Crow hunting.

[alleyyooper]

Kare and I are setting at the dinning room table yesterday and crows started flying by. They just kept comming crow after crow some close to the house and some across the creek which is 39 yards from our house.

Years (1960-1970's) ago we hunted crows on the farm with shot guns laying up in fence lines with home made dried grass screening.
At first we did rather well but those crows are really smart birds right on par with apes and chimps.
They figured out the range of the shot guns, Where we were hidden, possiably even the sounds of the crow calls (Olt mouth type) we were useing.

We our selves switched tactics, the crows would come to the calls and decoys (crows) we had out but settle in trees out of shot gun range cussing us out and probably even giving us the finger if they had one.

We went to our rifles 22lr, 22mag, 243 wins. and the last time I went out I had my 220 swift.
We would shoot a bunch and a colored lady in town would give us 25 cents each for them. Every Wednesday the church she belonged to had a fried chicken meal deal. I can't remember the price from back then.
Once we discovered they had the dinners Wednesday we stopped selling her the crows.
Just wanted to make sure the people who bought the chicken dinners indead got chicken and not our crows.
I can't even remember who found out she would buy crows from us.

Life caught up with many of us, Brother got married and moved away from the farm, Hunting partner had two boys he needed to mentor and not bother others he said.
Then I just quit because I had no one to go with and I don't care what some say hunting with friends and family is much better than going it alone.
I do deer hunt sort of alone today, Kare is only a radio transmission away.

I knew in th 1980's they were talking about a season on crows. I looked up Michigans crow season 2020.

Spring season started 3 days ago on the 1st of Febuary, till March 31st.
Fall season is August 1st to September 30.

There is no bag limit so I do believe I will give it a try again. Only decoys I have left now how ever is a pair of owls.
I had heard back when you could make some workable crow decoys with wire and black plastic trash bags.
Will have To see if I can find some DIY information on this.

Today I have a E caller and can use crow owl fight sound, crow hawk fight sound.
My E caller came standard with the Owl Crow fight and I tried it out to see and I had crows flying all about the area where the caller sat.

Al

[alleyyooper]

Found one.
https://www.wideopenspaces.com/make-cheap-crow-decoy/

I have a roll of black plastic.
Knew I had heard of coat hanger decoys.

[MEDIA=youtube]uXwkfcay3AI[/MEDIA]

I also have card board I tend to save some.
[MEDIA=youtube]54WSffRr7jM[/MEDIA]


Al

[alleyyooper]

Do people eat crows? Of course they do, I still think the ladies were serveing crow to some people to this day.

I would think about any chicken recipe would work.
[MEDIA=youtube]wJmht6l2iEc[/MEDIA]

[MEDIA=youtube]Jen1thTH7f4[/MEDIA]

[MEDIA=youtube]BrxX8LEqs8w[/MEDIA]


I liked the one comment. if you don't like scavangers don't eat Shrimp & crab and stay away from wild hogs too.

Al

[alleyyooper]

Do people eat crows? Of course they do, I still think the ladies were serveing crow to some people to this day.

I would think about any chicken recipe would work.
[MEDIA=youtube]wJmht6l2iEc[/MEDIA]

[MEDIA=youtube]Jen1thTH7f4[/MEDIA]

[MEDIA=youtube]BrxX8LEqs8w[/MEDIA]


I liked the one comment. if you don't like scavangers don't eat Shrimp & crab and stay away from wild hogs too.

Al

[Racks&Beards]

I believe crows were fair game year round here in MO a long time ago with no limits. Today there's still no limits but the season runs November 1 - early March. I remember as a kid, we would go out and throw a bunch of decoys on the ground, dad would set up his caller that played a cassette tape of crow calls. We'd use shotguns and hide on a field edge then just start blasting them out of the air when they'd all show up. We'd also have a .22lr (or 2) to shoot them on the ground if they landed. Was so much fun. I haven't done that in years.

[jjc1974us]

I believe that Pelosi is eating a bit of Crow today! Sorry, I couldn't resist.

[alleyyooper]

Don't care to have my post turned political. Bet she earned the admiration of the people of California.

Al

[may21581]

If you want to shoot crows from dusk till dawn In ohio just sit out a bag of McDonalds or any garbage day the cans go out.

[muddy]

Since they're considered a migratory bird in Iowa they have a season. I quit hunting them as I put my efforts elsewhere and I didn't care for chucking them in the ditch instead of eating them. Havent been hungry enough to cook up some of the black rascals.

[alleyyooper]

Funny way back when we were told that killing crows just to kill them because they could not be ate was a waste and marked us and just killers.

Funny thing is many said they could not or should not be ate because they eat road kill and other dead critters.
Yes that is true.
[b]But have you considered the shrimp so many love to eat and crabs also eat ocean trash?

[/b]

The American crow is omnivorous. It will feed on invertebrates of all types, carrion, scraps of human food, seeds, eggs and nestlings, stranded fish on the shore and various grains. American crows are active hunters and will prey on mice, frogs, and other small animals. In winter and autumn, the diet of American crows is more dependent on nuts and acorns.

They not only feed on song birds and their nest but also will find and eat the eggs of ducks, geese and wild turkeys.
They have been seen as a flock working their ways down fresh planted crop fields and destroy a 20 acre corn crop before it even comes up.

Al

[KRONIIK]

I have shot a few crows, but only by opportunity encounters.
Never actively hunted them, but I could sure see it being a lot of fun.

I've heard the breast meat is pretty good to eat; dark and somewhat like duck.

One thing that supposedly drives them insane is to stake out a domestic cat in a Havahart trap in an open field near the edge of a woods.
Throw a bunch of crow decoys around it and start calling.
Supposedly they'll go nuts to the point of pretty much ignoring all the gunshots and fellow crows raining down around them, and just keep coming.

I'm sure its illegal to hunt them like that in some States but if you consider it pest control, why not?
They certainly are hard on gamebirds and songbirds' nests.

[Rich M]

We used to hunt crows with an old Lyman record player call and magaphone. We called it the crow top 40.

We killed a few, but no big numbers. Every trip was a learning experience. here's what i got:

You get one shot from each blind - they will not decoy to the same blind twice in the same day.
The more decoys the better - we used to make cardboard crow decoys and put em on sticks, used a fish pole to pull a sentinel up high and to hang a flier or two.
Motion in the decoys helps a lot.
You can add cardboard wings to an owl decoy to make em flap some
Let em get in close and kill the lead bird, will give you a few extra "moments"

[alleyyooper]

Not our case at all even back when we were just out of our teens.No E Callers owned by us we had all we could do to afford a few crow decoys and a owl decoy.

We'd lay up in fence rows (they had them back then.) in grass and bushes. Useing out mouth crow calls start calling like we had read in one of thre sporting magazines. Yes they had real storys back then with helpfull tips not 99 pages of ads in a 100 page mag, but we all know today the mags don't even have 50 pages.

We could call the crows to our shot guns all day for a few days (not in a row.) but they learned to avoid the areas.

Today with My E Caller they will come in a lot when I have a few decoys out and a Owl decoy out and play the owl crow fight song.


Al