I have crow hunted off and on for 5 years now. Today I got my best to date with 10 crows, had to move 5 times. I have 46 decoys, 39 still decoys, 2 motions the lucky duck crow so 6 moving total. Also a flapping motion crow. I put 2-3 the trees, and the rest on the ground. First set up I put the whole spread out. Then every time I move and set up again I go down in numbers, usually my last couple of sets are just the flapper with one wing and a couple static decoys standing around acting like they are attacking the flapper. I usually just start out with crow calls then move to crow fighting then crow distress and then lastly crow dying. I will have 10-20 come in each time I set up, but after one shot they are history, on rare occasions they will swing for a second looks. What am I doing wrong? I watch all these YouTube videos of guys setting up and shooting all morning in the same location and birds just keep coming in. How is this possible lol? I use a fox pro shock wave caller by the way.
A couple quick things, Once they are shot at they probably wont come back. the video's you've seen are where new crows keep coming thru an area. They aren't shooting the same crows.
Try not calling so many in all at once. do some light calling on and off and you may be able to lure them in just a few at a time. A mouth call works well for that.
Your big decoy spread will work well in their feeding area, again, light calling so you don't get mobbed. Try to find where they feed & put out that decoy spread and you may not even need to do much calling.
Otherwise you'll have to run & gun with your fighting call & you realy dont need decoy's for that but a few won't hurt.
Lastly & most importantly, Don't educate them by calling & calling in the same places over and over. wait at least 3 weeks before going back. Once you've educated them you're Done !! keep us posted.
Camo is spot on with his advice. Sounds like too many decoys for a running & gunning plan, particularly with the motion decoys. If the decoys are not just right, they will see what’s wrong and will move on.
And a plus one on finding food sources. This is a big part of the game.
Good luck. Crow hunting is more than buying decoys and a caller...it is a process that takes commitment and perseverance...those suckers are smart!
Demi
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The man who thinks he can, and the man who thinks he can’t are both right.
Scout the location you want to hunt the day before. Be there at 6:30 am see where they are roosting, their flight patterns, wind current. Then decide where to put your blind. No calling at day break , let them find you. Sentrys will see your decoys, then scouts will check out your decoys. First shot will scare all of them away. Repeat this for about 15 minutes, then very light calling. You only want 1-3 to come. Pay attention to the first few birds approach, you may need to adjust decoys. They will use the wind to break their flight to land with the decoys. ANY movement will alert them. Just the gun barrel risen above the blind will detour them. Good luck
It depends on where you are setup! If you are in an orchard where you know that they come in to feed light calling can be used with some success. I personally have never used much soft calling because to many birds can slip bye you without coming by for a look; even in an orchard type of crow hunt.
I was hunting crows with a very nice gent from Alabama in a pecan orchard a number of years ago. He was using soft calls so I said to him let me give them a shout. His name was Barry (a real nice guy) and Barry said at the end of the hunt that the 200 odd crows we shot was the best shoot he ever had. He quit his soft calling after that hunt.
I used some soft calling, but mainly hard calling on these crows.
It was ok for one guy ( I was alone ) because I was averaging over 100 crows per hunt. I shot 130 on my best hunt which is nothing to brag about. I had better shooting across the river on the Alabama side of the river.
Jerry Tomlin was a big fan of soft calling. I knew him but not very well, we both teamed up in Tennessee to win a pair of model 870 shotguns in a crow tournament.
This is purely speculation on my part but I believe the reason Jerry used the soft calling so much was because he needed the crows to come in with there wings set. The reason for this was that the crows would not present a difficult shot for his clientele. The vast majority of his clientele were mediocre wing shots that needed the crows to be easy for any kind of bag limit. This is why 50 crows was a big deal for his customers because most of them could not hit there ass with both hands. Demi and guys like him were the exception. This is why I never guided any hunts myself, I could not stand seeing birds getting away that should have been in the bag. Another reason was because once you take people in to your hunting areas "they don't need you anymore" and I did not want to risk it.
All said is great but allow me to add just this. When dealing with educated birds to where the boom is your doom , add a barrel extion to your gun. This will greatly help the scare off to some degree. Now by chance if you have never seen nor used an extion it will change way you shoot and possibly increase your hit ratio.
I’ve found my killzone at 20 paces which is about 60 foot. My 870 has a 25 inch barrel. I’ve seen birds fall at 100foot And 200foot, So I know I can shoot farther. Part of my problem is judgment of distance in the air. I use the decoys placements and trees as a guide . My off season training will require clay shooting, with a new Benelli.
-- Edited by Crowpocalypse on Sunday 24th of February 2019 12:38:26 PM
When a bird is in the air it makes it much more difficult to judge distance because your depth perception does not help unless he is flying low to the ground where you can use the trees and under brush to aid your depth perception.
During my early years of chasing crows it would amaze me at how far off I was at judging distance. Here is an example, I would get set for a single crow in the air that I figured was close to 40 yards and when I saw the feathers fly where I could see the dead crow and the puff of feathers in mid air that aided my depth perception. To my horror I could see that the crow was no further than 30 yards not 40! My hunting partner who has shot all his life with a shotgun still can't judge distance worth a damn on your longer shots. He has the ability to kill the high birds so he uses me to tell him "Dick, that bird can be killed" and he takes the shot.
Many times a crow that is an overhead shot that is let us say is 35 yards looks like a 50 yard shot to the average shooter. After you do it you get a feel for it but some guys never do. You just have to keep at it because it does not come over night. The only way to get good on high or long birds is to get plenty of that type of shooting to build in that muscle memory! During each season I might shoot 5 to 6 hundred crows beyond 50 to 60 yards the rest are 40 yards and under.
Thank you for the information. I’ve seen many poofs of feathers and the bird flies away. I’ve watched a bird get hit hard with 6s and poofs of feathers like snowflakes, and watched it fly a good mile in South Dakota do a turn straight up in the air 40 foot and plummet straight down to the earth. So I’m thinking the hard hit birds will succumb To the shot within a few minutes. I’ve seen one just this past Friday flyaway make it 400 yards and make right turns continuesly then fly 20 foot to the safety of the trees. I’m thinking he’s a gonner. But on the same note I’ve watched what appeared to be a dead bird wake up and fly away but only able to fly a few 100 yards. After hunting this area for the last 2 months I’m seeing lots of birds with missing feathers on just one wing. To many to count. My latest tactics is to pull the dead apart to see what brought it down. To my discovery the skin is very very thick. The breast is very thick , which protects the vital organs. Unless its a head shot,gut shot, broken wing shot. They are not going down. That’s just my observation. I hunted Prairie dogs in the Dakotas . An old timer advised me to put surveying steaks with flagging tape . At the varied distances 50,75,100 yards to adjust parallax on my scope. This helped tremendously . I have a telescoping pole That can adjust to 30 foot. I wonder if I attached a Sentry extend it and place it on the outer edge of my decoys to help me with depth perception? I use this device to remove my tree sentries. So it’s in the field anyway, it will have a duel purpose now. What do you think?
Compared to other game birds such as waterfowl crows are very thin skinned like a quail or dove. Crows do not take much lead to knock out of the air you just have to hit them in the front end not the back end.
The poofs of feathers you refer to on some of your hunts (having the bird fly away) tells me your hitting them in the back end where there are no real vitals to speak of.
To answer your question about putting a sentry decoy on the outside perimeter of your decoy's I would not do it because you will have birds staying to far down wind of your blind. You can try it and let us know if it helped you judge distance any better. The reason I am skeptical is because most crows are killed at a 45 degree angle or higher so your 30 foot pole will be of little use in my opinion.
Goood observation as I was going to make another rookie mistake, now that I think about my successful hunts the birds are flying directly at my blind, where I get a head shot, on the fly by shots , cross shots I would guess I’m hitting them at 10% to be honest. And the fly away shots are all to their back side.
P.S. How are you taking photos while shooting, I see on you tube guys with some camera attached to their guns?
-- Edited by Crowpocalypse on Sunday 24th of February 2019 05:13:43 PM
