Crow Busters Forum

Like many of you I use my hawk and owl decoys occasionally and with some occasional success. I have never had a satisfactory stand for them—only a piece of re-bar with an extension PVC pipe. It worked, but the decoys moved around with the wind.

The other day I was thinking of how to make a better decoy stand and M12 Shooter’s “crow pole”—the one he’s posted photos of before—came to mind. As his story goes, he uses an old lightweight (he claims…) cedar fence post that he hauls around and digs in, placing his owl decoy on top. Then he adds to it by hanging the first crow he shoots in the owl’s “talons” and then the fun really begins—M12 Shooter gets a lot of crows.

Finally my light bulb went off. For more than two years I’ve had a piece of 8’ X 3” PVC pipe standing in the garage that had been the core for a roll of vinyl flooring. I always thought there would be some use for it so I didn’t toss it. I began to experiment with a few other pieces of garage debris, er, spare parts, and found that a plastic Kraft mayo jar fit perfectly in the PVC pipe; so I glued it in and then glued its lid (and another) to the bottom of my owl and hawk decoys. I had a tube of otherwise useless Loctite Construction Adhesive—good stuff, but frozen dead at the nozzle and about ¼ of the way back--should have tossed it long ago, but... It still had enough left inside. I cut it open and smeared it on the lids for the owl and the red-tailed hawk. I still had to devise some means for it to stand up, so I cut four 1 ¼” holes, 90 degrees apart at the pipe’s ground end. Then cut it off so I was left with four semi-circles on the end. Then fitted (not real pretty—I seldom have the right tools it seems) a PVC 1” four-way connector for four legs; holes in each leg to secure with spikes, as needed. Put a hook on it to hang the Spitfire (another M12 Shooter feature), a cap to protect the threads during transport. Velcro patches to prevent the cap from flapping about in the wind; painted it up, and ready to go. I think it would look better with some corn shucks strapped to it. We’ll see. MI crow season begins in seven days!