Here in Tennessee we don't have tons of crows like in some other states with huge roosts. I'm wondering how you guys hunt them in your neck of the woods. We don't have pecan orchards or big corn fields so for me it's like hunting ducks in flooded timber, except no water, I set up in the woods with a opening and call to them. We also set up in short stands of brush or small trees in a flyway and pass shoot.

How do you guys set up for them?

About the same. My son-in-law is a crow hunting fanatic. We hunt the edges of clear cuts and old brushy fields on public ground here. He has decoys to include a couple of Mojo spinners. We run a pair of Fox Pro callers. Crows come in from 6 - 12 at a time. I love to knock 'em stiff! I don't go real often because I'm usually deer or coyote hunting but it is fun as hell.

Be careful, it gets in your blood!

My best set up is to find them feeding or harassing a hawk. Spot the look out and ass shoot him or knock his wing off. Once he is on the ground walking and squawking the other will present shots. My best is 21 killed over such a set up.

What gun do you use crowrifle?

When I was a kid living in PA, one of my neighbors had an owl decoy, and you could pull a string and make the wings flap. We would put black rags on the ground around it that looked like crows, then when a flock came by we would blow crow calls and work that decoy. The crows would go nuts over that owl decoy and attack with abandon. We used shotguns with the plugs taken out. Lots of fun. We set up on a tree line next to my dad's corn field.

I had the most crows ever circling while playing a old Johnny steward crow owl fight sound. They were in a frenzy. It was awsome.

Take an owl decoy and drill 2 small holes in it side by side.. Do this in several places on the decoy...Then take about 6 inches of fishing line 15-20 pound test with eagle claws on the other end and tie them off on the decoy....I usually have about 6 hooks on the decoy when I'm done...Anchor the owl decoy good to a fence post... Turn on your caller and when the crows start diving down at the owl decoy they get tangled and hooked to the decoy... After that you can turn your caller off because those hooked crows will call in more crows than you will have ammo for... The most I ever killed at one time was 42 this way and that was after going back to the truck to get more shotgun shells....I've Crow hunted for 30+ years and its one thing that I still absolutely love to do...Also word of advice, never shoot your scout crows...Be patient and let them gather... Good luck to you!

Interesting Diablero

Where do you make the holes on Owl? Head? Body? No lower than chest?

No specific place..You will want to place them in different places on the owl decoy...Have the decoy covered to wherever a Crow hits it, he is tangled... I've got a couple more tricks that I learned from an old Crow hunter that is dead and gone that works but I better not tell it here...lol

Mike

That sounds simply devious,,, I approve...

.22 LR, .22 Hornet, .221. .20 Vartarg, .222, .22-250, and 20, 16, and 12 guages.

But I use the Hornet most.

Crow hunting was my favorite activity for many years. I tried the crow/owl decoys once. They worked ok but I found them unnecessary. Find good cover and use good cammo, especially on the face.

I drove backroads in the county, looking for easy access with good cover. Never walked in more than 100 yards. I carried my caller on my left shoulder, directed it in all directions at first then pointed it down toward the ground. With it pointed down the crows couldn't tell exactly where you were and flew back and forth looking, of course as you turned while shooting that moved the sound around, confusing them more. I rarely stayed at one set more than 20 minutes. Then move down the road atleast two miles before setting up again.

Crows that are hunted learn to avoid calls that get them shot at, so use a variety of different calls each time you stop at a spot you've hunted before.

Crow hunting is the most fun you can have with your clothes on.

I'm actually surprised you shared the first one, but thank you.

Kinda what I was thinking.

Seal Billy where you at in TN?

Make sure crows are legal to shoot in your state. For years I just assumed it was O.K./legal. This year I discovered it is illegal to kill crows in the state of Montana. Go figure.

It is leagal but only on Friday Saturday and Sunday. Which is flippin retarded.

Here in NC it is legal to hunt 'em on Wed, Fri, and Sat. I have never had much luck with an owl decoy round here.

I do have a mounted bobcat and coon the works pretty good with a flapping decoy under the front of it. A house cat in a harness works good too. Harness better be tighter than you think it should be though. Lost my step-moms cat that way.

There used to be a crowbusters.com that had small flapping crow decoys that work great and were cheap. Don't even know if them guys are still around. Gonna look and see.

Going after a few crows saturday morning.

God Bless, Louis

Crows are protected by the feds because of a migratory bird treaty with Mexico. Most states have a season, but it's always open to deal with depravating birds.

I hate them dirty sob's. If I can wing one, I keep some kevlar string in my bag and tie it to one foot and stake it out with an owl on a stump close by, you will burn a barrel up trying to kill all the incomers. You just gotta be fast to catch that winged bird and now that I am 50, it is getting harder to do.

I have heard of that before but never done it. It seems I have a hard time winging one. It's always stone dead or crippled to the point of flopping and kicking, which gets them going pretty good.

We've had good luck with owl decoys here in the Piedmont over the years but we use them in combination with static decoys, a Mojo or two and old school electronic calls (Johnny Scott Crow Reveille!!) so all I can say is the owl doesn't run them off. I really like that hooker owl idea. It may be BS but I'm in. I'll be drilling one this weekend.

I tried something new a couple of weeks ago with a new buddy that I met at new job. He is a really good outdoorsman that likes many of the things I do and in just one day we both learned several things from each other.

We hunted my spots and set up geographicaly the way I do but used his spread of decoys. It worked like a charm and we were bating 1000 till the crows started getting leary and wouldn't get close and we did just a little sky busting before we saw they were onto our set up and weren't going to work anymore.

He has this owl on a tall pole. It has a clip right below the the owl that he puts this crow decoy that flapps one wing. It looks like the owl has the crow. They do not like it, at all! We smoked them and had an absolute blast doing it. We only found a few of them but most of them landed in the thorns and we couldn't get them. Not a bad way to go out on the last day of the season. Most fun activity indeed.

I really miss crow hunting. Unfortunately, the seasons are all wrong. I hunted them after other seasons were closed. Now they have the season in the deer, small game, and duck season. They also require non-toxic shot now.

In the past, January to May were the most productive months and if I didn't kill at least a hundred each trip I felt it was a bad day. I usually hunted alone but sometimes had one friend along.

100 a day is really good around here. You can call them in every day in a few seconds but getting set up right in the hill country with tall trees is the hard part. It's hard to get them low enuff for a good shot even with a improved modified or full choke. Last year I used a xtra full and probably killed more crows than ever. I usually use a imp. Mod. But this year I may back off to a standard full choke.

I have a farm in some bottom lands that I can hunt now and it's almost all fields and a few fence rows to hide in. I'm hoping it will work out well. The farmer also hates pigeons cause they $hit on everything he puts in his barns so I'm gonna help him out with that too.

God I love wingshooting!!!

When I first started I had a johnny stewart cassette player powered by twelve D cell batteries. I didn't like the carry handle and drilled it and put a carry strap on it. When I sent it back to them for a rebuild they must have liked the strap idea 'cause they started putting a carry strap on theirs.

When they went to the caller with rechargeable batteries they put a much smaller speaker on them. Fortunately the slot to hold the speaker was the same size as the old speaker. That old speaker put sound out much farther than the smaller speakers.

I don't recall having a problem getting the crows down into the tall pines here. If you can direct the speaker toward the ground once they start coming in, they may come in lower.

Once there was a small hill(100 feet) in the delta(flat land for miles around). I climbed to the top of the hill and called. Only time I've ever had to shot DOWN at incoming crows.

Lord, I miss those days.

It's grand ain't it! I may be weird but I'm starting to like it more than anything else. I hate those dirty bastids and all of them should be punished with death by shotgun.

I have used a 22-250 varmint rifle on them in open fields especially right after hay was cut -some shotgunning -rimfire and a pellet rifle.
I'm not the best shotgun shooter and prefer shooting them with my suppressed CZ 22lr from around 30-50 yards.
Set up near a lone tree preferably a dead one -I place the owl decoy above two crow decoys even if I have to tie the owl to a limb. Turn the crow decoys back to the owl -I think it makes the crows think 'look out behind you'. A third crow decoy placed wherever . My best is only six but it's a lot of fun w/a suppressed rifle using sub sonic hollow points .

My cousin Deb's pawinlaw is an old crow hunter -he told me his favorite way of shooting them is to place a few old #1 leg hold traps on fence posts . Place decoy/caller 25-30 feet out from fence -the crows will land on top of fence post and step in the little trap -then be hanging flopping trying to fly and drive the other crows nuts -says it's irresistible to them. Of coarse live decoys is illegal now days.

When I kill a hog at my lease I know they avoid the feeder for a bit so I use that time to whack the local crows .
We have crows and ravens down here -the ravens can't seem to "crow" very loud and are smaller in size. I set up and wait them out fully camoed -my feeder back then was a 6.5 gallon corn thrower hanging off of a 12' treated 4x4 --the landing pad-- . I get buck fever when I see the black shadow flash by on the ground knowing frick or frack is getting ready to get shot.

I enjoy that type of hunting or predator calling as much as I enjoy shooting a big buck or hog -especially when my freezer is full.

I used the Owl and Crow decoys once. Had an old Zebco 202 reel and a cheaper rod. Lead sinker on the line tossed over a high limb. Tied the owl( had a spot on top of its head with a hole in it), to the line and cranked it up until it touched a limb, cut the line and tied it to a bush. Did the same with the crow decoys. When I turned the caller on, they came in like crazy.

Don't remember how many I got there but decided the set up was too time consuming. After that just found good cover and good cammo. After that just used the decoys with the dying crow tape at Halloween to scare the kids.