Just wanted to introduce myself quick. I'm an experienced hunter but just getting into crow hunting. I'm from Western New York and It seems like we have a good many crows around here. I went out last weekend and called in about 12-16 (est.) using my turkey locater hand crow calls and a FoxPro Spitfire with a crow fight call set upwind about 25 yards. I ended up shooting seven times and shot one crow! I know I know, only 17% success rate there... but it was a blast and just a very impromptu and quite humbling hunt as I thought I could easily bag one- half dozen as they always come right into my crow calling during turkey season when I'm locating Gobblers. Anyway, the minute the shooting started they seemed to start flaring and get wise very quick. I wasn't in a blind but I was wearing snow camo and I was nestled against some pines for overhead cover. I shot at them as they circled into the sound source(s). I have a few questions for the experienced hunters:
1. Is there a typical "set-up" (e.g. ecaller in relation to shooters, setting up in the wind, downwind, cross wind of the call source)? Do you all use mouth calls or ecallers or both???
2. Are decoys worth the investment and how many do you put out?
3. What shot size and loads do you recommend? High brass or low brass etc? I wanted to use 12 gauge high brass game loads but only could find some low brass 7.5 and 8 shot loads. We can use lead here.
3a. I was using my old trap shooting setup, a cheap Stoeger O/U in 12ga. shooting an Improved/ Modified choke in one barrel and Full in the other... your thoughts? What is the typical yardage for most crow shooting?
4. After the initial shooting, how do you keep them coming back and do you shut things down for awhile and then start up. I did that and they came in but were all high flyers thereafter my first shooting.
5. What basic equipment do you all recommend as absolutely necessary? Thanks again for your thoughts and advice.
My middle name is Vincent, so from one Vincent to another here we go.
1. With a breeze at your back most guys put the speakers directly up wind of there blind about 15 yards. Now in a cross wind you still keep the speakers up wind, for example, Say you have a northwest wind in the morning, instead of looking into the sun for hours I position my blind facing north northeast. I set the speakers & decoys 10 to 15 yards northwest of my blind. Any birds coming in out of the sun will not be in the sun once they are in front of your blind. Any birds approaching from the north will just fishhook into the wind in front of your blind provided they have not been hunted to death before you had a go at them.
2. If I were you I would buy a dozen full bodied decoys, that is enough to get you started.
3. Crows can be killed with any shot size, it depends greatly on what the shooter has confidence in.
If you are a decent shot then Improved modified and full are great. If you hit them in the middle you can really smoke them at 30 yards with those chokes.
4. The reason they came over high is because more than likely they heard that calling before and are now wised up.
5. Hand call, e-caller, hand counter, decoys, shotgun and ammo.
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To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
Hey WD... welcome to the forum! I'm in NY, too, probably not too far -- Finger Lakes Region. I've had a tough season and did not get out much, between the deep snow and some personal issues. There are a lot of birds around, though, and they join up in large winter roosts. Maybe I'll get out this last couple of weeks.
Bob hit most of the highlights in answer to your questions, but here are some other thoughts: 1) Location -- if you know where they roost at night and where they go to feed during the day you can set up pre-dawn somewhere in between. Don't get too close to the roost, although around here a lot of the roosts seem to be in the cities and populated areas. They will fly quite a distance to feed, from a few miles to 10 or 12, 2) Try to hide very well -- build a blind or brush in a portable one very well with natural materials like pine boughs, etc. They will stay high if they have been shot at before, but especially if they see you, and they will see you -- think of them like turkeys in terms of eyesight and motion detection (full camo, hands, face, everything), but highly intelligent. Turkeys have great senses - sight and hearing, but crows also post sentries, send out scouts, communicate any danger, and avoid danger for weeks or months (or forever). Kill the first one!
There is a ton of information on this forum -- you can search any topic and pull up old threads and discussions, and the CrowBusters website itself has beginner and advanced articles of all kinds.
Good luck!
Jerry
-- Edited by Rook-ie on Saturday 14th of March 2015 12:34:01 PM
Thanks for the info. Gentlemen, I appreciate your time, I really do. Bob, you have a good first AND middle name, my father's name was Robert. The blind set up advice was good I had to draw it out to visualize it and it makes a lot of sense. You mention in your equipment list a hand counter. What is that? Rookie, You're about 1.5 to 2 hours from me. The town I live in is the second most westerly township in Western New York before you get to Erie PA. Butch, I'd rather live in PA the way this state is headed with gun ownership and everything. Our season closes at the end of this month so I'm hoping to get out a few more times. If I get out I'll let you know how I did. My buddy is also interested in trying it out.
Never mind I just realized what a hand counter is.... I'm most certain I'll probably not even come close to getting the numbers that you do but we do have a lot of corn and bean fields around here especially where I hunt although they are under about 2 feet of snow!
I've hunted in that area of New York State for crows with my friend from Maryland in past years. It makes it tough to get around with the amount of snow you get in that part of the state. If I were you I would get my licks in before the snow flies. If you have a snowmobile that you can put on a trailer you would have it made!
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To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
That is a great question although we've had a warm spell now for the last week and some of the snow pack is melting exposing more of the agricultural fields. I do know they love to ravage the garbage bags in the morning all over our Village so that's one food source I can't hunt over but I'd like to!!!
Welcome to the site, as you read you'll pick up lots of info, Also if there's something particular use the search,, the stories are great and informative.
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If you aim for nothing you'll hit it every time!!!
