. Use a shotgun, not a rifle. That's dangerous, anyway. Use a handcall in conjunction with the tape. Forget the owl decoy. Throw some dead crows out in front of you about 15-25 feet. This is where your speaker should be, too. Don't shoot until they are 20-30 feet overhead. Don't miss!! The ones that get away tell the others to scram. Change your setup location each time you go out. This is just a few suggestions. You can get a lot more detail over at CB.
 
Let's see James, 3 or 4 times a week for several weeks.....hmm. Sounds to me like you've educated those crows very well and they should be very call shy by now. Only if you're real lucky and imaginable will you get in another "good" hunt in that area.
I am an avid crow hunter (shotgunning) in the fall and winter, setting up mainly in prime feed locations. I can tell you from experience that if you allow a good feed spot to rest a couple of weeks between hunts you'll do well for several hunts "if" there are a good number of crows feeding in that area to begin with. Crows are smart, plain and simple. If you dont change around your set ups and sounds, they become very alert to what's going on. You'll have crows fly over, but staying out of range. From your posts, sounds like you need to let the spot rest a few weeks, go in and build you a good blind for consealment, place decoys in a feeding setup, and just try soft hand calling. The revielle is a good fight call and works well in areas with low trees like thick piney areas, but when crows come in to check the sounds out in an area they usually feed in and only sees a couple of decoys without a hawk or owl in the scene they know something is up and high-tail it outa there. MY point is when you use calls that represents a fight, you need decoys set up in a fighting scene, when using a feeding call, make sure dekes are set up for that style as well.
My belief on the scout crow is if he gets within range, drop him. On this first crow, dont miss. From my experience, if you pass him up and let him circle, he'll eventually spot something that he knows shouldnt be there, the blind, you, movement, whatever and this could cause you to NOT see some birds you would normally see if you can keep him from perching 100 yds away alerting all the imcoming crows with warning calls. Crows are an animal that remembers well. It takes some time and efforts to figure them out as with all animals. Learn the different sounds and what they mean. With hand calls, try mimmicking the sounds you hear. Practice with mouth calls, mix it in with the JS caller and go have some fun. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

GB
 
Try the death cry tape, and put some fake carrion in your set up. The death cry seems to call them in "one more time" and they hang out longer with the fake carrion in the set up. Good luck.
Rich
 
Try this if the area permits. I bait the area I plan to shoot, I get back about two hundred Yards fully camo down and shoot them with a 22-250. At the first shot they will get up and fly, it is very important that you kill acrow with that first shot. Sit tight and dont move. They will come stright back and you can kill another. Again they will all get up and fly, but will come back if they dont see you. Just keep the prosses going.
 
Get 2 or 3 pieces of fish line with a medium size hook and put a piece of meat on them. Anchor them so they can't be moved and wait for a crow to eat one. Don't shoot it because he's your real bait. He'll make all kinds of noises and his buddies will swoop down to help. That's when you shoot.
 
James,
Try playing a rabbit in distress tape in you JS player as loud as your volume will go. then mix in some very loud exited crow calls with a hand call. this should bring them in when nothing else will. After you start noticing a decline in the number of crows coming in just get up and move 50 to 100 yards away and set up and do it again. In my opinion the crows remember where they were shot at from, not the call that brought them in. I have moved as little as 30 yards from where I was calling from and called the same bunch of crows right back to me.

Just keep at it and they will come.....
 
James,

I've got good news, I tagged a crow at about 275 last evening. I was simply driving down the pasture and most of crows flew away except for this huge one. I zoomed in on him on 24X and I could see it's mouth (Beak) hanging open as to say, "CAW, CAW". I too have some call shy crows but this one for some reason did not fly. Boom! He dropped instead.
 
A few years ago I was at my moms. There was a crow schwa king out side the den window. I grabbed my Step dads 22 and some CB caps. He didn’t go down quietly. He flopped in a circle and six more came swooping in to the trees above him. I proceeded to drop them one at a time until I had seven dead crows in moms back yard. They were about as loud as the 22. I don’t think they knew it was even going off. All of the shots were 40yds or less. I don't know if you can get them in that close and have the volume up but it's an idea. Hope this helped. Good luck.
Darrin
 
20 years ago I lived on 10 acres in western Washington that was between a 20 acre pig farm and a 60 acre dump site. I used to walk out back with a 22 pistol and shoot one sitting in a tree, a little squacking and a lot of flopping as it fell down through the tree, was enough to keep more coming as I kept shooting more.
 
Thanks for the ideas. I've got more decoys and tapes on the way as I write this. I've laid off the calling and concentrated on the .223. I think crows have one of the loudest VMAX pops of any animal I have shot, they are almost as loud as the muzzle blast!

I have been doing something a little new. They may be smart enough to stay away from my calls, but they are also smart enough to know that the guys on the four wheelers won't try to kill them. There is always somebody running around on a quad taking care of the irrigation in the orchard. I've nailed quite a few this way. They won't fly away until you get off the bike, then they come back for a second look. They make a lot of noise, but it isn't the danger call, so more will usually come over to check out whats going on.

I joined up Crowbusters, not much info in the way of hunting them in orchards, but good information all around. Thanks again for the replies, I'll keep you posted on how things are going.
 
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