Crow shooting thoughts

[Wolfdog91]

You guys ever look back on how y'all used to do things and how difficult they seemed compared to now that your older? Kinda thought about this the other day when I popped a crow. I remember killing a crow used to be one of the hardest things for me , I remember being 12yr stalking up on my hands and knees through a open cow pasture for about 100yd with my daisy 880 to try and get close enough to put a pellet in one of the ole black birds. 9/10 time I failed but when I did get one it was an accomplishment lol. Then I got my little crack barrel .410 made shooting them on the fly a possibility but again 8/10 times it was a faliure, one shot with some random upland shells from the feed store in the hands of a 14yr can only do so much usually but still fun. Then got the .22lr extended my range a good little bit and moved up to about 5/5 times being a hit but without knowledge of how to properly account for bullet drop and wind I ended up educations them to stay outta regular range and kinda went back to square one , spotting and stalking through the cow fields. Well now I'm 23 got a much better hold on ballistics, marksmanship, better gun and glass and gear. Can pretty easily keep a beer can hopping at 100yd if I do my part. But I've gotten a way from the ever elusive crow. More paper punching and gong slapping than anything.

Well I step out on the porch yesterday and there's a crow out in the pasture. Was asked to shoot crows this time if the year because apparently they harass the new born calves. Well I see ole boy out here be-bopping around and decided he's gotta go.

Walk to my gun room grab a few things walk back out .Check the range finder, 75 yd, not too far , used to could never range like that, 2mph 5 to 11 o clock wind according to my little wind meter , never was good at reading wind till now since I can double check, check my ballistic app +1.3 MOA for elevation .2 MOA for windage. Dial in on my turrets and turn to 10x outta 14.5 , a world of difference from iorns or the little 4x32 scope I had years back. I prop up In a good cross legged marine style position and rack in a thunder bolt. Used to shoot anything but now I only use what the gun likes. Plant the cross hairs on his chest, little on the high side ,check my cant bubble , I'm level and as soon as he stops I let a breath out and squeeze. Shot rips out and 75yd away, what used to be almost a mythical shot for me, a crow flipped kicked once and was dead. Just like that. I looked at my gun and all I could say was " well that was easy". As I walked out to pick him up I couldn't help but just kinda laugh a little bit thinking how less then 4 years ago I would have killed to have some of the gear I have today 6 years ago I wouldn't have even tried that shot and before that I would have probably been out here crawling through cow patties for 10min with a $50 pellet gun just to get busted and see him fly off. Funny how we advance over time and how what used to be a challenge just becomes easy as pie lol.


281848

[versa-06]

Spanked Him! ---Good Shot!---

[CastingFool]

Good story! I've only shot one crow, that was getting into the garden. His buddies got the message real fast.

[45-70 Chevroner]

Crow shooting, yah, well actually Ravin shooting up here in Northern Arizona. Haven't done it in quite a while. My method was hide in a nice big Cedar tree and call them in with a crow call and nail um with a load of any size shot from a 12 gauge pump, at about 30 to 40 feet. At my age I don't think I will be sneaking up on them.

[Winger Ed.]

Surprised the heck out-a him.

One thing that's cool about being a guy--- as time goes on, ya get better, and fancier toys.:bigsmyl2:

[405grain]

Great story, and I can relate. Way back many years ago I'd go varminting for ground squirrels with a 10-22. I'd travel up to the Eel river drainage, the Diablo Mountains, or to Forrest lands in the Sierra's. I'd usually get between 6 and 10 of them on a good trip, but sometimes only 1 or 2. If I was able to pick off a couple of them, I considered that a good trip. A couple of years ago a friend of mine invited me to go up to Cedarville and shoot ground squirrels on cultivated alfalfa fields. I shot over 100 of them the first hour that I was there. That was a watershed event! Since that time I've built several dedicated varmint rifles, and go varminting at farms and ranches. there have been many occasions when I've been able to shoot hundreds of squirrels on a day.
If I didn't have to spend years working for it, things like these wouldn't be appreciated as much. If you win a target match or get a trophy buck first time out of the gate, it doesn't feel as good as it does when you have to put in time and effort to make it come together. You didn't just whack that crow, you earned it.

[Bad Ass Wallace]

I used to shoot the odd one as a kid, but living here in retirement on the farm, I have come to realise that "crows. ravens, rooks or whatever name they are called" are part of nature. We have a long term nest not 50 yards from the house and I've watched them through the spotting scope for several seasons feeding young with grasshoppers, catapillars, beetles etc. but never a sheeps eyeball!

I know the call can be anoying buy still no reason to shoot them.

[Winger Ed.]

I know the call can be anoying buy still no reason to shoot them.

They go on and off the protected list here according to their population size, and what sort of local crops are being raised.
When there are too many of them in 'farm country', they'll do a lot of crop damage.

[koger]

I have been a rifle nut my whole life, 58 years now, and have taken over 300 crows, before I quit tallying them up. I have a Savage 12 22-250 that is on its second barrel, and had it since 1990. It is wicked accurate, I have it zeroed 2" high at 100yds and hold pretty well dead center to 300-350 yds with 53 gr BTHP at 3600 fps, they just come undone, only find pieces. I took quite a few year back with a 17 Remington, and man was that explosive. I have a Savage .204 with a Pac Nor custom barrel I put on it, that loves 40g V Max's and is pure poison on crows an chucks. Like You i started out with a Mossberg 22 with single shot so I can relate to you.

[Texas by God]

I've been on them with a 22-250 since 1972 here on the farm. Out to 200 yds on still days I sure like the .17HMR lately. Good on you for dialing in on El Cuervo, Amigo.

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[versa-06]

You keep bust'in them crows. They are hard on anything that lays eggs. Especially tree nesting ducks, & or any other game or song bird. They can destroy freshly sprouting crops in a short order. God put everything here for a reason, as far as I'm concerned & so are others, they are like rats with wings. Do you see anyone protecting Rats?

[farmbif]

not crow, but today it rained almost all day, when the rain quit there were a pair of some kind of very large black buzzards on my roof staring at momma cat and her new litter of kittens. I shooed em off and went and got my old 39a mountie loaded with cci quiets. a flock of about 5 crows were harassing the buzzards which landed atop a tall pine tree across the road. the crows were going crazy flying around and pecking at the buzzards. I took a shot and winged a buzzard. it jumped into flight and I got another real good shot at it in flight and it headed down into the wooded ridge across the way with the crows chasing it down. I betting those crows had a feast.

[veeman]

Shot a crow once with my 1886 45/70. POOF!!! couple feathers floated down.

[Three44s]

You bet those crows and ravines are trouble! Also, they assuredly kill new born calves and lambs by destroying their eyeballs. They do not pluck them out, they eat on them in place!

Keep up the good story telling!

Best regards

Three44s

[richhodg66]

Crows are smart. I keep an old 16 gauge single out in the barn, I can be doing stuff outside and crows will fly around, but if I casually walk in and retrieve that shotgun, they dissappear fast, doesn't even take a shot being fired.

[robg]

i like corvids but have to shoot them as they are a menace to lambs and all the small song birds .usually use a 12bore over decoys .if im rough shooting i will shoot any in range.they soon learn to keep away if you have a gun with you but come real close if you havent .

[Mr_Sheesh]

Wolfdog91, great! Varminting is one of my main passions, I wish I could still shoot now, like I could at age 10, LOL

Enjoy your new fun toys :)

[bluebird66]

Great story!

[dale2242]

Interesting story.
We have a crow season here in Oregon. It starts Oct.1 with no limit.
Why a season, I have no idea.
I haven`t shot crows in a while.
A predator call playing "crow fight" will bring in every crow within hearing distance.
I shot them on the wing with my 12 gauge.

[Markopolo]

its so nice having Young folks around here!!!

Way to go Wufdog!!!!! i am dang glad your a shooter and loader. gives me hope!

Marko

[Shopdog]

Great story,thanks for sharing.

22-250 here with RCBS 60G and a case full of IMR4831. The effort,gauged by how far the chunks land from ground zero. 6' is about my best.

[T-Bird]

You're better than I was at 12-14. I never did kill a crow with my pellet gun for all the reasons you cite but boy did I try. I killed doves, quail, squirrels, 1 rabbit, 1 duck (wild) and countless blue jays but never a crow. Don't think any of my friends did either.

[Three44s]

its so nice having Young folks around here!!!

Way to go Wufdog!!!!! i am dang glad your a shooter and loader. gives me hope!

Marko

He’s a caster as well and adds pizzazz around here with his activities and passing them on in his stories!

Three44s

[444ttd]

i think my first crow kill is around 35 years ago. i used my buddies 243 win and it was about 150+/-yards. the remains were one wing attached to the body(only 1/2 of body) and head. there was also a 3' pile of black feathers. i think i overkilled him. i have shot crows in 12, 16 and 20ga: 222 rem, 223 rem, 22-250ai, 22 short, long, long rifle and my 20 vartarg.

good story, by the way!!!!!!!

[Tar Heel]

Up here in North Carolina the crows are smarter. Walk outside with anything that remotely resembles a rifle and they leave the county. Fast like.

[panhed65]

Good story, reminds me of my first crow kill. not sure how old I was anymore, but had not gotten my first 22 so still pretty young, and had a daisy lever action bb gun, like a Winchester 94. tried sneaking up on them, but no luck. but there was a dead tree in the swamp by my house, crows always sat in it, and there was a small depression under it, so I started to lay there and cover myself with leaves. took a while, but I finally got one. a real trophy at my age.
Barry

[rockrat]

Man, when young, a few friends and I would go after the crows. Big roost not too far away and the farmers liked us willing to go after them.
A 40 crow day was pretty good and some days were a lot better. Roost is long gone, but boy, those were the days. We used shotguns with #2 shot duck loads as #4's would just rattle off them.

[Mr_Sheesh]

444ttd, nope you just used exactly enough gun. To make sure :)

[alfadan]

I got two with my 22 hornet last year. Nice and quiet but does a number on them.

[6.5 mike]

30-40 krag hi-wall, 200 gr lee pp'ed at 100 yds sitting on the range frame. Bang poof, took awhile for the feathers to quit falling.

[James Wisner]

This thread made me laugh.

So back in the 80"s our estemed elected persons in DC signed a treaty with Mexico that we would not shoot Mexican crows. They ment the crows down south by the border, but you can guess how that treaty came out.

So that put a damper on our Crow hunting up here in WA State. In my parents Gun Shop we used to reload LOTS of 22-250 ammo for persons shooting crows.
One day the local Game Warden stopped by and was in the shop, when a regular customer stopped by to pick up his ammo. He made a remark about how many crows he could shoot with that ammo. The Game Warden nicely told him he could not shoot Crows. The Warden was told by the customer that Treaty only concerned Mexican crows, the Warden agreed, but the law is the law. The regular simply said as he walked out the door. I take care of that, before I shoot the crow. I yell out Speak any English, if the Crow replys in Spainish I do not shoot it.
I thought the Game Warden was going to bust a gut laughing so hard.

Now we have a 4 month season for them in the fall only.

I did get around that for a while, in the spring before planting, I would go around to some farmers and get a written letter stating I was killing those Crows as they were depredating crops/newly planted seeds. I never got stopped but shot a lot of Crows in my younger years.

J Wisner

[panhed65]

Here in Pa, we have a crow season also, due to same treaty. Fri, Sat, and Sunday, with some time closed for breeding or some such, but you can shoot them if the are depredating, so I guess they are always doing that, never saw one that wasn't.
Barry

[Jim22]

Wolfdog - you tell a good story. Do you have any story tellers in your family? It sometimes gets passed down. From what I've seen it's as much fun for the teller as for the listener. I want to hear more.

[missionary5155]

Been thumping crows for 55 years with time out for 3 years and 22 days of hunting bigger game.
But few have been with a rifle. Have shot more called rows with flintlocks than rifles.
May have to alter that condition one day in the future.

[SoonerEd]

I've killed hundreds if not a couple thousand. Use to hunt Fort Cobb, Oklahoma where they roosted over the winter anywhere from 8 to 18 million each year. Hunted them with a 22lr as a kid and didn't get many that way. Did pop one along with two raccoons with a 17 hornet one day last year...they were snagging the corn out of my deer feeders.

[Iowa Fox]

When I was a kid the the county paid a bounty on crows and golfers. I got a few but not many crows, lots of golfers. Crows are a large contributing factor to the near extinction of pheasants in this state.

[Mr_Sheesh]

IDK how many crows I've killed, "All I could" is probably the best number I can give.

I remember going on a hunting trip after rockchucks, with crows and coyotes as happy secondary targets, with several rifles & ~6000 rounds in about 1968, we came back out of ammo. That was when I started thinking 3k rounds, per varminting rifle, was a minimum for brass, carry it ALL when you go :)

Our friend with a horse ranch was very happy that he didn't have to use paralytic poison on his entire huge ranch, and we were glad to help, didn't knock all the RCs down at any location, just 3/4 or so. A couple warm winters in a row cause huge population blooms, and he'd then lose far too many horses from all the new RC dens near water...

[alfadan]

When I was a kid the the county paid a bounty on crows and golfers. I got a few but not many crows, lots of golfers. Crows are a large contributing factor to the near extinction of pheasants in this state.

Forgive me if Im wrong, but if I kill all the golfers, wont they lock me up and throw away the key?[smilie=l:

[Txcowboy52]

I love shooting crows especially long range with a rifle, but lately me and my beautiful bride of 40 years, have found a new way to have fun! We get all our camo on, I set up a few crow decoys and get the Foxpro ready, we sit under a bunch of big oak trees and call crows in. Lots of fun with a shotgun!!

[Mrlucky353]

Forgive me if Im wrong, but if I kill all the golfers, wont they lock me up and throw away the key?[smilie=l:

Lol

[Mrlucky353]

Crows are so smart.

Am convinced they know the effective range of CCI 22 Mini-Mags.
And they fly away right before you get in range.

[ogre]

When I was a kid the the county paid a bounty on crows and golfers. I got a few but not many crows, lots of golfers. Crows are a large contributing factor to the near extinction of pheasants in this state.

How did you do that: set up a blind at the "19th hole?"

[richhodg66]

When I was a kid the the county paid a bounty on crows and golfers. I got a few but not many crows, lots of golfers. Crows are a large contributing factor to the near extinction of pheasants in this state.

I don't doubt what you say, but is there a study or something you can link us to that says that?

I live in north central Kansas and this is classic upland bird country. I never have hunted them much but love to see them, Quail too, both seem to have become almost extinct here the past 20 years or so and nobody really seems to have a good explanation and most theories have their supporters and bashers.

Again, a serious question, I hadn't heard that crows had an impact, but they are pretty nasty and I would not doubt it.

[richhodg66]

We had three crows mulling around on the driveway this morning, maybe 50-60 yards from the front door. I keep a .22 loaded there but I knew there was no way I was gonna get the door open to try to shoot one.

[MostlyLeverGuns]

I protect a pair of Great Horned Owls and a hawk nest or two, then of course the meadowlarks, robins and such. Flock of crows came in after the owls, got several with shotgun, old 16 ga Sears bolt action 6 shooter, before they left. Showed up again a couple days later, got a couple more, now they stay clear, shot a scout with .17 HMR, about 125 yds, now if a scout or two shows up, just walking toward them causes them to leave. 200 plus yards seems to be their distance if they do come through. Have not seen a flock for a couple years. I find crows are mostly unpleasant and destructive.

[Texas by God]

They certainly know the difference between my wife's truck and mine. They skedaddle when they see mine.

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[Murphy]

Wolfdog91,

Thanks for sharing your videos and experiences. Without fail, I've enjoyed them all. I grew up a city kid until I was 13. When dad moved us back home where he grew up, man did the fun begin. All my country cousins and classmates pretty much hunted. Now that I think about it, that's about all we had for entertainment. I'm 67 years old now.

And I'm going to throw in with the others. It's good to see young men like you carrying on what so many of us worry about. And that's the loss of young shooters who cast, reload and hunt. For that matter, any of the three I just mentioned. I'm sure many read your posts and watch your videos with a lot of joy. As one of the other posters stated, we need more young men like you. I have all this 'stuff' and feel like I'd have to pay a young man to learn how to cast and load. Yet, we can find them all over hollering about not having any ammunition.

One more thing, thank you for your service!


Murphy

[wmitty]

If you have not read “Varmint and Crow Shooters Bible “ by Bert Popowski, it is very good reading. His description of his pet crow named “Judas” is absolutely worth your time.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

The more I learn about the crow critters the less I feel like killing them. And i have killed my share. They are extremely intelligent creatures. I do enjoy swatting pigeons, starlings and grackels.

[jim147]

I've never seen a thread here go caddyshack. This one wins everything.

[Wolfdog91]

Hay thanks for all the kind words y'all ! Sorry I want responding quicker lol .

[gmsharps]

I’ve seen a group of crows drive a red tail hawk to the ground and continue the attack until they have killed it. I have intervened a couple of times shooting whatever I had with me and broke up the fight. If I see a crow within shooting distance they are toast. They are smart but very destructive.

Gmsharps

[Cosmic_Charlie]

We have quite a few who nest in our neighborhood. I have seen them destroy songbird nests, flying away with chunks of them to build their own nests with. The last one I killed was about 8 years ago from our back deck. Lucky 50 yard head shot with a souped up scoped Crossman. 22 pellet pistol.

[44magLeo]

Great story. I didn't try stalking crows that way but did stalk lots of woodchucks with a 22. It was tough for me at the time.
I can remeber some of the older hunters talking about crows. They said a crow can tell the difference between a rifle and a shotgun your carring.
They can couint up to 3. They often would have 4 or 5 people walk out to a blind and 4 would walk back. The crows would come near enough because they thought everybody left.
I haven't hunted crows enough to verify those old guys.
I have killed a few. When I got out of thev service I brought with me a Reminngtom 788 in 22-250.
One day after chores we came up from the barn that was at the at the lower farm. We lived in the house at the upper farm. About 225 yards up the hill. My BIL had spread manure on the feild about 200 yards from the barn.
When we got up to the house we saw a crow feeding on that strip of manure.
I had shot the 22-250 a fair amount out to a couple hundred yards and had a good idea of how it shot at those distances.
I knew that crow feeding on the fresh manure was out abouit 425 to 450 yards. I was using Hornady 55 gr bullets. i knew the velocity and where it was shooting shorter ranges. Using the ballistic tables in my Hornady manual, I looked up what I needed to know to hit that crow. With sand bags on the hood of the truck I figured I had to hold just shy of a foot over the crow for that distance.
Looking at the crow at a broadside view on the 9x of that Bushnell scope I knew the crow was about a foot long from head to tail and used that to judge how high I had to be. No wind to adjust for, luckily, at the shorter ranges I was shooting at wind wasn't much of an issue so I didn't really understand much about wind effecting the bullet.
I held one crow length over the crow and put the bullet right through it's shoulders.
The people watching were pretty amaed with the shot. So was I. I wanted to jump for joy after the shot, but I just remained calm like I did it all the time.
It's one shot I'll always remember.
Leo

[Gee_Wizz01]

I am retired, crowding 70 and have a bad back, I can no longer crawl across the cow pasture to sneak up on varmints. I make up for my handicaps with better technology. These days I hunt crows from my back porch with my 220 Swift, a tripod rifle rest, laser rangefinder, ballistics ap on my phone, an Alpha Dogg game call and a glass of ice tea. When I see or hear the crows I fire up the game call with the crow commotion and wait for them to land in the pines. Last week I used my old Marlin 39A, so the crows were staying about 100 yards out. The first crow was sitting in a pine tree at 130 yards. I nailed him with my first shot and he just collapsed and fell to ground. I was surprised that the 55 grain Hornady spire point didn't cause an explosion of feathers. The rest of the crows left for about 10 minutes and then a couple returned and lit in another pine at 150 yards. I fired again and the crow fell out of the tree. His buddy flew out to another tree at 185 yards and commenced to create a commotion. I got him with another shot and he quickly hit the ground. Things got quiet for a while and finally another crow landed in a pine tree at 260 yards. I was ready for the challenge, I checked the ballistics app and dialed in my scope and fired and missed. The bullet hit the branch he was sitting on and ricocheted just like in the movies. After that the crows left area, my wife told me that this rifle was too loud to shoot off the back porch and to knock it off. I thought to myself '3 ot of 4, bad for an old codger'. Hopefully they'll back next week. Life is good out here on the farm.

Gary

[Texas by God]

Found one 164 paces from the driveway in the pecan bottom. The 17HMR works perfectly.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20210507/3a6d1cf432c05bdb53899ce2b00bc92f.jpg

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https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20210507/39d67de41892fb496f4bad350374ea2b.jpg
I dont understand why that some days pics are clear and some days they are not.....oh well, sorry about that.

[jsizemore]

Forgive me if Im wrong, but if I kill all the golfers, wont they lock me up and throw away the key?[smilie=l:

I bet he wrote "gopher" and spell check putted in.

[missionary5155]

Fuzzy pictures is from some crow sitting on a receiver and reading the posts.

[Jim22]

When I was a kid the the county paid a bounty on crows and golfers. I got a few but not many crows, lots of golfers. Crows are a large contributing factor to the near extinction of pheasants in this state.

Boy, I sure am glad I gave up golf.

[Mr_Sheesh]

I hear that in some jurisdictions you can get a bounty on folks who just golfed once :p

[Geezer in NH]

Late 60's early 70's crow shooting was the best. I lived in the city but had an older friend who took me crow shooting at a pig farm in Carlisle MA. An old 45rpm battery phonograph player and horn and 75-100 decoys.

There would be 6-7 shooters including a reporter from the Boston Globe who was a regular of the shoot. Bag would be 100 plus crows and 40-50 pigeons spooked out of the feeder barns.

A different farm there would be shot each week till it went around again to the first one.

I would use up all the leftover shells from the last hunting season plus a case of target rounds on these hunts/shoots

The farmers were very happy with the results as it kept the birds out of the feed, and none of the birds shot went to waste as they fell in the pens for the hogs to clean up.

Today the lands are all subdivisions and a gun shot would get one arrested.

[missionary5155]

When I was growing up in SW Michigan the feller across the road had one of those record player / horn outfits. Crows would come in attacking the the horn. That is where I got my start popping crows. Set up the portable blinds, fire up the record and stay alert.

[farmerjim]

The crows will walk down the sweet corn rows just as the plants emerge and pull them up and eat them. I sneak up on them with a 12 ga and shoot them just as they lift off. I hang the dead crow from a 6 foot stick. The other crows see this and give a danger call and turn around and leave.

[Rapier]

I usually just ignore them until they get to being crows and start aggravating or killing stuff like baby birds, ducks, etc., and then we have a reduction in their ranks. I use my Beretta 391 20ga from the edge of the trees, my 22-250 AI when they retreat to a field or pasture. They will run off and not return for 2-3 months if you kill a few in a single day.
They do keep the hawks and owls down to a medium roar on my farm. Only reason I allow them to return.

[YippyKiYay]

I remember hunting with a 881 Daisy, a SS 22 was cheaper and I begged Dad for it, but he thought an 8yo didn't need a 22. I killed my share of birds, sparrows were in serious trouble.

A few years later Dad traded for a SS 12ga long tom; 36" full choke. I recall as a teen I was feeding the stock and a crow was cawing from a tree in the yard. Dad opened the door with his long tom and the crow took flight. Dad had to wait for the bird to clear several trees before he got a good shot at it, about 70 yards. I muttered something like, he'll; never make THAT shot as the crow flew up and towards me at an angle. I was well over 100 yards from dad.

A giant unseen hand slapped the crow in mid-flight from behind, the bird turned tail over head through the air and was falling to earth as the boom reached me. I've sat in blinds and shot them with shotguns and rifles, but I will never forget THAT shot Pop made.

I miss you Dad.

Yip

[Geezer in NH]

They certainly know the difference between my wife's truck and mine. They skedaddle when they see mine.

Sent from my SM-A716U using TapatalkCrows are smart, they remembered your Plate number.

[Bazoo]

First and only crow I have shot was with a 30-30. He was bout 125 yards. As much luck as it was skill. I didn’t feel right bout shooting him so I ain’t shot any others. A 30-30 will flat anchor a crow.

They come to the birdseed we spread in the drive now. Neat to see them.

[YippyKiYay]

Dad said when he was young they would trap an owl (dont try this at home), tie it to a pole and set it up in a field. He said if you killed the 1st crow to come to it you saw no more crows that day. You had to wait until they got to diving on the owl and he flapped his wings at them a few times, then he said you could get a shotgun hot.

He spent much more time on the woods than me.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

Often, when I drop a pidgeon or starling with my pellet guns a crow will spy them dead on the ground and eat the breast off them. Years ago I would have then shot the crow.

[missionary5155]

Decoys.. When I go out in the before dawn to pop crows I have 2 black plastic decoys that get set up out front and downwind. In our area when they leave their roost they fly up to 70-100 yards with the wind. So by the time the first few see the decoys out in the field or bush they have to come back up wind a bit and usually drop down to 30 yards to check out "who is talking". I normally use a 40 some year old Outers all in full camo. If no others have turned the first ones get popped and set up as decoys.
Groups are normally a few minutes apart. Then I add to the ground decoys until there are maybe a dozen out front or the flights stop coming through.
Normal morning goes about 10-15 in a 30 minute span.
Best mornings are fog or falling snow. Their vision is well impaired and they fly low coming to the call slow. Shots can be under 15 yards or some land in the bushes close.

[centershot]

I used to shoot the odd one as a kid, but living here in retirement on the farm, I have come to realise that "crows. ravens, rooks or whatever name they are called" are part of nature. We have a long term nest not 50 yards from the house and I've watched them through the spotting scope for several seasons feeding young with grasshoppers, catapillars, beetles etc. but never a sheeps eyeball!

I know the call can be anoying buy still no reason to shoot them.

Oh, yes, my friend, there is - When a 75 gr. Speer HP from my .243 slams into them at 3200 fps, they make the most beautiful black cloud of feathers! It's a joyful thing! :bigsmyl2:

[warren5421]

CROWS are TRICKY TARGETS https://gunsmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/G0457.pdf page 18

[missionary5155]

I do agree with that statement. They are manuver Masters. They flip flop and change directions fast as any bird.

[warren5421]

I grew up in Southern Ohio 5 miles from Minford, Ohio. Had lots of hills with small (15-20 acres) flats between them. The farmers would plant corn and the crows would come in and eat the corn. The farmers around me would allow me to shoot with a .22 at the crows. I got real good with it out to about 100 yards. One day my dad, a truck driver, was home (about every 2-3 weeks) setting on the frount porch and a crow landed on a tree limb 137 yards away (surveyed several years later) , dad turned to me and said hit that crow and we go to the Deary Cream. I had been asking for ice cream. I picked up the rifle and using what we called Kentucy windage, only had factory sights on it, I shot and the crow dropped, no wing movement. Walked to where it was on the ground and there was a small hole just under one of it's eyes. Dad took mom, my 3 siblings at that time, and me for ice cream. That was the best ice cream I ever had! I shot that little rifle so much that if the target was under 100 yards I could hit it. Wish I could shoot like that now. My shooting cost $0.35/box or $0.01/ shell at the local general store. Wish I could do that now.

[Rapier]

Crows live to 80 years of age, so they get real smart. They have their own language and if you study on them, you can duplicate their calls, just make sure you do not duplicate the “danger-get out of Dodge” call.
Most amazing is the hawk/owl fight, they will come, like the Lone Ranger to the rescue. Just get cameoed up with an owl decoy out a bit and sit still until they get right on top of you.
If your state allows recorded calls, go to a crow lovers web site and record the calls as MP3s, make yourself a CD, get a cheap remote controlled boom box.....It is a bit easier than learning the hand calls. I have a large nylon bag of decoys.
Get setup on the edge of a crow fly way. When they stop coming, move to another location.