Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints Crow shooters and everybody else too.

Hey guys been on the fire for a bit and love it but havent been on this sub forum yet. I'm a crow hunter but its a love hate thing. They are so fun but will drive you crazy some days. I was just wanting to say hello to all and find out who all shoots crows and maybe what gear you use. My caller took a $hit this past monday so I'm in the market for a new one.

I shoot trap loads (remington nitro 27s in 7.5) most of the time but prefure 1 1/4 oz of #6s. I use an old benelli M1 with a 28" barrel and modified or imp mod choke almost always. Natgear is my preferred camo cause I hunt edges a lot and I usually build a blind out of brush. My caller was a preymaster 4, biggest pos ever! What'r you guys runnin?

Hunted and killed them my whole young life. Hornet preferred, but a 12 gauge and call was always fun.

[bleep] I miss that schit.



Travis

My favorite crow rifle was a super accurate .22 Cheetah.. Most of my crows have been shot with 870's and what ever shells I had left from hunting season.. One of the best crow hunters I ever knew, learned to hoot like a great horned owl.. We would go into the woods and pick a stand near a large dead tree.. Delbert would begin his calling, and soon the crows would come gliding in.. We killed quite a few this way.. He killed hundreds.. No decoys or caller , a hit an run method.. I had the call down when I was about 17, but with out practice, I have lost the skill..

Travis, "young life" you are still barely a teenager right????

Sonofabitch! I am 36 and gorgeous.




Travis

I've got a "Hammerin' Call" mouth call, and have called a few in, here and there. Haven't managed to get any close enough, though. I seem to be a perpetual new hunter - been out a bunch, havent gotten squat! The call works well as a shock call for turkeys, too - I got a nice surprise gobble back as soon as I hit the crow call a few years back. I wasn't looking for turkeys at the time, but it was exciting, regardless..

used to shotgun 'em a lot, but have mostly gone to the 17fireball.

Any high velocity 22 centerfire will work...

Love the photo. That's badass!

That is a tremendous photograph. No death is too low for a piece of garbage crow.

Seal Been hunting crow's for years. A buddy of mine owns a land fill that we hunt quite a bit.You haven't lived till ya hunt crows on open garbage when the ground is snow covered. 1oz #6 shot works real well. Benelli Black Eagle jammed full. PS never leave the blind without your gun!! Death cry call works for us. Good luck Huntin!!!

Hunted them for
40 years but haven't popped a cap at them the past ten. Miss the hunting when there was no season. Back them I could hunt them year round but the best time was mid September thru late April.

1 1/4oz # 6 would fold them in the sky but shot a lot of 1 1/8 Winchester Trap loads to get the hulls. Trap loads will bring them down but they come down fluttering and hop around a while before they die. If they hop too much a hawk will come in and get them. That's OK with me.

Started with a Call of the Wild battery operated phonograph. Took 12 D cell batteries to make it run. A record called Young and nesting Crows was all was available then.

Don't know about these new callers. Things are damned expensive from what I see. Hope you find one that fill your needs. Kill a few for me.

A 270 Winchester and a 204 Ruger works well for me. When I use a shotgun, I use a 12 or 20 guage with 3 inch magnums loaded with #3 shot.

Hey, was that shot lead #3's?

Nice "shot" Shrapnel, in more ways than one!

This thread reminded me of a photo that takes me way back to the summer of '85. Had just dropped two crows out of a dead oak tree some 120 to 150 yards away with Dad's 1953 M70 .270 and some 110 grain hot handloads.

Lustrous dark hair, well under 200 lbs, eyes good enough to hit a crow with a 4x Leupold. Damn I miss the '80s. And my Wayfarers.

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Hello and welcome Seal Billy.
I've been hunting crows since the 70's my favorite way is hitting them w/a varmint rifle at long range.
I grew up in sw ohio and would shoot over fresh cut hay fields for crows and groundhogs.
Crows rarely stop for long so they are harder to hit than many varmints.
My new found way of hunting them is w/a 22lr ,I make a bushy hide shooting spot -turn on the foxpro crow gathering or crow distress and shoot them with the cci quiet ammo.
It's fun to get them close sitting in trees and drop them -the others lose their minds when one of the murder is flopping on the ground.
When I set up and use a shotgun I place three crow decoys on the ground with their backs turned to an Owl decoy.I think it makes them think LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU they seem to raise cane to this set-up.
Hunting them in the yard w/a pellet gun is fun to.

My cousins -father-in-law said he use to set 3-4 little #1 muskrat traps on top of wood fence posts out in fields .
He's put some decoys 20 yards out start calling sooner than later a crow would decide to land on the fence post -get caught in the trap -start losing its mind which led to another crow landing on another fence post-you get the idea.
Great shooting over that set up -but illegal now -if you get caught. Varmint hunting is the best hunting.
MIke

I caught a crow in one of my bobcat sets. I have never seen so many crows in one place. A red-tail hawk was there too. Shot the crow w\.22 pistol. Came back a little later to use the crow for bait, but it was gone.

while laying on a hillside during deer season a few years ago, I noticed that all of a sudden there were crows circling and landing in trees... to the tune of 20 plus of them... and cawing all over the place...

after season, I went out there again, and did the same thing, but took the 204 with me.... and sure enough after 30 minutes, they were circling again...

wasted one out of a tree, and they all took off, so I moved to another spot and half an hour later, they started showing back up... and wasted another...

I've had then gather around when deer hunting and not moving much back in the midwest also.....

put out one of those plastic owls, you can pick up at the hardware store, sure seems to attract them also... crows hate owls evidently... and will wait to gang up on them...

saw that out bird hunting in Minnesota... first time I did so, there was an owl and the crows were circling to harrass it... after they went after it a bit, three of them gathered on a branch of a tree fairly close to where the barn owl flew to...

I aimed the old 12 gauge and got all three with one shot, they were that close together....

I love blasting crows... they are airborne rats in my book..

Hunting with shotgun:

6 Decoys in trees
26 on the ground

Put up a blind

Use 1 1/4 oz of 6's Full choke for up to 45 yards, extra full choke will get you to 65 yards. For shooting beyond 65 yds, use the same load with 5's.

Crow shooting can be some long range shooting with a shotgun.

Wear a face mask, cover your hands and cammo your gun for ZERO light reflection.

For close in shooting, we use a heavy trap load of 19.6g of 700x with about 1 1/16 of #6's and we do use a full choke.

Crows are darn smart, they see the slightest movement. I wear electronic ear muffs and you can hear them talking to each other while they are coming in before you ever see them. Keep your talking to a bare minimum.

We use two calls, death cry of a crow with Hawk, and crows flocking. We play one then the other, alternating. We use a Johnny Stewart 52 with amplifier, sound has to be LOUD!

If you can find a pecan orchard, then build a blind and do not call at all, sit quietly for them to come in and feed. In this situation, we like to use "quiet" shells with the 19.6g of 700x.

You had better carry enough shells, I have ran out on more than one occasion.

good luck

Use the Hornet more than anything. Favorite set up is to shoot the ass or wing off one about 125 yards out and let him flop around squawking. The others will usually circle, land and offer additional shots. Have killed up to 30 at a time this way.

You can also use a owl decoy or cat in the same manner.

I have also camo'ed up and with a model 67 Winchester and CB shorts get back about 20 yards in the woods and drop them when they are feeding in a corn pile. That combo is so quiet they seldom figure out what is going on until you have 10 or 15 lying dead.