I've been calling crows this past season while coyote hunting. Usually I'll take my .223 for coyote and a my semi-auto 12ga for crow. I'll call coyote with the Foxpro to start and then if I nothing bites I'll switch to crow.

Well today i tried something a little different. I've been noticing that they will tree up if you let the call run long enough. I took out my suppressed .22 bolt rifle (CZ 452) and got them tree'd up and was able to easily shoot them out of it using 40gr sub-sonics. The rifle is very quiet and they didn't even know what was happening. Once you shoot one and wound it or kill it more will come around. I'd play the "dying crow" sound and tons came in. I took about 16-17 today using this method.

The rifle is a tack driver and the way I was sitting the tree/s acted as a back stop for my rounds(I didn't miss though). Should make sure you're dead on zero before you start shooting up into the air.

Anyone else hunt crow?

Are crows a nuisance?

Yeah they destroy crops and their numbers are growing WAY faster than anyone could kill them. Kind of like flying prairie dogs lol

Sometimes, if I can get them to land on the ground, I'll burn one with the .223(40gr Vmax). I got a double one time. Two were pecking at each other and I lined up the shot so it would hit both. Well, it hit the first one and the bullet frag'd. The second one got crippled by bone/bullet shrapnel.

Nice haul!

I am not a tree hugger by any means, I hunt every season I can get out there and have hunted crows in the past - but I just kinda lost interest in hunting them years ago after a class in college, we were discussing crows, their intelligence, the fact they are monogamous, flocks usually consist of family groups of several generations, etc. Kinda like naming a pet and getting to know it and then going out and hunting it, lol. I won't knock anyone for doing it, but they really are pretty cool birds too

Decoys are 26 Greenhead gear fully flocked and we usually rig up about 1/3 of them with 30lb. test mono and just toss them up into the smaller trees. Calls are simple hand calls used in moderation, the decoys do most of the "calling".

Around here crows do alot of damage in the spring to newly seeded corn fields and also pumpkin patches. What they will do is right after the seed germinates and a little green is sticking up, they pluck the green shoot out of the ground and eat the remaining seed, thus having to replant. They also get into the sweet corn in the late summer and can turn alot of corn into a non saleable product. There are almost no farms around here that would not let you in to shoot all the crows you can.

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$15 a piece? Ouch. I think it might just be cardboard and spray paint for me.[/quote]

I sold all my plastic decoys and had a pile of Cabelas points built up, they were also $11 at the time............so they were pretty much free