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 I
have written crow, prairie dog and squirrel hunting stories
for the Varmint Hunters Assn. and Fur-Fish-Game
Magazine.When it comes to crow hunting, it seems I do it
differently than most. First of all, my crow hunting is done
with a rifle, a .22 rimfire rifle. I sure do not object to
using a centerfire rifle, but in my case a centerfire isn't
needed. I could never understand why anyone would want to
shoot centerfire rifles at crows 500 yards away when you can
shoot them with a .22 long rifle at 50 yards. Time after
time you read about cruising back roads looking for crows to
shoot at. This may be fine for Wyoming, but not in a state
where there are a lot of farms and people.
Let me explain how easy and
simple it is. First and foremost, you want crows to come to
you and not the other way around. I have never owned a mouth
blown call. What I find brings in crows best is a Johnny
Stewart "Death Cry of a Crow" tape. I've played
that tape hundreds of times. My first tape player was a $23
Panasonic  Recorder/Player that was loud
enough to bring in a
crow from as far away as you could see it. I finally bought
a Johnny Stewart 512 machine with the small speaker. But I'm
getting away from my story. With a Ruger 10/22 Sporter I
killed 1000 crows and then switched to a 77/22R which killed
87 crows. 1,087 crows may not seem like much, but these
crows were shot using only two hunting locations. My first
location was at the edge of a local landfill where I killed
810 crows before the landfill was sold. I changed to a
different location miles from the landfill where I proceeded
to kill 277 additional crows.
Building a good crow hunting
spot is quite simple. First you must find yourself a dead or
partially dead tree. You must be able to get back from the
dead tree 50 to 60 yards and have an unobstructed view of
the top branches. Obviously you need a blind at your
shooting location, so build one as natural looking as
possible. In this blind you must build something solid to be
used as a shooting rest.
As we now have the perfect
crow hunting spot, all we need now are landing crows. I have
an electronic tape player with a 100 foot cord on the
speaker. I place the horn speaker at the base of the tree
with the horn facing up. About this time is where the free
advice flows. Some say turn the volume down, use the mouth
blown call or a combination of both. What has always worked
for me was to turn the volume to full blast and leave it
that way. I've had crows land 10 feet above the horn and
look down at it. From the time I start until the time I quit
I never turn the caller off. I am in the blind before dawn
99% of the time. Crows get up early! When you are ready,
turn the caller on. Crows may come in 30 seconds and then
again they may not, depending on whether there are any crows
in the area. All this talk about roosts and flyways. In all
my years of crow hunting I've seen neither. Crows just seem
to be there.
 I used to carry decoys with
me. I soon figured out that if I shoot the first couple of
crows, I can use them as decoys. I have not used a decoy for
the last 850 crow kills. With the speaker below the dead
tree and you in your blind, the incoming crows are looking
at the base of the tree trying to figure out what is
happening to their pal. While they are looking they are
landing and you had better be shooting. There is confusion
in crow world. The caller is squawking full blast. Incoming
and circling and diving crows are panic calling. Crows do
not even notice the light report of the CCI .22 LR hollow
point ammo you are using to knock them from their perch.
Now that you know how it is
done, how well does it work? My stay averages about two
hours per hunting trip. On occasion, I've killed (yes killed
is the word, you do not harvest crows) 33, 31, 26, 18, 11,
12 with a lot of 4's, 5's and 6's.
Yes, I love those centerfires
that can kill a crow at 300 yards and be heard for another
1000. But, when you can shoot a lot of crows in an hour with
a minimum of effort with your favorite Ruger/Leupold combo
at 50 yards without waking up the rest of the county, that
is real hunting.
Take it from the CrowSniper,
"one shot, one kill" still works.
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