To me, crows are the smartest birds in the world. As a kid I never could outsmart them. I had a hand call but didn’t really know what I was doing. Years later I finally learned the system. Like I say, crows are smart. But, if you learn to call properly, you can smoke them.
I was down in Texas recently on a two-week trip and got to crow hunt for a couple of days. Here’s how I do it. I stood in a super thick clump of cedars. You don’t want them to be able to see you until they’re within 40 yards or less. If they see you, they’re going to scatter.
You want to only have an opening above you. Being this well concealed makes it tough to always get a shot but if you’re exposed, they spook. So in the perfect set-up you’ll only have a hole above you. If you don’t have a perfect set-up at least sit back in the shadows.
It’s best to be in a short clump of trees. If the trees are too tall when they fly in, they’ll almost be out of range even if they’re straight over the top of you.
You’ll also want to be camouflaged, especially your hands and face. I wear a net over my face and at least some green army gloves. They can see you bare face if it’s not hidden and your hands are the source of most of your movement.
Like I said earlier, I’ve used a hand call a lot but an electronic call is by far the best. With a hand call there’s only one of you, my electronic call sounds like there’s a whole army of them swarming.
I place the call about 20 yards from me in a clump of brush. I like to start off with a hawk whistle or an owl hooting and then go to a crow owl/hawk fight and ultimately into the crows calling. Many times they’ll be cawing when they come in, but a lot of times they’ll come in silently. On this hunt, they did about 50/50.
I also like to use a Mojo crow decoy with the spinner wings. It comes with a 3- or 4-foot stake but really, it’s better to be up higher so they see it better. It has a hook on it so you could tie on a piece of string and tie it up on a branch.
As long as they don’t see you and you don’t miss them, they’ll usually keep coming in. And if you happen to wound one, they’ll really come in.
So where should you set up? I don’t want to state the obvious but wherever you’re seeing crows. Find some good brush, set up and call. If you park and hear some off in the distance you’re more than likely to have them zip over right away.
So how far should you move between set-ups? I had one 50-acre spot and I did two or three set-ups on it. You can get on the north side of the place and point your speakers north and then go to the south side and point your speakers south to cover new turf.
What do you use for a gun and shells? I like my Mossberg 12-gauge semi-auto. Crows aren’t exceptionally hard to kill and your shots will be semi-close so I used Kent low base 6-shot.
So, if you want to enjoy a little shooting in the offseason and at the same time help the wildlife environment, grab your shotgun and go blast a few crows. They are not good neighbors. They’re death on ground birds (quail, chukars, grouse, etc.). They eat their eggs.
And for the life of me I can’t figure out why Idaho protects ravens. There sure isn’t a shortage of them and they’re really bad neighbors.
Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana. He also writes for various outdoors magazines and teaches outdoors seminars at stores like Cabela’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Bass Pro Shop.
