Advanced Use of Electronic Callers

Electronic callers have made a tremendous impact on crow hunting since their commercial release. While illegal to use with other forms of bird hunting, most states allow the use of electronic devices for calling crows. This fact, along with the quality and selection of commercially produced crow "sounds", makes the electronic caller a valuable tool when pursuing these wily birds. Here are some some techniques that will help you to maximize their use.

Choosing a Caller

When Crow Busters was founded, there was some debate as to what type of caller is best for crow hunting. The choices were either cassette tapes, CD's, and Digital Callers that were still in their infancy. The debate is over and digital has won, hands down! Besides being compact and durable (no moving parts), digital callers can contain a library of crow sounds that would have filled a case full of cassettes only a few years ago. And all but the simplest callers now allow you to customize the caller by purchasing and adding your own sounds. They also double as great predator callers!

There are too many devices on the market to begin to mention here and Crow Busters does not endorse any specific brand. You can find callers made by Foxpro, Western Digital, Johnny Stewart, Primos, etc. at most of the major hunting catalog suppliers. Regardless of the brand being considered, there are two things to look for, Clarity and Volume.

Clarity for obvious reasons, you want to make sure the crow sounds are as realistic as possible. You would think this is would be obvious to all manufacturers, but I have heard some very poor recordings that make the digital caller sound terrible. When evaluating, test them with reputable call sources before writing off one brand or another.

The second thing a digital caller must have if it is going to be effective for crows is Volume. Most callers have been designed with the predator hunter in mind, and with very few exceptions, you will not be cranking up to full volume when hunting with them. This isn't always true when hunting crows, especially in open areas like the mid-west. That being said, make sure the caller being considered can handle the higher than normal volume that is needed. In fact a few manufacturers make devices specifically designed for high volume that sport two high output speakers. These systems were designed for the hunting of Snow Geese, but work great on crows, assuming you want to make the investment.

Care & Feeding of your Caller

Most commercially made callers are durable and require little maintenance. However, there are a few things that will keep your system at peak efficiency. Although it seems a bit obvious, always remember to charge your unit fully before a day afield calling crows. Unlike predator calling, hunting crows can require many hours of near continuous play, draining the unit's battery charge. Additionally, units that use Ni-cad batteries experience reduced charge time in cold weather. If you are using a vehicle to move between calling sites, place your caller on the floor with the heater at full. If not, keep your caller in a small insulated bag with a few hand warmers while in the field. This will be even more necessary when the thermometer nears zero. Remember, sitting your caller directly on the frozen ground or in the snow will suck the life out of it.

Placement & Setup

The use of an electronic caller allows the hunter to employ some techniques not available to the hand caller. One of the big advantages to using a powerful digital caller is the volume that can be produced. A modern unit, fully charged, can broadcast sound well over a mile if the wind is right. This will enable you to get many distant crows to move in your direction, even crows that would be out of range for the hand caller.

Another big advantage to using a caller is the ability to place the speaker away from the hunter and the source of the shooting. Crows that are on alert will tend to concentrate on the source of the calling as well as the decoys. Placing your speaker away from your blind will allow for more hunter movement without detection, and will often allow shooters to go unnoticed. Most digital units come with a remote made for just this reason, but some callers also allow for an auxiliary speaker to be attached by cord. Placing the speaker away from the blind works especially well if placed near your decoy owl. Better yet, place the speaker in a tree near the owl decoy to really distract the incoming birds and don't forget to conceal your speaker in some way. One of the easiest ways is to cover it with a lightweight see-thru camouflage cloth such as a camo headnet. This type of material hides the speaker but doesn't distort the sound.

Crows, like certain waterfowl such as Snow Geese, can become "smart" to the sound coming from a single source. Therefore, caller educated crows can be more easily fooled by using multiple callers and/or speakers. Additionally, hanging the speaker in a tall bush or tree limb pointing straight down can spread the sound out more effectively and deny the crows an easy way to pinpoint the source of the calling.

Using Your Caller

Sound Selection - The type of sound that you choose to employ will dramatically effect your success. Some manufacturers produce realistic crow sounds, but then go and record using inferior equipment. These sounds will fail when the volume is increased. Always choose high quality, professionally records sounds. The specific sounds that you choose should of course reflect the decoy setup that you are imitating. When using an owl, the fighting and distress type sounds seem to work best. If hunted regularly, crows will become wise to a specific sound, but by switching you will often successfully draw them in. Since most commercially made callers will hold well over 16 sounds, there is no excuse for the crow hunter to leave the house with a limited selection.

Volume - The proper regulation of the callers volume is crucial, especially when dealing with close approaching birds. High volume can certainly be used when trying to draw the crows from the surrounding countryside. However, once they are seen approaching the blind, reduce the volume down to normal levels or below. Most crow hunters fail to realize how far the speaker will send the call, especially when it is pointed in the direction of crows that are responding. If unsure, it is always better to play it safe and reduce the volume way down, even below normal.

Calling Tips - The beauty of electronic calling is its simplicity. While it is possible to go out, drop the speaker, hit the switch and call in crows, there are a few techniques that will help to maximize the number of crows you will attract.

One of the most important sounds that you can use with electronic callers is the sound of "silence". Crows that have been previously educated, or even crows that have just been shot at will usually answer an electronic caller, but will often hang back at a distance to observe the situation. By simply shutting down the caller intermittently, the sudden lack of calling on your part will usually get the birds aroused and put them to flight. Once in the air, they are much more likely to be lured into gun range.

A common misconception is that when deciding which type of calling to do, its one or the other, hand calling or electronic calling. Not true! The mixing of hand calling with an electronic caller can dramatically increase your chance of success. For example, a high pitched distress call made by hand is a perfect compliment to the raucous sound of a "fighting crows" recording . Another great use of a hand call/electronic caller combination is to use your hand call to do the "come back" call after crows have been shot at. Many other combinations are possible, depending on your skill level.


Special thanks to Crow Staff Advisors Kenny King and Gerald Stewart for contributing to this section.